Asia

The following English language translation of an interview with Siritunga Jayasuriya was conducted by Samantha Rajapaksa and published on the ‘Left Voice’ (Sri Lanka) website. socialistworld.net Siritunga Jayasuriya (Siri) is General Secretary of the United […]

An unmitigated public health disaster is gripping India. The daily number of people infected with Covid-19 has exceeded 350,000 for a week – the highest of any country since the pandemic began. Health services have […]

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) took place for a week from 5 -11 March.  It snuffed out any prospect of democracy in Hong Kong and sounded the death knell for ‘One Country Two Systems’. Any […]

On 11 March 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake hit north eastern Japan. It was followed 50 minutes later by a 14-metre tsunami, devastating coastal areas. Nearly 20,000 people died in the most costly natural disaster […]

The call for a second general strike in Myanmar, on Monday 8 March, was confronted with a brutal clampdown by the military. According to reports, at least two protesters were shot dead by the military, […]

Women workers constitute the vast majority toiling in Sri Lanka’s main export industries – clothing and tea. They are the two main groups facing the biggest risks from the current Covid 19 crisis. Every day […]

The struggle against oppression by the Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang, China’s westernmost province, is nothing new. Their homeland has been fought over for centuries and the particular suppression of national rights by Han Chinese regimes […]

The massive peasant protest of recent months, anchored around India’s capital, Delhi, with wider support across the country, is historic. It is the first time in the seven years of Modi rule that any action […]

The political turmoil in Malaysia, which has lasted for almost a year, has taken a new turn following the Emergency Order declared by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on 12 January. Although the sudden increase in […]

Since the beginning of last year, the whole world suffered from the Covid-19 crisis. Though developed capitalist countries seem to ‘manage’ the situation – yet by no means all of them – and are able […]

At the end of December last year, due to the worsened COVID-19 situation, Thailand’s democracy movement, led by students, temporarily ended the street protests that had been going on since last August. The movement has […]

For the second night in a row, sounds of the striking pots and pans were heard across the streets of the city of Yangon, in Myanmar. Residents in the main capital are showing their dissatisfaction […]

The general election in Myanmar, held last November, saw the National League of Democracy (NLD) – under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi – returned to government in a situation of political, economic, environmental, […]

2020 was a tempestuous year for Japan, as well as the rest of the world. In August, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. However, it had been clear for […]

Last Wednesday, January 6th, more than a thousand state forces carried out pre-dawn raids on 73 premises in Hong Kong. They arrested 53 activists and politicians for “subversion” under the National Security Law imposed by […]

The Metropolitan Police are investigating British mercenaries’ hand in the massacre of over 100,000 civilians and the brutal defeat of the LTTE (Tamil Tigers), who fought an armed struggle for an independent Tamil Eelam nation. […]

News of the spread of Covid-19 in factory hostels across Malaysia has come at a time when Malaysians are facing the highest number of infections since the start of the pandemic in early March this […]

An unprecedented ‘occupy’ moment has developed in New Delhi, the capital of India. The authoritarian regime of Modi, for the first time, is caught on the back-foot. Some estimates are putting the number at hundreds […]

Despite the widespread repression under the blatantly right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party-Modi regime, the all-India general strike on 26 November, involving more than 250 million workers (the Joint Committee of Trade Unions- JCTU claimed the number […]

Drunk with the success of a brutal parliamentary majority and with the cunning aid of spin doctors who tweak every failure of the Modi government as a glorious success, the authoritarian regime of Modi built […]

PART 2 India is among the countries with the highest level of inequality. According to an Oxfam report, the top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth. Oxfam also points […]

In India the corona crisis has cast a harsh light on the cruel reality of capitalism in the country. For millions starvation is now a real threat. The ‘great revealer’ has exposed the rottenness not […]

Before the latest quite severe covid-19 lockdown in Sri Lanka, Gotabhaya Rajapaksha’s government mustered its forces to pass the 20th Amendment to the country’s constitution. This replaces the 19th Amendment promulgated in 2015. The change […]

Since Monday, 5th October, when Indonesia’s President Jokowi announced the Job Creation Act or ‘Omnibus Law’, Indonesian youth and working class, together with other sections of society, launched a massive protest nationwide. The government’s move, […]

