Asia

The scandal of adulterated milk in China continues to spread. Initially they tried to say it was one company and one top manager, and then they discovered that 22 companies were applying the same criminal practices. At least four babies have died as a result and 50,000 made ill. It is not this or that individual that is to blame. It is the profit motive!

The recent tainted milk scandal in China is widening, as more and more irregularities are uncovered. With the introduction of the market come “market methods”, even if this means putting at risk children’s lives.

Protests against US imperialist attempt for military coup against Hugo Chavez were held in 23 cities of Pakistan on Sunday called by the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign and IMT. Protestors raised slogans in support of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales and against US Imperialism.

In theory, Europe should be a major world power with considerable leverage over Russia and yet the September 1st EU summit on Georgia produced nothing except for clouds of hot air, revealing the complete impotence of "Europe". Meanwhile, the war will have a serious influence on both the domestic politics and foreign relations of Russia for years to come, and will also exacerbate the already festering national question in the region.

After September 11, 2001 the American people were psychologically prepared for a more aggressive foreign policy, severe restrictions on their civil liberties, increased powers of state repression and a further boost to military spending. But seven years later a radically different picture presents itself. Gone is the old confidence of the imperialists.

In the last five months of the new PPP-led coalition government the workers and the already impoverished masses have gone through social and economic suffering yet unforeseen in the chequered history of Pakistan. Under the rule of a rotten, corrupt and degenerate bourgeoisie, Pakistan is now sliding towards the abyss of barbarism. The victory of socialism is now the only solution for this crisis-stricken nation.

Despite the claims of the Russian and Georgian governments, there is no progressive content on either side of the war in South Ossetia and Georgia. The present nightmare of war and chauvinist poison is the result of imperialist meddling. The conflict between a strengthened Russian regional imperialist power and US imperialism, entangled in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the backdrop of these events. The peoples of the Caucasus are just small change in the pockets of the imperialists, but it is they who pay the price of the power politics between Russia and the USA.

The Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) is a growing youth organization, based in Kashmir, with thousands of members. It openly defends the ideas of the International Marxist Tendency and is holding its 17th Convention in November.

Millions of workers in China are "illegal" in their own country; they are the migrant workers without a permit to leave the rural areas. But the poverty of their condition forces them into the cities where they are terribly exploited.

To look at the Pakistan Army solely as the instrument of the ruling class would mean ignoring the real contradictions that have developed within it. On the one hand an important wing of the top military brass are now involved directly in the economy, both the legal and the "black economy", including drug running. There is another contradiction, which is that between the top brass and the lower ranks who are more in touch with the mood of the masses.

The new edition of the Asian Marxist Review is about to come out and here we provide the Editorial statement that concentrates mainly on the situation in India.

Since the new government came to power in Pakistan there has been a lot of talk about "solutions" to the pressing problems of the masses, but all we have is talk and no real answers. Here we publish the editorial of the latest edition, 16-30 June 2008, of "The Struggle" commenting on this situation.

On June 13th, Taliban fighters launched a large-scale raid on Kandahar prison. Nearly 1,200 prisoners, including 400 Taliban insurgents, were freed. Taliban forces then captured 7 towns and villages in the Arghandab region of Kandahar province. Although NATO forces subsequently regained control, these events highlight the real situation in Afghanistan, one where the Taliban are getting stronger, not weaker.