A two-day Marxist School was held in Rawalakot, Kashmir in which over one-hundred comrades participated from across Pakistan and Kashmir. Despite difficult economic conditions, long distances and sweltering heat, comrades arrived with great enthusiasm to take part in these discussions demonstrating their commitment to the ideas of Marxism. Preparatory schools were also held in various cities in which all the suggested topics were discussed in detail.

Uganda’s next general election isn’t due for another three years, but recent developments are showing President Museveni’s increasing paranoia. The arrest on trumped-up charges of the main leader of the opposition, Bobi Wine, and the subsequent revelation that he was submitted to severe torture while in jail sparked a massive wave of protests, which represents the biggest challenge to Museveni’s power since the 2011 ‘Walk to Work’ protests.

On Friday 10 August the long-awaited ‘Diaspora at Home’ rally took place, with up to 100,000 protesters gathering in front of Victoria Palace alone. The rally itself had been organised on social media for a few months by the Romanian diaspora living abroad.

The Prague Spring was a movement with the potential to develop into a socialist political revolution against the Communist Party (CP) bureaucracy, possibly with far-reaching consequences. For this reason, over the last half century, the Prague Spring has been slandered by Stalinists, co-opted by liberals, and distorted by both.

A concerted Blairite campaign is being run to smear Corbyn and the left over anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, the Tories are being let off the hook for their ingrained racism. Blairite plotting is becoming more open and vicious as the establishment war against Jeremy Corbyn goes on. Every day we are seeing ever-more crude attempts to smear Corbyn as a racist and an anti-Semite.

On Monday 13 August, just as Pakistan’s new parliament were taking oath after the recent elections, fourteen workers died in a coal mine near Quetta. The miners were trapped by a gas explosion inside the mine on Sunday.

Massive student protests have been ongoing in Dhaka, Bangladesh related to road safety demands. On 29 July, two buses, with unlicensed drivers, crossed a footpath and collided, killing two students and injuring dozens of people. Since then, various neighbourhoods in Dhaka and neighbouring highways to other towns, such as Tangail and Narayanganj, have seen protests by students demanding justice and safer roads.

The Polish government and the European Commission are locked in conflict over proposed changes to Poland’s Supreme Court. The EU is considering taking the unprecedented step of stripping Poland of its voting rights within the Union as punishment for infringing on the rule of law. It has also threatened to cut EU development funds for Poland unless the rule of law is protected.

Between 24-29 July, 370 Marxists from more than 25 countries gathered in the Italian Alps for the 2018 congress of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). In years to come we believe this congress will be remembered as a turning point in the effort to build a worldwide organisation capable of leading the working class in the struggle to overthrow capitalism.

At 5.41pm, 4 August, a powerful explosion was heard near the rostrum from which Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was addressing a parade at Bolivar Avenue in Caracas to mark the 81st anniversary of the Bolivarian National Guard. President Maduro was unharmed, but seven members of the National Guard were injured.

The World Congress of the IMT, meeting in Italy at the end of July, passed a unanimous resolution demanding the release of Catalan political prisoners jailed for their part in organising the independence referendum on 1 October 2017.

In this talk from the 2018 IMT World Congress, Alan Woods (editor of In Defence of Marxism) discusses the perspectives for world revolution. Alan emphasises the volatility and turbulence seen on a world scale, with the situation – and consciousness – changing in a matter of days on the basis of events.

Trump and Putin’s meeting in Finland made headlines worldwide. Just like in other places, Trump’s visit was met with street protests in which thousands of workers and youth expressed their anger. This was despite the best efforts of the liberal organisers to water down the main protest’s message and create confusion about its time and location.

The aggravation of the economic crisis is making life unbearable for working people in Venezuela. The destruction of the purchasing power of wages has been combined with the collapse of all basic infrastructure (water, electricity and public transport). Workers in different sectors have started to organise and protest, demanding higher wages; while peasants in the countryside are fighting attempts to destroy Chavez's agrarian revolution.

“Our relationship has never been worse than it is now. However, that changed as of about four hours ago. I really believe that.” The judgement of President Donald J. Trump delivered from the heights of Helsinki followed hard on the heels of his first summit meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin. If anything, it was even more bizarre than his visits to the NATO summit and the United Kingdoma few days ago. And it made even bigger waves.