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.

Once again, the students have put themselves at the forefront of a movement against the government’s attacks on the people. On 17 February, tens of thousands of university students across Indonesia took to the streets to protest the government’s recent austerity measures. A series of demonstrations followed over the next few days, spreading from one city to another. The movement culminated in a national day of action on 20 February.

Over the last decade, China has become western capitalism’s primary competitor on the world market. Chinese imperialism has spread its influence into many regions previously dominated by the US, setting the stage for intensifying rivalry. We publish below an analysis of China’s economic and political development since 2016, written by Fred Weston as the preface to the new Chinese translation of China: From Permanent Revolution to Counter-Revolution released by Wellred Books.

While the collapse of the British Empire is often portrayed as the result of benevolence, this could not be further from the truth. This article, from a new booklet published by the Revolutionary Communist Party – the British section of the Revolutionary Communist International – examines the real role of British imperialism during the 1948-60 Malayan “Emergency”.

We are very proud to announce the publication of the first ever Urdu translations of Leon Trotsky’s The Permanent Revolutionand Results and Prospects! These invaluable texts for revolutionaries everywhere have been painstakingly translated by the comrades of the Inqalabi Communist Party – the Pakistani section of the Revolutionary Communist International – for publication as a single book.

Nearly 1,500 workers at Samsung’s massive plant in Chennai have battled the courts and the corrupt state government, both of which lined up behind their predatory multinational employer, to win recognition of their union. In addition to a 212-day legal fight, they launched a strike last September, which lasted 38 days. Overcoming vicious repression, hundreds of arrests, and all manner of underhanded manoeuvres from the bosses, they finally forced the Tamil Nadu Labour Department to register the Samsung India Workers‘ Union (SIWU) on 27 January.

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP29), held last year in Baku, was trumpeted by the government as an important event, putting Azerbaijan front and centre on the world stage in the global fight against environmental crises. In reality, like all COP conferences before it, the whole affair was a hypocritical farce that revealed the impotence of combating climate change on a capitalist basis – although it contained a few uniquely cynical twists.

Two weeks after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s (윤석열) shocking attempt at placing the country under martial law – which was defeated after 6 hours – the South Korean National Assembly finally voted to impeach him on Saturday 14 December.

The Philippines was ravaged by the sixth typhoon of the month in November, but no one from the ruling class is putting any meaningful effort into alleviating the disaster for the masses. Instead, they are preoccupied with another storm: the rancorous political fracas between former allies President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. (also known as ‘BBM’) and Vice President Sara Duterte.