On that ill-fated night of July 4^th-5^th 1977 Pakistan suffered a bloody military coup, the scars of which are still felt today. The coup led by general Zia ul Haq brought in the most vicious and brutal regime ever in the country’s history. The country’s first elected Prime Minister on the basis of adult franchise, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was deposed and incarcerated. In April 1979 he was hanged with the complicity of the judiciary subservient to the army.

On the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party we published a series of articles that trace the origins and subsequent development of this party, which has played a key role in world history. Dan Morley outlines the conditions in China that led to the foundation of the party as part of the Communist International. The founders of the party looked to the October revolution in Russia as their model, with the working class playing the leading role. 

During the revolutionary events in Egypt, the Chinese authorities displayed extreme nervousness, increasing the police presence on the streets and clamping down on the Internet, where references to the Egyptian Revolution were banned. Why should the rulers of China be so worried about events taking place in distant countries?

The struggle of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation workers is continuing amid severe repression on the part of management and the government. On June 22 goons used by KESC management together with a neo-fascist organization in Karachi attacked the rally of KESC workers in Nazimabad with firearms in which three workers were seriously injured.

The imperialist intransigence over Pakistan’s nuclear assets and the doubts cast by American think tanks about its security, along with the perceived dangers of the fundamentalists taking them over has created a furore within leading circles in Pakistan. The general policy of the US on nuclear policy, however, reeks of hypocrisy, deceit and double standards.

After years of suffering anti-trade union measures at the hands of Coca Cola management the workers in Pakistan have had enough and are organising a fightback, as this report we have received from the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign outlines.

On 2nd June 2011, railway workers of the shed department in Multan and many other cities of Pakistan arranged protests for a rise in salaries, T.A [Technical Allowance] & D.A [Daily Allowance] payments, holiday allowances, shift allowances and scale up in gradation.

The ferocity of irregularly regular terrorist attacks in Pakistan has become a festering wound on the body politic of the country. Malaise and despair stalk the land. Yet for the masses at large the ever-raging futile debate amongst the dominant intelligentsia on this issue has only served to confuse rather than clarify this curse. It is, therefore, crucial to separate the essential from the inessential and grasp the core of the problem. 

The drastic defeat of the Left Front, led by the CPI (M), in the state elections of west Bengal, the results of which were announced on May 13th, is a significant turning point in the left politics of the south Asian subcontinent.

Workers of Karachi Electric Supply Company have been waging a struggle for many months now. The corrupt management of the company have waged a war against these workers, supported by the government. At the same time, the people of Karachi continue to suffer from long power cuts and hike in electricity tariff on regular basis. Today on 24^th May nearly 10,000 workers came to attend the sit in.

Young Doctors Association (YDA) Sindh is engaged in a strugglefor the rights of doctors. For three months the YDA has issued press statements regarding their problems of salary increment as well as protesting time and again. But the ruling elite and concerned authorities continue to show indifference to the problems of doctors and the masses in general. There is massive unemployment, poverty, hunger, load shedding and target killing. All this has reflected itself in the form of demonstrations, processions and strikes as the whole of society is crying out for change in the present situation, which has become intolerable for people.

The ferocity with which the “international community” and world media have demonised, ridiculed and condemned the Pakistani state has baffled the local ruling elite here in Pakistan. The stinging attacks on the ISI [Pakistan’s secret services] and the establishment by the imperialist think-tanks and intelligentsia are unprecedented.

May Day was celebrated across Pakistan with revolutionary fervor. PTUDC held activities in more than 50 cities across the country in which workers from different sectors participated. Students and Unemployed Youth also attended these activities in big numbers. A special PTUDC poster was published at this occasion which was pasted around the industrial areas and workers’ colonies in the whole country.

Thirty two years ago on the night of 3^rd and 4^th April 1979, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was assassinated on the gallows in Rawalpindi jail. This was probably the most significant political murder in the history of the country. A terrified state, headed by the country’s most brutal and vicious dictator Zia ul Haq carried out this harrowing act.

The Young Doctor’s Association (YDA) of Punjab has announced they are starting a protest movement and taking strike action once again from May 11 in defence of their demands. Earlier the YDA Punjab had led a strike which lasted for around one and a half months and was called off on the promise made by the Punjab Chief Minister that all their demands would be met.