Asia

Towards the last days of the turbulent year 2025, the Inqalabi Communist Party (Revolutionary Communist Party, RCP) organised a three day ‘Central Communist School’ (Winter 2025) from 19 to 21 December, and a one day ‘Communist Festival’ on 18 December in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, in which more than 250 comrades participated.

In 1968, revolution broke out across Pakistan, overthrowing Ayub Khan’s hated military dictatorship. The national oppression of Bengalis within East Pakistan had produced a revolution along class lines. However, due to the failures of its leadership, the revolution was transformed into a bloody civil war, ending in the secession of East Pakistan into modern Bangladesh.

2025 marks 126 years since what is known as the Philippine-American War. But to characterise it as a war is deeply misleading, as it suggests a conflict between two roughly equal forces. In reality, it was a massacre of genocidal proportions conducted by US imperialism against the Filipino masses.

China has surged ahead as the world’s premier industrial power. Not a day goes by without news of new technological breakthroughs made in China.

A mass movement has erupted once again in Pakistani Administered Kashmir (AJK) led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (AAC). Hundreds of thousands of people across the whole territory of AJK have been mobilised. Today, after a long march, they will reach the capital Muzaffarabad.

After Nepal joined Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the list of countries yet to be roiled by revolution on the Subcontinent has been reduced to three: India, Pakistan and the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. [Even as these lines are being written, a mass movement is unfolding on the Pakistan side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.]

Brazil faces its greatest external aggression since the 1964 coup. The same imperialist tormentor that orchestrated and encouraged the military dictatorship, the United States, is now imposing a protectionist policy of 50 percent tariffs on the Brazilian economy. Trump's stated objectives are the release of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who longs for a military dictatorship, and the supposed ‘correction of mistreatment’ of American technology companies.

One day, it seems that a country is calm and the ruling clique there is firmly ensconced in power. The next day, the revolutionary masses stand in front of the burning parliamentary building. The police are gone, the MPs have fled, and so too has the Prime Minister. The photographs and videos that recently emerged from Nepal were astonishing. They are also astonishingly similar to the scenes that we’ve already seen: in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, ...

For three straight days, starting on 15 September, mass protests rocked Timor-Leste. It started as a protest against the government’s plan to procure luxury cars for members of parliament, but quickly became an expression of a general anger toward the whole political system. These were the largest mass protests in years. The regime, horrified by these protests – and what had happened in Indonesia and Nepal – was quick to make concessions. 

For some time, military parades were obscure remnants of the past. American imperialism was too powerful. Any other country showcasing its military might for the world to see would merely underline the large discrepancy between the US and everyone else. Not any more.

Protesters have set fire to the federal parliament, Supreme Court, political party officers and homes of senior politicians. The Prime Minister has resigned, along with a whole host of cabinet ministers. The army is evacuating politicians from their homes. After putting up with years of crushing poverty, the Nepalese youth have had enough. They have entered the stage of history.

President Donald Trump has taken a sledgehammer to decades of US foreign policy in South Asia by imposing 50 percent tariffs on a swathe of Indian goods. This is a slap in the face for Trump’s former close ally Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now seeking more reliable friends in Beijing. The entire diplomatic picture in the region has been turned upside down, while Indian workers and poor brace for the economic fallout.

As revolutionary events rock Indonesia, we wish to bring to the attention of our readers a masterpiece of documentary filmmaking, the 2012 film The Act of Killing. This documentary is truly a unique and harrowing watch. It is also invaluable as an insight into the nature of the regime that the youth of Indonesia are rising against today.

The results of the recent Upper House election in Japan have shown that it is experiencing similar shifts in the political landscape as the West, with the meteoric rise of the right-wing populist party, Sanseito (参政党). From being one of the most stable advanced capitalist countries, Japan is staring into an abyss of economic and political crises which will lead to sharp convulsions.