The following was written by a comrade in India about the appalling situation facing healthcare workers in India: before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On 30 July, Ex-Taiwanese president and former KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui died. Despite being a lifelong KMT bureaucrat, the series of political changes under his presidency in the 1990s earned him praise from bourgeois liberals and a nickname of “Mr. Democracy.” The fact remains that, after the democratic reforms of the 1990s, the KMT still exists as a major party in Taiwan. We take this opportunity to consider how it managed to transform from an apparatus of a dictatorial party-state into a party adapted to a bourgeois democratic system.

A year ago today, the Indian government led by the right-wing Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) revoked the special status of India’s only Muslim-majority state of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, and divided the state into two federally controlled Union Territories. What is the situation today?

Comrade Amin arrived at his home in Karachi in the early morning of 1 August, following 18 days in confinement, after being abducted on 14 July by the Rangers (a paramilitary organisation in Pakistan). His release was only possible due to our international campaign, and solidarity from comrades and sympathisers of the IMT across the whole world. Amin's family and all the comrades in Pakistan are

International solidarity is flooding in as people all around the world are demanding the release of Mohammad Amin. Comrade Amin was abducted by the Pakistan Rangers on 14 July 2020 in Karachi and his whereabouts are still unknown. His home was raided by the Rangers who forcefully entered his house without any legal permission. Originally published by the Pakistan Trade Union Solidarity Campaign.

Comrade Muhammad Amin, an active member of the Progressive Youth Alliance in Karachi, was abducted from his home in the Shah Faisal Colony in Karachi by the Rangers (a paramilitary force in Pakistan) on 14 July. To this day no one knows his whereabouts, not even the police and high court in Pakistan.

Last week, Boris Johnson announced that the UK would finally ban Huawei from its 5G mobile infrastructure. After years of indecision, this move might appear as a sign of its newfound sovereignty and resolve post Brexit. In reality, it proves the very opposite.

As the economic crisis in Pakistan heads for a catastrophe, with millions being thrown into extreme poverty and death due to hunger and deprivation, state repression is also reaching unprecedented levels. Every avenue for expressing dissent and anger is being strangled. Progressive Youth Alliance activist, Comrade Amin, is one of many people abducted by the brutal state. Release Amin!

We are very excited to announce that dozens of important articles from marxist.com are newly available in the Vietnamese language! This very important addition to our website will make our revolutionary ideas available to an entirely new audience.

The Central Trade Unions (CTUs), comprising 16 unions, called for protests all over India on 3 July, which took place throughout the country. Nearly 100,000 demonstrations occurred in all the states of India including Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Maharashtra. In these demonstrations, protestors agitated outside their union offices, in plants, and on streets and roads. This strike was accompanied by a coal workers’ strike against privatisation, lasting three days from 2-4 July.

Police brutality and intimidation, particularly against Muslims and lower castes, has been rampant in India for decades. Under prime minister Modi’s COVID-19 lockdown, it is getting even worse. Several cases have been making headlines in recent months. In the context of the global movement against racism and police brutality, ignited after the murder of black American George Floyd, Marxists vigorously raise the demand to end police brutality but explain that it is impossible without a fight against the capitalist system itself.

The COVID-19 crisis is hitting India hard. Despite only spending 1.2 percent of GDP on healthcare, Modi is assuring his fellow countrymen that they do not need to worry; that India is equipped with the required infrastructure to cope with the pandemic. This is a blatant lie. The Indian healthcare system was devastated even before COVID-19, and it is certainly no better under the current crisis. With the coronavirus hitting all major towns and villages, the rottenness of the Indian healthcare system is laid bare. Here, we will analyse the situation facing the health system in India, the state’s inability to address the pandemic, the role of the private sector, the limits of Indian

This week, the Chinese government dramatically curtailed the democratic rights of Hong Kongers by imposing onto the territory a new ‘National Security Law’. One way or another, the regime is desperate to end the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle, and gain the same control over Hong Kong and its population that Beijing exercises over the country as a whole.

A successful online congress was held by the Pakistan Section of IMT, Lal Salaam, on 20-21 June via a webinar on Zoom. Total registrations for the Webinar included 418 delegates from across the country, along with the delegates from other countries in the region, including India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. There were also delegates from the IMT Sections of the USA, Russia, Italy, Sweden and Britain. Many expatriate Pakistanis participated in the Congress, including comrades from Britain, Australia, South Africa and the Gulf countries.

India now has the world's fourth-highest infection rate, with confirmed infections of 425,282 and an overall death toll of 13,699 and climbing. Without providing healthcare or aid for millions, Modi has washed his hands of the crisis, and turned his attention to saving Indian capitalism at the expense of workers and youth in his “Unlock 1.0 India” scheme. 10 major trade unions have called a new general strike on 3 July against attempts by Modi’s government to impose draconian working conditions on the working class.