Asia

After almost three months of protest across dozens of countries, with support pouring in from activists and organisations representing millions of workers, all political prisoners from the Awami Action Committee Gilgit-Baltistan (AAC-GB) have now been released on bail! None have been acquitted yet: the struggle goes on. But this huge victory nevertheless testifies to the immense power of international solidarity!

After spending two months as political prisoners, several leaders of the Awami Action Committee Gilgit-Baltistan (half the total number of detainees) have been granted bail. We expect them to be released today. On 30 July, the Revolutionary Communist International is calling for a day of action outside of Pakistani diplomatic buildings all over the world to demand freedom for the rest!

Last month, on 4 June 2025, South Korean voters were summoned to the ballot box in a snap election. With a record-breaking voter turnout of 79.4 percent, this election was hailed as a “judgment day” by the victor, opposition leader Lee Jae‑myung of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), who claimed a narrow yet decisive victory with nearly half of the vote.

Leading members of the Awami Action Committee in the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit Baltistan have been arrested. They are being held in appalling conditions, on trumped-up charges. Their crime? Standing up for working people and resisting the plunder of their lands! The Revolutionary Communist International is running a global campaign to secure the comrades’ release – and we need your help!

A shaky peace has held between India and Pakistan after they traded blows in a brief war last month. While the bombs have fallen silent for now, Indian Prime Minister Modi is exploiting the opportunity to target dissenters for harassment, arrest and (in the case of Maoist fighters in Chhattisgarh) extra-judicial murder, all under the cover of postwar patriotism.

On 12 May, little more than a month after Trump launched massive tariffs on China on 2 April, a ceasefire in the US-China trade war was declared. The crippling tariffs, which effectively meant each country’s economy was sealed off from the other, have now been paused for 90 days.

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.

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.

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.