Asia

In Multan, the biggest city of the Southern Punjab, Youth for International Socialism and the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign recently organised an anti-war rally. It was the third rally they had organised in Multan in which hundreds of trade unionists, students’ unions, the Bar association, and PPP workers participated with banners and placards against the war.

The masses are on the streets


YFIS-Pakistan rally against imperialist aggression in Multan

As the imperialist barbarism has started its death game in Iraq it has shaken the whole world, especially the youth and working class and the general mood has been transformed.

The contradictions and interests of the almighty monopolies have been exposed with all their brutality. Resentment has developed on a global scale against this monstrous behaviour and the crushing role of capitalism. World opinion is being shaped and guided towards a unanimous and general conclusion, that the capitalist system no longer has a progressive and productive

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Ho Jun-bo sends us this update on the situation in China. The massive protests of the oil and steel workers are continuing in the face of provocation by the state. The state claims it has arrested six leaders, and is enforcing a media blackout.

Yesterday in Islamabad, Alan Woods, editor of the Socialist Appeal and the marxist.com web site, addressed a meeting of 70 people on the question of the war against Iraq and the world situation. The majority of the audience were members of parliament - including 35 members of the National Assembly, two members of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, and one senator.

Alan Woods, editor of marxist.com, is on a speaking tour of Pakistan and the following article, written by the well-known columnist Munno Bai, appeared in today's (March 18) edition of the Jang. This is the biggest daily paper in Pakistan, published in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Quetta and Multan.

Across north-east China there have been massive protests of oil workers, particularly in Diqing where an estimated 50,000 workers are on strike. And in Liaoyang where steel, textile and poor farmers are also striking. Not since the struggles of the workers, youth and students of the 1987-9 period has China witnessed this level of worker, youth, poor farmer and poor peasant and migrant worker unrest. The recent struggles have demonstrated the enormous potential existing amongst the Chinese working class to resist capitalist restoration and carry through the political revolution against the parasitic bureaucracy to establish genuine workers' democracy in China. In...

The United Nations have never been able to solve any serious conflict. The present crisis over Iraq has exposed it as an empty talking shop. But there is another conflict that has been festering for more than 50 years, that between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir. Lal Khan pints out the shortcomings of the UN on this issue and indicates the class struggle as the only way of finally solving the problem.

The United Nations have never been able to solve any serious conflict. The present crisis over Iraq has exposed it as an empty talking shop. But there is another conflict that has been festering for more than 50 years, that between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir. Lal Khan pints out the shortcomings of the UN on this issue and indicates the class struggle as the only way of finally solving the problem.

A countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal (Generel Strike) called by the left to protest against the government's certain wrongdoing and US war preparation against Iraq passed off by and large peacefully today Monday, March 10, in Bangladesh.

We have received this report from the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) on the terrible conditions faced by one of the most downtrodden sectors, the agricultural labourers. The PTUDC is taking a courageous stand in their campaign to organise them into a union.

The demonstrations organized by YFIS in Lahore received full coverage from all the main Pakistani daily papers and TV, such as the Jang, the Nation, and the Dawn (the largest circulation English speaking daily). We will keep you informed as more reports come in.

As the shadow of war looms large over the horizon, the attacks on workers have further intensified in Pakistan. With the pretext of “war against terror” the Musharraf regime has been implementing the IMF and World Bank policies of privatisation, deregulation, liberalization and downsizing. These policies have had a devastating effect upon the already impoverished working people of Pakistan and here, as in so many other countries the “war against terror” has in reality been a “war against the people”.