Asia

“The thirteenth day of our strike has ended with a glorious victory!” declared Saranapala Palihena, member of the Janaraja Joint Health Services Union and Executive Committee of United Socialist Party (CWI Sri Lanka).

The health workers’ strike in Sri Lanka is now (21 September) in its 6th day. The workers are agitating on the main demand of rectifying an unfair wage anomaly. It came about as a result […]

“Nine bombings in as many months, almost 100 people dead, and some 200 injured: Bombay is in the midst of … the longest-running terror offensive any major Indian city has ever encountered…” (Editorial in ‘The […]

“Nine bombings in as many months, almost 100 people dead, and some 200 injured: Bombay is in the midst of … the longest-running terror offensive any major Indian city has ever encountered…” (Editorial in ‘The […]

The struggle to defend the jobs and living standards of the workers at the Irtyishskii Foundry in Glubokii, near Ust-Kamenogorsk, in East Kazakhstan, has been stepped up and workers are appealing for support.

Just when George Bush and Tony Blair have been having difficulty proving that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), the government of North Korea has been making open declarations that it is proceeding to […]

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In the name of Liberalisation, the deadly disease of Privatisation has attacked the working class throughout India. It has killed and destroyed 250,000 factories and has thrown 25 million workers and their families into a […]

According to V. K. Gupta, one of the joint secretaries of the National Confederation of Bank Employees, 50 million took part in this historic strike. Some of the veterans of the movement say this was […]

A peaceful protest by several hundred women in Kentau City, southern Kazakhstan, fighting on social issues and against police repression, was brutally attacked and broken up by police, and many of the protesters were arrested. […]

Leading up to the planned demonstration of 12 April, in Bangalore, there was a week-long campaign demanding, "No to war". In spite of the apparent ‘conquest’ of Baghdad, the action was quite successful in terms […]

THOUSANDS OF people on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC, the Line that divides Pakistani Occupied and Indian Occupied Kashmir) in Kashmir, different cities in Pakistan and Europe, recently celebrated the 19th anniversary […]

"In much of what is once again the opium capital of the world, the return of the warlords has meant harsh political repression, lawlessness, mass rape and widespread torture, the bombing or closure of schools, […]

IN OCTOBER 2002 US imperialism provoked a confrontation with the isolated and floundering Stalinist regime of North Korea. Revealing publicly the news (known to the US administration for some time) that Kim Jong-il’s regime had […]

What does Kim Jong Il’s defiance mean for the Bush military doctrine? Can these events lead to yet another US military intervention? Offensiv takes a closer look at the Korean crisis.

On the 20 February, Saken Zhanusov and Rustem Zhanusov were sentenced to 3 years in Kazakhstan’s notorious prisons. Their comrade Ramil Mingazov, for reasons of health, was ordered to pay a large fine.

There were delegates representing many different sectors including women, students, youth, farmers, fisher folk, tribal rights activists, daliths (’untouchables’) and trade unionists. Peace/ anti-nuclear and environmental activists were also present. The Left parties also present […]

Towards the end of December 2002, CWI comrades in the CIS heard that the case of well known worker activists in Karaganda, Kazakhstan facing serious court charges (see previous reports) is coming to a conclusion. […]

Though hardly any of the political observers predicted a defeat for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), very few foresaw the huge victory that the protagonists of Hindu chauvinism managed to secure in the Gujarat elections […]

"The peace process is the most important issue in Sri Lanka today. The war shows the incapability of the capitalist class to develop society. It is extremely weak and dependent on reactionary elements to stay […]

Mass privatisations started in 1994 and it took them four years to privatise allmost all main industries, oil and gas. More than 300 mines were taken over by transnational corporations from the West, more than […]

Jagadish Chandra, New Socialist Alternative (Nava Samajavaadi Paryaya – the CWI’s section in India) spoke about the struggle against privatisation in India in an interview with Offensiv (newspaper of the Swedish section of the CWI) […]

OVER 800 people, including a state minister, were killed by the Islamic militant groups during legislative assembly elections in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).

THE BOMBING of a tourist area on the Indonesian island of Bali has been blamed by Western governments on the Jemaah Islamiah Islamic group with links to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qa’ida terrorist network.

