Asia

On Saturday President Arroyo of the Philippines declared a State of Emergency in response to an alleged coup against her. Just prior to this there had been several workers’ mobilisations demanding her resignation. Bonapartist measures will not save her in the long run. They will not remove the underlying social and economic problems which are at the root of the political instability.

Over the past week, February 11-18, the Jammu Kashmir National Students’ Federation (Marxist) participated in a massive mobilization of youth and students. Over the course of the week hundreds of students and youth poured into the streets under the banner of Marxist internationalism across all eight districts of Kashmir.

After the devastating earthquake of October 8, which turned three districts of Kashmir into rubble, and despite the failure of the state in the rescue and rehabilitation work and the bitter hardships of the freezing winter, life in the Himalayan valley is beginning to return to normal. The real struggle for freedom and emancipation, the class struggle, is once again on the order of the day. In light of this the Marxists in Kashmir have launched a week of activities for February 11 to 18.

On February 11 and 12, a two-day Marxist Youth School was held in Jamshoro in Sindh. 35 young comrades from cities all across Sindh, including Karachi, Hyderabad, Tando Mohd Khan, Thata, Dado and Khairpur Nathan Shah, and Jamshoro, participated in the school.

In January the Belgian solidarity choir, Hei Pasoep held a concert in Antwerp and donated the income to the PTUDC sponsored Revolutionary Solidarity Caravans presently involved in relief work in the areas devastated by last year’s earthquake. The concert was a huge success and the people in the camps back in Kashmir have shown their appreciation.

Four hundred thousand slum dwellers were rendered homeless within a period of two months just before the heavy rain season of this year in the city of Bombay alone. This is happening all over India, making millions homeless to open up land for speculative investment. We publish a contribution from someone who is active in fighting the demolitions.

Since the era of Deng Xiaoping China has been moving ever closer to capitalism. What started as an attempt to use market criteria to push forward economic growth within the context of an economy still dominated by the public sector, took on a momentum of its own. Now we have capitalist relations dominating. This article was first published in Italian in the Marxist journal FalceMartello.

A new Indian edition of Trotsky’s Revolution Betrayed has just come out, published by Aakar Books and will be available at the Delhi (January 27) and Kolkata (January 25) book fairs.

An interesting piece by Lenin in which he develops a Marxist approach to a predatory imperialist war on the part of Tsarist Russia against China, with many lessons that can be applied to today's situation. The Tsarist regime claimed it was fighting “barbarism” and “civilising” China. The war was presented as one between “cultures”. Over one hundred years later the same arguments are being used by Bush to justify his war in Iraq.

The ceasefire declared by the Maoist leaders back in September has been extended. There is now an attempt to reach a deal with a wing of the ruling class to oust the King. A section of the ruling elite seems disposed to such a turn. Even imperialism is giving its consent. China is still backing the king but could easily swing the other way as long as “stability” is maintained. In all this what benefits are there for the urban poor and rural masses?

As we reported earlier this month, the Marxists in the Jammu Kashmir National Students' Federation were attempting to build a united front of all student organizations in Kashmir. We publish this report from the founding meeting of the Jammu Kashmir Revolutionary Youth Alliance, which has launched a united struggle of all progressive and left-wing student organizations against the state, which has utterly failed in its handling of the earthquake.

We publish this report on the recent "War against Privatisation" conference organised by the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign, which was held this past weekend in Karachi. The Musharraf regime hoped that the privatisation of Pakistan Steel would go unnoticed amidst the trauma and misery caused by the earthquake in Kashmir in October.  The PTUDC brought together some 400 delegates representing workers and trade unions from around the country to organise the struggle against the selling off of Karachi Steel.

We have received this report from the PTUDC in Kashmir. The report details the relief operation in the three main centres of Kashmir, as well as providing some information about a new student federation that is being organized to help in the relief work. Unfortunately the comrades have been unable to recover the goods of the Fifth Solidarity Caravan, and the goods of the Sixth Caravan are also being held up at the border. It seems that the state is actively sabotaging our campaign! We must put pressure on the state to release the relief goods!