On 28 July, Malaysians heard the news that former Prime Minister Najib Razak was found guilty on seven counts of abuse of power, breach of trust and money laundering. He was sentenced to 12 years […]

The latest flare-up in the long-running dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh started just over a week ago, on 27 September. Dozens have been killed and hundreds wounded, in and around the enclave, […]

Since the beginning of this year, Thailand has witnessed the rising up of youth and students who have launched massive protests in several major cities, colleges, and universities. Although initially only concentrated in certain higher […]

The Rajapaksa family has consolidated more power following the election in Sri Lanka which concluded on 5 August. Despite the coronavirus crisis, and restrictions on social mobility, around a 70% voter turnout was registered. Overall […]

The Singapore general election took place on 11 July with eleven parties contesting for 93 Parliamentary seats. The People’s Action Party (PAP), which has ruled for 57 years since 1965 (after Singapore separated from Malaysia), […]

Seventy-five years ago, as World War Two was drawing to a close, United States forces dropped two atomic bombs above the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This is still one of the most deadly […]

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, imposed a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus in the country from 25 March onwards. Prime Minister Modi proclaimed he was locking down the country in four […]

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong on 1 July to commemorate the 23rd anniversary of the settlement between London and Beijing which marked the end of more than 150 years of […]

We give full support to the workers in Bangladesh fighting to stop the closure, and subsequent privatisation, of state-owned Jute Mills. We condemn the arrest of Jute Mills trade union leaders, Nurul Islam and Waliar […]

“China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most important geopolitical initiative of the age”, write the publishers of this fascinating book by Bruno Maçães. “It symbolises a new phase in China’s ambitions […]

Given the Covid-19 situation, though not with the same enthusiasm, nevertheless the entire world celebrated workers May Day recently. Ironically, here in India in the same month of May, antithetical to the ideal of May Day the major states […]

Covid-19 recognises no borders. It has killed hundreds of thousands, ravaged economies across the world and is not finished yet. All governments have been put to the test and poured billions into protecting their economies, […]

During the spread of coronavirus into Malaysia in the middle of February, the ruling government – the Pakatan Harapan (Coalition of Hope) – which was in power for one and a half years, collapsed. A […]

Tens of thousands of angry demonstrators poured onto the streets of Hong Kong last weekend, not only defying social-distancing regulations, but confronting police armed with tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannon. The sudden announcement […]

Donald Trump’s latest outburst against China over the origins of the coronavirus does not come as a surprise. As deaths from the disease and mass unemployment continue to mount and the US economy faces its […]

A recent report that an enormous amount of taxpayers money is being used to bail out the bad debts of the super-rich has shocked workers and the poor in India, while the Modi government is […]

As is the case the world over, the coronavirus crisis has exposed all the inadequacies, incapacities, and the insoluble contradictions of India’s capitalist state. In popular terminology, India is labeled a “democracy” because the world’s […]

We are re-publishing below a joint statement produced by various trade unions, union activists and New Socialist Alternative (CWI in India) regarding the covid-19 crisis in India.  It is a scandal that private hospitals across […]

Migrant workers from north India, in an area of Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore, blocked roads and broke a new curfew, demanding that food, shelter and sanitary facilities be provided to them. The local administration made vain […]

Covid 19 is spreading extremely rapidly across the globe. Countries have taken various steps to curb it but have still not been able to stop the virus from going further. The Sri Lankan government of […]

In late 1934 and early 1935, parts of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) were plagued by an epidemic of malaria. This followed huge floods in 1934. The British colonial rulers and the ‘Ceylonese Council of Ministers’ […]

On Friday 13 March, the Japanese Upper House approved a bill granting Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, the power to declare a state of emergency to fight coronavirus. Unfortunately, the two major opposition parties, the […]

South Korea has been held up as a model by some commentators for its containment of coronavirus. It’s far from perfect, but a rapid supply of resources shows that the capitalists do have the money […]

On Monday, 24 February, the prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad, submitted his resignation to the country’s king, opening the way for enormous confusion as to what will follow. The reasons for Mahathir’s decision seemed […]