The horrific bombings at the nightclubs in Bali have left up to 300 Australians dead, the biggest toll since the 500+ killed in the Vietnam War. The victims were overwhelmingly young people, mainly working class […]

The terrifying carnage which ripped through the Sari nightclub at Kuta beach in Bali, Indonesia, has shocked working people and youth internationally. Hundreds have been left maimed and injured as the death toll rose to […]

THIRTEEN DEMONSTRATORS were arrested on 30 September, including the general secretary of the left-nationalist National Awami Party (NAP), when police baton-charged and tear-gassed a peaceful demonstration protesting against the extension of the Mangla dam in […]

In the Central Asia republics, national and local power as remained in the hands of the former party elite, and with the exception of Kyrgizia, the president is the former communist party [former ruling party] […]

At a special court hearing last Friday, a criminal court judge in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, suddenly decided that there were "no legal grounds" for holding workers’ leader, Saken Zhanusev, on remand (i.e. in prison) until his […]

Four activists from the Karaganda Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Kazakhstan are currently under arrest and are facing serious charges. This is a continuation of the type of repression doled out to worker activists […]

From August 14-19, a delegation of comrades from the United Socialist Party (USP) of Sri Lanka made an historic visit to Jaffna via Vavuniya. This follows a recent ceasefire between LTTE (Tamil Tigers) forces, fighting […]

There has been a big stepping up of repression against the Workers Movement of Kazakhstan, a major working-class organisation. Criminal charges have been lodged against four members of its executive Saken and Ramil Dzhunosov, Ramil […]

"THE ENEMY doesn’t value human life", said George Bush when launching his "war against terrorism". Neither it seems do his troops after they bombed and blasted a collection of villages in Afghanistan killing up to […]

Kashmir has been fought over by India and Pakistan ever since British imperialism’s divide-and-rule partition of the subcontinent in 1947. The Kashmiri people have been brutally oppressed, denied democracy and self-determination, and suffered two wars […]

Council elections in Sri Lanka have reinforced last December’s general election results with the United National Party strengthening its position further. It was bolstered, above all, by the cease-fire deal with the separatist Liberation Tigers […]

"The latest is that yesterday, three youth, including children aged 16,12,and 8 were killed in the heaviest shelling in Nakyaal sector, where the prime minister of Pakistani Occupied Kashmir is holed up unable to move […]

An anti-war demonstration of hundreds organised by socialist and left activists in the Jammu and Kashmir National Awami Party (NAP) and National Student Federation (NSF) was attacked by members of the reactionary Islamic Hizb-Ul Mujahadeen […]

Some ’lasting good’ will come out of the war against Afghanistan, promised Tony Blair last year. But promises given by capitalist politicians are usually written in sand, especially the kind made in wartime.

The world is nearer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The United States and the Soviet Union came close to a nuclear exchange, when Khrushchev based nuclear-armed […]

FOR THE people of Kashmir, India and Pakistan, the prospect of a war which may escalate into a nuclear conflict is terrifying. George Bush and Tony Blair claim to be horrified but the US and […]

Kashmir, India and Pakistan stand on the edge of a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. Two unstable regimes with nuclear weapons threaten to bring destruction to millions of people already suffering from poverty, disease and mass […]

A CONFERENCE of CWI members in Kazakhstan earlier this month was a great success. 20 comrades attended from Karaganda, Zhambul, Pavlodar, Uralsk and Almata. Visitors from Russia and from the CWI also attended.

AN ATTACK on an Indian army camp in Kashmir by Kashmiri separatists has increased tensions between India and Pakistan threatening a potentially horrific escalation in the region’s long-running conflict.

CWI Kashmir and Jammu section celebrates May Day.

The unabated communal carnage going on in the State of Gujarat in particular and the communal tension all over the country in general, is in a way the logical conclusion of the chauvinistic build up […]

The 13 December attack on the Indian parliament, alleged to be the work of the Islamic group, LET backed by the Pakistani military and security services triggered off the largest military build-up since the 1971 […]

The 13 December attack on the Indian parliament, alleged to be the work of the Islamic group, LET backed by the Pakistani military and security services triggered off the largest military build-up since the 1971 […]

The situation is still very tense and if anything it is probably more tense since Blair’s visit to the Asian sub-continent writes a Kashmiri CWI member. Commentators have described Blair’s visit as a sightseeing tour […]