India

Pakistan

See also the sections dedicated especially to Asia, Indonesia and China, and the section on Solidarity for Pakistan.

• India: Release Satish Kumar! Indian Left Wing Editor Imprisoned
  In the middle of August the well-know Indian journalist and publisher Satish Kumar was framed and arrested in Faridabad, just outside Delhi. For more than 20 years he has published a paper called 'Mazdoor Morcha', which is renowned for exposing corruption and cases of abuse of power by the state authorities. Now he has been arrested and the authorities have set the date for his bail hearing in December!(September 3rd, 2001)

• Pakistan: the growing discontent of the masses after one year of military rule
  Another General has completed another year of despotic military rule in Pakistan and the army has exposed itself even further. The Musharraf dictatorship has miserably failed to retrieve loans and implement accountability, salvage the economy, stabilise society, reduce crime or stop the continuous fall of the population below the poverty line. A new wave of state repression is beginning to unfold, exhibiting the desperation of the Generals in their failure to solve anything. The international financial institutions are not ready to give Pakistan either loans or aid, as Pakistan has not fulfilled their conditions. The life of a common man is already much worse than a year ago. The patience of the masses is rapidly wearing thin. All the outlets for venting their anger and frustrations have been blocked. This means that the rage of the masses is building up very fast. The more their outburst is delayed the greater will be the explosion. (by Manzoor Ahmad, Publisher of the Asian Marxist Review and Editor of Jeddo Juhd (The Struggle), Lahore, Pakistan October, 2000)

• Pakistan - Futile crusades of a failed state
  "Fifty-three years after its inception the Pakistani state is teetering on the brink. The fissures opening up expose the internal decay of its rotting structures. The economy is in a shambles, society is in disarray and its domestic and foreign policies have hit rock bottom. Successive rulers are forced to admit this but are unable to avert the rapid decline of the state and society. All their efforts only further exacerbate the contradictions and intensity of the problems faced by a bewildered and shocked population." By Lal Khan. (July, 2000)

• Kashmir - A Paradise in Peril
  Revolutionary socialists in Kashmir have set up the Campaign for Socialist Kashmir, arguing that the stuggle for socialism and the spreading of this struggle throughout South Asia is the only solution to the national oppression in Kashmir. (July, 2000)

• Clinton's Asian visit - A new twist in US power politics
  The arrogance of US imperialism is shown by its desire to dominate every area of the globe. Asia is of special importance to Washington's long-term economic and strategic interests. Alan Woods reviews the aims and results of Clinton's recent visit to Asia and its impact on India, Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan. (April 25, 2000)

• Successful Socialist Meeting in Karachi
  On Monday the 20th March, the editor of "In Defence of Marxism" Alan Woods spoke at a public meeting in Karachi organised by the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. 150 people attended the meeting, mostly leading trade union activists. This is the report which appeared in one of the main English language dailies of Pakistan The Dawn. (March 2000)

• Liberalization and the Indian Left
  Sarah Glynn reports from Calcutta on the damaging effects being wrought by IMF policies and the recent wave of strikes. (December 1999)

• India: the Impending Catastrophe and Perspectives for the Labor Movement
  A look at the situation in India and the tasks of the labor movement.  (December, 1999)

• Pakistan: Military Rule Once Again
  On October 12th Pakistan's army struck once again to take the reins of power directly into its hands. This is the fourth successful coup staged by the army in 52 years of Pakistan's chequered history. However this coup is more of an accidental character. Although it had been planned for some time, its actual carrying out depended on events beyond the control of the executioners. In fact it was a counter coup. (October 17, 1999)

• The Coup in Pakistan
  A first, brief look at the current situation in Pakistan.  (October 13, 1999)

• Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign
  An urgent call for solidarity and support.  Please re-distribute as widely as possible especially to trade union organizations.  This is urgent comrades!   (October 12, 1999)

• India and Pakistan: War Threat Looms Large on the Horizon
  A look at the rising tensions in the Kashmir region of India and Pakistan. By Lal Khan. (June 5, 1999)

• When will my Pakistan be created?
  This is a translation of a column by Munno Bhai published in the daily Pakistani paper Jang on May 25th, 1999, with a circulation of 750,000. Munno Bhai writes regularly for the Marxist fortnightly paper Jeddo Judh (Class Struggle). (May 25th, 1999)

• Interview with Lal Khan from Pakistan
  This interview gives first person insight into the truly horrendous living and political conditions in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and explains why Marxism is the only answer.  By the editor of Jeddo Judh (Class Struggle) (June 8, 1999)

• Afghanistan: Socialism or Barbarism
  Marx explained that in the long run capitalist society would either be replaced by Socialism or it would degenerate into Barbarism. The situation in Afghanistan is a living example of what Barbarism means. In this interview, held on March 22, 1998, Afghan socialists explain the situation in their country after the victory of the Taliban.

• The "Constitutional" Coup in Pakistan
  The coup in Pakistan on November 1996 underlines the nature of the Pakistan regime as a regime of crisis. It is a graphic expression of the impasse of all the regimes of the ex colonial countries. Economic crisis, mass unemployment and underemployment, inflation, financial bankruptcy, and complete subjugation to world imperialism--these are the hallmarks of the situation.

• Fundamentalist Resurgence: Causes and Prospects
  The collapse of the Soviet Union has resulted in one of the most turbulent and disturbed periods in human history. Instead of being the precursor of "The end of history," capitalism is enmeshed in a crisis yet unforeseen. There is not a single region of the planet which is not engulfed in social, economic or political crisis. Capitalism on a world scale has proved to be incapable of resolving this crisis, and develop society further.As a reaction to these crises new, and some not so new, phenomenon have emerged on the political horizons of most countries. In most of the "Third world," "Islamic" countries there is the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism. This article written in October 1994 by Lal Khan, editor of the Pakistani Marxist paper The Struggle, analyses fundamentalism, its causes, history and prospects

• Marxism and the Struggle Against Imperialism
  It is nearly seven years since George Bush, the then president of the US, made his famous "New World Order" speech. This was in 1991. In the build-up to the Gulf War the main imperialist power on earth promised a world without wars, without dictatorships and, of course, a world firmly under the control of a single all-powerful world policeman--the US. After the fall of Stalinism, US imperialism really thought that the world would be firmly under their command and they would be able to dictate the destiny of each and every country. Now all these dreams have been reduced to rubble. In this document Ted Grant and Alan Woods make an in-depth analysis of the history of the imperialist domination of the Third World and the way.  (June 1998)