Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of the worst economic crisis in its recent history, which yesterday led to protests right outside the President’s residence, and curfews across Colombo, the capital. The country faces bankruptcy. The masses are being tortured by spiralling prices, 13-hour long blackouts, and a lack of basic medicines, cooking gas and food. What is happening in Sri Lanka is not unique to that country. It is only an acute expression of the worldwide crisis of capitalism, that is crushing poorer nations. The sort of social unrest we are seeing in Sri Lanka, we can expect to see all around the world in the period to come.

Today and tomorrow, workers across India will take part in a general strike, which the trade union leaders anticipate could involve over 200 million people. Demands include improved conditions and wages for workers, farmers and the poor; universal social security cover for informal workers; a halt to privatisations; and the scrapping of reactionary new labour laws.

In the past few years, Vietnam has been battered by severe storms, the effects of which continue to be felt and are compounded by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These extreme weather conditions are a global phenomenon, as demonstrated by super-storms around the world; tornado outbreaks in the Midwest and Southern USA; and massive sandstorms in China and Mongolia in late 2021. At root, the climate change which is to blame for these disasters is caused by the rapacious capitalist exploitation of the planet.

On Wednesday 9 March, South Koreans went to the polls to decide who will rule over them from the Blue House for the next five years. Yoon Suk-yeol of the hard-right conservative People Power Party (PPP) won out in the end, with a campaign based on reactionary, misogynistic demagogy. This result exposes the complete inability of the liberals to defend the interests of workers, women and the oppressed. The South Korean workers must prepare an independent class fight against the new government, and the capitalist system it represents.

We are happy to announce that The Spark, the Taiwanese supporters of the International Marxist Tendency, have launched their own printed publication, New Youth. This is a big step forward for the forces of Marxism in the country and will help our ideas find a whole new audience.

Since 28 January, uproar has swept across China after footage emerged that showed a woman chained up by the neck in Xuzhou, Jiangsu, having been forced to bear eight children. The video was originally made with the intention of capturing heartwarming acts of charity to the rural poor.

The banning of the hijab by the BJP government in Karnataka state, southern India, is a continuation of the vile policy of the ruling class of India to divide the people on the basis of religion. This is a legacy of British imperialism’s method of ‘divide and rule’, which spread religious hatred across the whole region, and which the Modi regime has taken to a new extreme. During Congress’, it too used the same tactic to ensure the continuation of the rule of capital in this country. Modi’s regime only represents the brutal face of the ruling class, which has been exposed in this epoch in which it faces a deep crisis. The veil of democracy, the rule of law and freedom of expression is

Police and state authorities in Bangladesh have once again resorted to brutal repression. Allied with thugs like the Chhatra League, they unleashed an attack against protesting students at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) in Sylhet. The students were protesting for basic demands and a representative body to look after their affairs in their hostel, but were met with police brutality unleashed by the university administration. The protesting students were beaten up on the campus, and attacked with stun grenades, tear gas and batons.

The January uprising in Kazakhstan, and particularly in Almaty, was the most notable event in the living memory of most Kazakhstanis. In his address to the extraordinary session of the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organisation], the president, Kasym-Jomart Tokayev, described it as “the heaviest crisis in the whole 30-year history of independence”. This was the first time that the bourgeois regime of modern Kazakhstan has ever faced such a threat.

China is discovering that under capitalism, what goes up must come down. Extreme inequality is the defining feature of Chinese society, now officially more unequal than even the USA. As it stares into the abyss of capitalist crisis, the Chinese government is facing the same dilemmas as the USA over a decade ago.

The following statement – in solidarity with the revolutionary movement in Kazakhstan and against Russian military intervention – was originally published in Russian on 6 January and signed by a number of left-wing Russian organisations. Read the original here, as well as our most recent analysis, and a ...

We publish the following translation of a statement, published today by the Russian comrades of the Marxist Tendency on the current situation in Kazakhstan. Read the original here, click here for marxist.com’s latest analysis of the situation, and here for an earlier report by our correspondent on the

Yesterday, Kazakhstani army and security forces backed by Russian special forces moved in to forcibly put down what has become the biggest mass movement in Kazakhstan since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

This report was received this evening from a correspondent in Kazakhstan following a 7 hour internet blackout. Overnight, protests which began against gas price rises have turned into an uprising that has already led to the resignation of the government but which show no sign of abating.

The testimony of Raphael Marshall, a whistleblower who worked as a desk officer during the British evacuation of Afghanistan, has revealed a despicable level of cynicism and incompetence on the part of the British ruling class and its representatives.

In 1965, reactionary military generals in Indonesia began an anti-communist massacre, slaughtering up to two million members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in one of the twentieth century’s worst mass murders. This year – after six decades of cover up – documents have been released that show the pivotal role played by the British secret services in moulding public opinion in preparation for the slaughter, through a series of propaganda leaflets disguised as the writings of concerned Indonesian emigres.

On 4 December, hundreds of workers both from the public and private sector; as well as trade union representatives, students and peasant leaders, gathered in Lahore from all over Pakistan to attend the central workers’ convention hosted by the Red Workers’ Front. The convention was held in the Bakhtiar Labour Hall, which belongs to the Hydro Union for WAPDA (the state electricity department), the largest public sector union in Pakistan. This was the conclusion of a long series of conventions held in dozens of cities across the country in November.

The 1988 Uprising of Myanmar was a turning point in the country’s history. For the first time in over a century, the Burmese masses directly confronted a military dictatorship and toppled it. During the mass struggles against the military coup in 2021, many activists looked to the experience of 1988 for inspiration. Unfortunately, however, the 1988 uprising ultimately ended in defeat, similarly to what happened this year. In order to move forward, we have to ask ourselves what factors led to the 1988 movement’s failure, what mistakes were made. Were any of these present in this year’s movement as well? We need to make a serious analysis of this uprising to draw historical lessons and

The following is the founding editorial of The Struggle, a Myanmar-based, Marxist militant publication in solidarity with the International Marxist Tendency. In the brutally difficult conditions in the country, a team of Marxist revolutionaries still managed to produce a PDF magazine, which they are distributing through their Facebook page “Revolutionary Marxism” (which as of now has over 7,100 likes). Please contact that page if you would like a copy of The Struggle. The English translation below is slightly edited from the Burmese original, clarifying a few points for

After a year-long battle, India’s farmers have at last defeated the right-wing Modi government and its capitalist masters, forcing a repeal of their three reactionary farm laws. This is a big victory for the farmers that has been achieved through a courageous struggle, which has been tenaciously maintained since September 2020.