Despite state repression, protests have been held all over Gilgit Baltistan and in many cities in Pakistan for the release of the leaders of the Awami Action Committee Gilgit Baltistan, some of whom are members of the Inqalabi Communist Party (RCP).

The Revolutionary Communist International protests the arrest of the leaders of the Awaami Action Committee Gilgit Baltistan (AAC-GB) and of the Inqalabi Communist Party by police in Pakistan. We send our solidarity to the arrested comrades, who are facing repression for opposing the plunder of the land and resources of the region by the capitalists and imperialists. We call upon the labour movement internationally and all of our readers to protest this blatant act of repression.

From 28 March to 2 April, thousands of Chinese workers struck at two electronics factories owned by BYD, a behemoth on the Fortune Global 500 and the world’s largest EV maker.

We are delighted to present brand new translations of three classic Marxist texts (Socialism: Utopian and Scientificby Engels, as well as What is to be Done?and Socialism and War by Lenin) in modern Azerbaijani. These were sent to us by a sympathetic group of Marxists in Azerbaijan, and we are making them available online for the first time!

In 1965, India and Pakistan went to war over Kashmir. The 17-day conflict resulted in thousands of deaths and a victory for the Indian ruling class. But it failed to resolve any of the underlying problems and, in particular, the question of the occupied and partitioned state of Kashmir. In the decades since, these frictions have driven India and Pakistan to war again and again.

India and Pakistan have been at war yet again. There is no sharper test of a party, its programme and ideas than the questions of war and revolution.

On 22 April, terrorists attacked the Pahalgam District's Baisaran Valley in occupied Kashmir, killing 26 defenceless people. The Modi government has used this heinous crime, which it has helped to provoke with its oppressive sectarian agenda, as an excuse to launch airstrikes on Pakistan-administered Kashmir, raising the spectre of a military conflict between two nuclear-armed states.

The drums of war are beating again across South Asia. Amid the bloodthirsty hysteria, we must remember this truth: no imperialist war has ever benefited working people.

Another war has begun between arch-rivals India and Pakistan, in which both have claimed victory so far. In the early hours of 7 May, the Indian Air Force carried out nine attacks inside Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir. In retaliation, Pakistan claims to have downed five Indian jets, which India has so far denied.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Prior to this denouement, from 30-31 January 1968, 70,000 North Vietnamese soldiers, together with guerrilla fighters of the NLF, launched one of the most daring military campaigns in history. The Tet Offensive was the real turning point in the Vietnam War. In 2008, on its 40th anniversary, Alan Woods analysed the events that led to the Vietnam War and the significance of the Tet Offensive in bringing about the defeat of US imperialism.

Trump’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs has kicked US-China competition up a notch, but the implications will be felt more broadly than between just these two main belligerents in this trade war. When Trump announced his ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on 5 April, among those countries initially set to receive the highest tariffs were many that are counted among the ASEAN bloc (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), including Vietnam (46 percent), Laos (48 percent), Myanmar (44 percent) and Cambodia (49 percent) with Malaysia on 24 percent.

The struggle of the Baloch people in Pakistan has reached unprecedented levels, while state repression and the brutality by the Pakistani ruling class have exceeded all limits. It is hell-bent on crushing the aspirations of these oppressed people.

The global trade war launched by Trump has already resolved into one between the two dominant actors of the world economy, the US and China. The question is posed: who holds the cards? Who will blink first? This question determines the fate of the world economy.

On 28 March, a devastating and massively destructive earthquake of magnitude 7.7 struck Myanmar with its epicenter just 10 kilometres below the surface, near Mandalay, the country’s second largest city.

Students at Jadavpur University have faced attacks by state-affiliated thugs as part of a continued crackdown on political organising on campuses. On 1 March, a left-wing student was hospitalised after he was run over by a government minister’s convoy following a peaceful protest. The Revolutionary Communists of India unequivocally condemn these outrageous attacks on freedom of assembly and offer our solidarity to the furious protest movement that has erupted in response.