After three torturous months in captivity, Ehsan Ali – Chairman of the Awami Action Committee Gilgit-Baltistan (AAC-GB), and a leading comrade of the Inqalabi Communist Party (RCP) – is a free man! This is a huge victory for international solidarity, which would not have been possible without the overwhelming support of workers, labour leaders and radical youth all over the world.

Last week, hundreds of comrades, supporters and sympathisers across 20 countries and five continents raised their voices in support of Ehsan Ali and the Awami Action Committee in Gilgit-Baltistan. Our biggest-ever International Day of Action for these courageous class fighters occurred just as the state of Pakistan launched a bloody offensive against the AAC-GB’s sister organisation in Kashmir. This latest outrage only further emphasises the need for international solidarity. We say: free Ehsan Ali! Hands off the AAC!

On the night of Friday 5 June, one of the central leaders of the Awami Action Committee (AAC) in Azad Kashmir, Sardar Umar Nazir, was attacked in an assasination attempt near Rawlakot. He narrowly escaped as the bullet hit his ear, while an AAC activist, Shahzeb Habib, was martyred. 

Almost 90 days since their unjust arrest, Ehsan Ali and other leading members of the Awami Action Committee are still being held on false charges and in dire conditions in Gilgit-Baltistan. The Free Ehsan Ali Campaign is calling for an international day of action, to be held on 4 June. JOIN USoutside of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions all over the world!

“The unipolar hegemony of a major power is becoming increasingly unsustainable. At home, its democracy is mutating, its economy decaying, and its society fracturing at an accelerated pace; abroad, its credibility is rapidly going bankrupt, its hegemony is crumbling, and its myth is collapsing.” – Chen Yixin, China’s Minister of State Security

The April-May state elections were an historic turning point in Indian politics. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP conquered West Bengal, while the Left Democratic Front (LDF) lost control of Kerala. For the first time since 1977, not a single Indian state will be led by a communist party.

After two months, Ehsan Ali remains in prison, alongside other leaders of the Awami Action Committee. Three more were seized after a peaceful protest in Hunza last week. We must mobilise against this injustice with all our forces. On 4 June, the Free Ehsan Ali campaign will hold an international day of protest at Pakistan's diplomatic missions all over the world!

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has provoked an energy crisis in India. This sudden, huge increase in the cost of living has sparked a wave of strikes across the National Capital Region (NCR) – a massive metropolitan area comprising Delhi and its surrounding districts – encompassing nearly a hundred thousand workers. This inspiring, spontaneous movement of the Indian workers is just a foretaste of what is being prepared.

On 8 April, 50,000 people protested in over 100 towns and cities against Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s planned revision of the Japanese Constitution, which would end Japan’s status as a ‘pacifist’ country and begin a period of open remilitarisation. This is the biggest fightback in years, and for the first time, it is overwhelmingly young people taking to the streets.

The Pakistani state’s ruthless persecution of RCI comrade Ehsan Ali and the leaders of the Awami Action Committee (AAC) in Gilgit Baltistan continues unabated. The time has come to escalate and broaden our campaign for justice!

America’s imperialist aggression against Iran has sent shockwaves throughout the global economy. With the Strait of Hormuz closed – leading to the “worst energy crisis ever” – far away Bangladesh, which is heavily dependent on the Gulf States for its energy demands, stands to be among the worst affected.

4-5 April marked the first Congress of the Inqalabi Communist Party, the Pakistani section of the Revolutionary Communist International. The Congress met under intense objective difficulties: inflation and skyrocketing fuel prices are shaking the country, and organising a central event of this size is therefore incredibly difficult. On top of this, police repression has sharply increased against the masses who are suffering under these conditions.

Yesterday, on 2 April, hundreds of revolutionary communists assembled outside Pakistan’s diplomatic missions all over the world to demand the immediate release of Ehsan Ali and all other arrested members of the Awami Action Committee in Gilgit-Baltistan. We will not rest until we have justice! 

Ehsan Ali and other leading members of the Awami Action Committee in the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit Baltistan have been arrested once again. The Revolutionary Communist International is running a solidarity campaign to secure the comrades’ release. Free Ehsan Ali! Hands off the AAC!

The war in the Middle East, ignited by the US and Israel’s full-scale attack on Iran, has dealt a hammer blow to the world economy. Asia, though bearing no responsibility for Trump and Netanyahu’s reckless adventure, is among the heaviest casualties of the economic fallout. As the war rages with no end in sight, Asian workers must be ready to resist any attempt by the ruling class to make them foot the bill.