Bangladesh: Hasina’s gamble will seal her fate In the past four days, Bangladesh has completely changed. Since Thursday, the Sheikh Hasina government has drawn a veil of darkness over the entire country. Under the cover of a telecommunications blackout, it has committed the worst massacre Bangladesh has seen since the 1980s, if not since the 1971 war of independence. With it, the last drop of legitimacy has expired from the Awami League (AL) and Sheikh Hasina’s government.
Bangladesh: government kills 39 students – bring down the murderous regime! Massive anger has erupted across Bangladesh, after the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina sent police and paramilitary forces to murder students protestors. 39 were killed in the slaughter, conducted beneath an internet blackout. What started as a student protest movement after the government reintroduced a hated quota system for sought-after public sector jobs that would favour ruling supporters of the ruling Awami League, has now turned into a bitter struggle against a murderous regime.
South Korea: chips are down as Samsung workers launch historic strike Last week, a David-vs-Goliath struggle broke out at Samsung, the biggest Chaebol (conglomerate) in Korea, where workers launched the first indefinite strike in the company’s history.
US imperialism pushes Russia and North Korea into each other’s arms With the world roiling in two wars in Ukraine and Palestine, while anxieties rise over a potential third conflict erupting over Taiwan, yet another potential flashpoint appears to be brewing in the Korean Peninsula, with sabre-rattling on both sides causing alarm.
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir: down with state repression! Free the imprisoned leaders! Whilst hundreds of delegates from 37 countries were participating in the fifth day of the founding congress of the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), we received the shocking news that a government crackdown was underway in Pakistan-held Kashmir against the leaders of the movement that had scored victory against the regime in the fight against electricity and flour price hikes. The delegates, outraged by this news, passed the following motion in condemnation of the government and solidarity with the movement and its persecuted leaders in a unanimous vote.
India’s ‘strongman’ humbled as shock election result denies Modi a majority The recent general elections in India have exposed the rottenness of the whole political edifice in the country. Almost all the parties involved have been revealed as bankrupt, with diminishing authority, and having nothing to offer the toiling masses. But Modi’s ruling BJP, which was once considered invincible, came out the biggest loser.
'Is the East still red?' Answering those that deny China is capitalist The Morning Star, the political mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Britain, is praising and promoting two new books analysing China, China’s Great Roadby John Ross, and The East is Still Redby Carlos Martinez. As you can tell from the titles, both books present the modern day Chinese economy and Communist Party as genuinely Marxist, which in their eyes obliges all communists to actively support them. Both books argue that China is blazing a trail towards socialism and ultimately communism.
Historic victory of mass movement in Pakistan-held Kashmir On 13 May, more than 500,000 people gathered in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled, so-called ‘Azad’ (‘Free’) Kashmir, to demand cheaper electricity and wheat flour. The ruling class of ‘Azad’ Kashmir and Pakistan, despite having brutally attacked the protestors previously, have now partially accepted the masses’ demands. This is a huge victory for the masses in this part of Kashmir, where people have been protesting for more than a year for these demands. This victory has sent shockwaves through the halls of power.
Lee Kuan Yew and the founding of Singapore 2023 saw the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, and the man at the heart of the state today. The anniversary was marked by a torrent of remembrances of the figure once described by Henry Kissinger as “one of the asymmetries of history.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Lee Kuan Yew’s son) is stepping down on 15 May and passing the baton to a new generation of leadership unrelated to the Lee family. The continuation of Lee’s People’s Action Party and the entire edifice of the Singaporean state hangs in the balance....
Communists celebrate May Day in Pakistan with revolutionary enthusiasm Like workers all over the world, the working class of Pakistan also celebrated May Day 2024 in a period of unprecedented crisis of global capitalism. Already weak and backward, capitalism in Pakistan is in a deepening crisis. The ruling class and the state are becoming ever-more vicious and are conducting an economic massacre of the Pakistani working masses at the behest of global imperialist lending institutions like the IMF.
India elections: defeat the BJP with an indefinite general strike! Fight for socialist revolution! Elections to India’s parliament are starting on 19 April. The reactionary BJP-led Modi government has been in power for two terms, in which time it has failed to meet any of its promises to the masses; it has sold swathes of public property to multinationals; stirred up chauvinist hatred towards minorities and women; and backed Israel’s war of slaughter in Gaza.
China: impending banking catastrophe Since the collapse of Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande, the second-biggest economy in the world entered a slow-motion crisis that has expanded into other sectors. This crisis has now reached the sphere where the debts are issued: the banks.
Pakistani communists prepare for revolution “The darkness will pass, the red dawn is coming!” This fiery chant in Urdu rang out repeatedly from the hundreds of voices of Pakistani communists who assembled in Lahore on 2-3 March to participate in the congress of Lal Salaam. It was a weekend that combined joyous revolutionary optimism with intense fervour and solemn preparation for a new stage in the class war.
Indonesia: Prabowo (and Jokowi) claim victory in presidential election On 14 February, 200 million Indonesians took to the polls to vote for a new leader. Official results are due in March, but the latest counts project that Prabowo will become Indonesia’s next president in October. In an election that many pundits have deemed the dirtiest ever, the ex-general garnered 58 percent of the vote in just one round, defeating his two other rivals – Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo – by more than 30 percent. Prabowo ran as the direct successor to Jokowi and promised to continue his policy. In fact, he would not have won the election without the support of Jokowi, who had his eldest son, Gibran Rakabuming, as vice-presidential running mate.
China: New Year's Eve and the struggle for stolen wages Chinese New Year was supposed to be a joyous occasion, but this year, despite the lights and festivities, it was cold and gloomy, given the economic crisis eating into the living conditions of the working class. But amidst the melancholy, there was also a wave of workers' wage protests that are increasing in frequency and intensity.