The western military presence in Afghanistan is presented as a means of pushing the country towards “democracy” and “progress”. Nothing could be further from the truth! The elections earlier this year were a sham. The system being propped up by western troops is utterly corrupt. Here an Afghan reader of our site comments on the situation.

With the latest news of the 100th death this year of a British soldier in Afghanistan, this imperialist adventure is getting more and more unpopular. In an article published in the current issue of Socialist Appeal published at the end of November, Rob Sewell looks at the latest situation and its background of a war that can never deliver social and economic progress to the Afghan people.

The Canadian occupation of Afghanistan is on its last legs. Richard Colvin’s testimony, admitting that Canadian soldiers were complicit in the torture of prisoners, is the finishing touch.

The Unemployment Youth Movement (BNT) was recently set up in the district of Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan. Here we provide a brief report.

Over the weekend the Pakistani Marxists held a cadre school as part of their work of building the framework of the Marxist Tendency in Pakistan. Here we provide a brief report and some pictures.

Bolshevik day, as the anniversary of the Russian revolution is known here, was celebrated with great enthusiasm across Pakistan in 30 cities in which large numbers of workers, peasants and youth participated. Here we provide reports and pictures sent in by the comrades locally.

Workers at the Steel Mills in Karachi have taken up the struggle once again for decent wages and proper contracts for the daily wage workers. In spite of attempts to stifle their struggle, the workers are determined to achieve their demands.

In breaking away from Pakistan, the founders of Bangladesh in 1971 proceeded top set up a “Bengali” state, but this ignored the fact that there were other peoples also living within the borders of the country. The tribes of the Chittagong Hill Tracts are an example of this. They have suffered terribly with tens of thousands being killed over the years, fighting back against national oppression.

The past experiences of the Nepalese Maoists, and the failure of their attempts to carry out a revolution by “stages” has led to an internal debate in which some of its leaders have drawn the conclusion that the “national road” has not produced the desired results and that what is required is an internationalist position.

This summer The Red Spark [Rato Jhilko - see photo], a journal of the Communist Party of Nepal published an article by Baburam Bhattarai, which stated that, “Trotskyism has become more relevant than Stalinism to advance the cause of the proletariat”. This is the result of concrete historical experience that has revealed the real essence of Stalinism and vindicated the ideas of Leon Trotsky, in the case of Nepal in particular of the theory of the Permanent Revolution.

The US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan are fighting an unwinnable war. This fact is seeping into the consciousness of millions of people in the west who are now opposed to the war. But also in Afghanistan there are signs that the ordinary people are tired of both the imperialist occupation forces and the Taliban. The only alternative to the present barbarism is the struggle for a socialist federation of South Asia, which would include a socialist Afghanistan.

The declining economic and financial power of the United States has its political ramifications throughout the whole of the Middle East, as social upheaval increases and the reactionary regimes fear for their very survival in the coming period.

The sitting minister for privatisation, Naveed Qamar, has announced 12% ownership shares to half a million workers in the privatisation of 80 nationally owned institutions. Deceiving the working class into becoming owners is a condemnable conspiracy to paralyse the workers and to drive them away from the class struggle, which is the only path to their emancipation.

We publish a comment by a Pakistani Marxist on the situation in India today. He outlines the appalling levels of poverty, highlighting that this is getting worse, not better, as the gap between rich and poor gets ever wider. The answer is to be found in the unity of workers across the whole of the South Asian subcontinent in the struggle for a socialist federation.

In August a strike broke out in the Hunan Coal Industry Group against demands the bosses were posing as part of the preparations for privatisation of the mines.