27 July of this year marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement, which halted the three-year-long, all-out conflict known as the Korean War. The Armistice is not a peace agreement, and the two states that exist on the Korean Peninsula to the north and south of the 38th parallel are technically still at war with each other.

A quarter of century ago, on 21 May 1998, the much-hated dictator of Indonesia, Suharto, was overthrown by a mass revolutionary uprising. Although this moment is widely known as Reformation (Reformasi), it was truly a revolution. The masses, held in deep slumber for decades, were suddenly awakened into political life and pounded against the door of the established power. The New Orderregime, which had ruled comfortably and confidently for 32 years, and appeared immovable, collapsed like a house of cards when faced with the mass uprising of the Indonesian youth and workers.

In recent times, land disputes and struggles over land seizures have intensified in Vietnam, as large corporations rake in huge profits building factories and homes on stolen land, assisted by local government officials. This in turn has led to intense riots, demonstrations, protests and conflict with the police.

On 14 May, almost 40 million Thais stepped up to the ballot box. The result: a clear rejection of the ruling royalist-military junta. Unofficial figures from the election commission show the two main opposition parties, Pheu Thai and the Move Forward Party, collectively received 25 million votes. A royalist coalition of Palang Pracharath, Bhumjaithai, and Democrat parties, along with a handful of smaller parties, including the new United Thai Nation Party of incumbent Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, were soundly defeated.

10 May marked a full year since the conservative right returned to power in South Korea under President Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party. This period has been marked by fierce attacks by the government on the working class, with a corresponding rise of class militancy. As the capitalist crisis deepens, the South Korean class struggle will reach new heights.

On 11 and 12 March, the Pakistani section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), Lal Salaam, held its 6th Congress at the Aiwan-E-Iqbal Center in Lahore. Despite the multitude of logistical issues that arose from organising a national meeting amidst crumbling infrastructure and rampant, arbitrary corruption, this landmark Congress was a resounding success.

The US-based market watchdog, Hindenburg, published a report on 25 January accusing the Indian mega-conglomerate Adani Group of a litany of dirty financial dealings, triggering mass sell-offs that have so far wiped at least $100 billion off its value. This is a bombshell detonating right in the heart of Indian capitalism, which could have big implications for the Modi regime.

For the past six months, there has been a movement around the subdivision (small town) of Zira in the North Indian state of Punjab. The movement centres around pollution of groundwater, caused by the Malbros International Private Limited distillery in the area.

For the past few weeks, with the Lunar New Year approaching, the working class in China has been engaged in a wave of economic strikes, protests and demonstrations. Whilst these struggles vary in terms of scale and militancy, collectively they give a clear indication of the deepening socio-economic crisis, and of the courageous groundswell of class struggle that this is causing to rise up against the capitalist regime.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban in Afghanistan have subjected women to a brutal regime of oppression, whilst the whole population has been plunged into an abyss of hunger, disease and misery. Now, women have been excluded from education, leading to renewed protests. Hundreds of brave women have taken to the streets of Kabul and other cities, fully in the knowledge of the risk to their lives in doing so. In this video, the comrades of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA – the youth wing of the IMT in Pakistan) send their solidarity.

The current right-wing Modi regime in India won the assembly elections in Gujarat, which were seen as a rehearsal for the 2024 general elections. The reasons behind this victory are complex and must be explained, against the context of other state elections that produced different results.

On 7 December 2022, the Chinese state issued its ‘Ten New Measures’ – a hasty shift from its ‘Zero COVID’ policy towards what it called “accurate counter-measures”. In reality, this was a complete abandonment of previous hardline measures to contain COVID-19. According to the capitalist CCP regime, the ‘Ten Measures’ are aimed at improving “scientific accuracy” in

Vizhinjam, a coastal town located two kilometres south of Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram, is simmering with widespread protests against the construction of a private port by the richest person in India, Gautam Adani. The people living in this coastal town, mostly fishermen, are protesting against the Adani-led construction of Vizhinjam International seaport.

Progressive Youth Alliance, a countrywide organisation of revolutionary students and youth, held its third central youth convention on 8 December 2022 in Multan. More than 700 students, youth, workers and progressive political activists from across the country participated in the Central Youth Convention.

A week ago, China saw the rapid proliferation of protests against the regime’s harsh COVID-19 lockdown measures, many of which quickly acquired a political character challenging the entire capitalist regime of the CCP. Although individually the protests were small, the regime is clearly afraid of their potential to mobilise far larger layers. Now, whilst the regime is cracking down, they are also having to relent on its ‘zero COVID’ measures. But in doing so, they face even more instability in Chinese capitalism.