The international campaign demanding the release of our comrades, who were abducted by the Rangers in Karachi on 22 April, continues to build. There have been demonstrations at Pakistani embassies all over the world, and our official petition has acquired thousands of signatories, including from some prominent figures from the political left and trade union movement. Here, we provide an update on the solidarity campaign's latest activities.

Yesterday, we had a fantastic response from comrades around the world, protesting the abductions in Pakistan. The good news is that three of our comrades were released today: Aftab Ashraf, Karim Parhar and Zain ul Abidin. However, the Rangers are refusing to release the other three comrades, who remain in custody in their headquarters in Karachi. Comrades must step up the campaign of protest for Bilawal Baloch, Umer Riaz and Mohammed Gulbaz. We demand the immediate release of all of our comrades.

Pakistan is a country of over 200m people, but at least 40 percent live in poverty. Life expectancy is low, at an average of 66 years and infant mortality is high, with about about 64.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. For a large part of the population life is a living hell. But on top of this there is also the impact of imperialist intervention in Afghanistan, the effects of which have spilled across the border, and the repressive operations of the state security forces.

The seven socialist activists abducted by the Rangers in Pakistan are still being held. Their whereabouts remain unknown. All possible measures are being taken to locate them. As yet, no charges have been made and the reason is that no crime has been committed. They have been abducted because of their solidarity activities with the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM): a mass movement of immense proportions of the Pashtun people, who are demanding to know where the 30,000 people who have disappeared over recent years are, whether they are being held in prison or whether they have been killed.

Six comrades of the IMT were abducted today in Karachi by the Army and Sindh Rangers, a paramilitary state department notorious for extra-judicial killings. We need to raise this in the labour and student movements around the world. We need messages of protest and of solidarity. Act now!

The Dutch Marxists have launched a new paper, Revolutie(Revolution), which has replaced the old paper, Vonk. On 24 March they held a public event to announce the name change. The change did not come from nowhere. The new name connects much better to the new objective situation in the Netherlands.

We publish an appeal from our comrades of Fightback, the Canadian section of the IMT. Fightback has gone from strength to strength over the past several years, and is now taking the important step of setting up a new office in Montreal! This will require the necessary funds: please donateto help build the forces of Marxism in Canada!

One decade on from the onset of the Great Recession, and British society is undergoing a series of crises: economic, political, and social. The status quo has broken; the centre ground has collapsed; political polarisation and radicalisation is taking place everywhere.

We are happy to introduce no.marxist.com, the website of Revolusjon: the Norwegian supporters of the IMT! The celebrated ‘Nordic models’ of capitalism – with an extensive welfare state – have not avoided the general crises in the capitalist system. Huge tax cuts for the rich, privatization of public services, and the increasing economic gulf between rich and poor are creating discontent among workers and youth. The election of a candidate to the parliament from a socialist party that calls itself Marxist (Red) is a sign that mass discontent is beginning to shift the political climate.

This year marks the 170th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto. Yet the content of this booklet has never been more relevant than today. The capitalist system has become a monstrous obstacle weighing down on the shoulders of humanity.

The Montreal Marxist Winter School has become the biggest Marxist meeting in Canada, but this year's event was something special. There was record attendance at the school, with close to 230 people participating. People were present from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, Mexico, France, Britain and Switzerland. Two hundred years after Karl Marx’s birth, the 2018 Marxist Winter School has shown that Marxist ideas are advancing across the board.

50 years after the revolutionary events of 1968, one hundred revolutionary Marxist students gathered at SOAS in London for the annual Marxist Student Federation conference. With comrades from Glasgow to Southampton present, the Federation’s fifth conference was its most enjoyable yet.

Last weekend, the small Austrian town of Bregenz played host to a large gathering of young socialists at the annual Karl-Marx-Seminar. The event was organised by Sozialistische Jugend Vorarlberg and Der Funke, the Austrian section of the IMT.

On Thursday, 25 January a lecture was held in the Al Hamra Hall, a well known cultural center in Lahore on the topic of “Marxism and Literature”, by the British Marxist Alan Woods, organized by the Progressive Youth Alliance.

A rally was held by Red Workers Front RWF in Lahore on 21 January from Edgerton Road to the Press Club. The demonstrators condemned the privatization policy of the government and demanded that it should be stopped immediately. They said that government is privatizing hospitals, schools, colleges, railways, Airlines, Electricity and other public sector departments made by the money from taxes of poor people. This policy is bringing more unemployment, misery and poverty while majority of population will be denied these basic necessities due to manifold increase in their price.

Comrade Adam Pal opened the morning session of the second day of the congress with a highly informative and engaging lead-off on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Adam explained that, contrary to the promises of milk and honey from the Pakistani ruling class, CPEC in reality means increased misery and exploitation for the masses.

The 2nd Congress of Lal Salaam, the Pakistan section of the International Marxist Tendency, commenced its session on Saturday the 20th of January at the Aiwan-E-Iqbal Center in Lahore.

The first ever public meeting held by the IMT in Kathmandu Nepal was a great success. Despite being in the middle of the election campaign, the meeting on the lessons of the October Revolution attracted 100 communist activists, including leading members of the Maoist party and the Young Communists. The meeting was also attended by comrade Gopal Kriti, who is a working-class veteran activist and member of the Executive Committee of the Maoist party: a mass party in Nepal. The meeting was held in the meeting hall of the Law College in Kathmandu and was addressed by comrade Yug Pathak, a communist journalist; and author and comrade Rob Sewell from the IMT.

The comrades from Izquierda Marxista, supporters of the IMT in Honduras, are participating in the mass insurrectionary movement against electoral fraud and repression. They need all the solidarity we can raise in the international workers' movement but also financial help to produce political material and to deal with security issues. Please donate generously.

As Lenin wrote: "without revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement." Theory is not a matter of merely academic interest: a mastery of Marxist ideas is necessary to understand the world in which we live and fight. Without understanding capitalism, we cannot hope to defeat it. To help develop this work of political education, the French-speaking sections of the IMT organized the first international Marxist school in French.