By Shahzad Arshad, Revolutionary Socialist Movement, Pakistan A NEW mass movement is developing in Pakistan. On April 8, tens of thousands of supporters of the “Pashtun Protection Movement” gathered in Peshawar, the centre of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, KPK. Some estimates put the total attendance at more than 100,000. The meeting was the latest highpoint of […]
By Dave Stockton ON 15 AUGUST 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru addressed India’s Constituent Assembly in words that have become famous: “Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, […]
On April 13, Pakistan saw yet another incident that illustrates the deep rooted crisis within society
By Hassan Raza On July 8, Indian soldiers shot dead Burhan Wani in the forests south east of Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir. Although Wani was only 22 years old, he was a leading figure in the biggest of the Kashmiri independence movements, Hizbul Mujahideen, and his death triggered a new wave of mass […]
By Alisha Arshad IN PAKISTAN, women are largely confined to working in the huge “informal” sector, which employs about three quarters of the total workforce of an estimated 65 million in the cities, towns and countryside. Workers in this sector, male or female, are not covered by the country’s labour regulations. They have no entitlement to […]
1 April, 2015 On 17 March, Pakistan was again shaken by terrorist attacks. In Lahore, two Taliban suicide bombers left 15 dead. The number would have been far greater had they been able to get inside the churches in the district of Youhandabad. Just a few days before, there were gun battles in Karachi between […]
By Shahzad Arshad On Friday 28 February, after 2,500 kilometres the Long March of the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons, VBMP, finally reached its destination of Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan. The 20 marchers are relatives of just some of the 18,400 people who are missing and believed to have been abducted by […]
Statement by the League for the Fifth International, International Secretariat After covering thousands of kilometres on foot, a protest march by activists from Balochistan has been stopped by the authorities and encircled by the police outside the town Wazirabad (a town in Punjab province, approximately 100 kilometres north of Lahore on Monday, February 17th 2014. […]
Saturday 1 June, 2013 The Pakistan elections on 11 May led to a landslide defeat for the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) of the incumbent President, Asif Ali Zardari. Indeed, it was a crushing reverse for all the parties that overtly support the US “war on terror”. Moreover, with around 55.02 per cent turnout, higher than […]
PAKISTAN’S MILITARY has intensified its fifth operation in Balochistan, battling a resistance movement against national oppression. Thousands of Balochi political activists are missing, and four hundred bodies of students, engineers, doctors and workers have been found, many showing evidence of severe torture. Arshad Shazhad reports. Rebel leader Nawab Akbar Bugti’s assassination in August 2006, and […]
The Occupy Lahore Camp started on 22 October at noon in Nasir Bagh park, a regular site for political rallies. More than 500 participated, largely peasant women, factory workers, students and left activists. The camp began with speeches from various participants to show solidarity with international “Occupy” movement, and also bring to the fore the […]
Electricity supply workers took to the streets in Lahore on 1 November to protest at government plans to dissolve the Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO), the privatisation of power distribution companies and the appointment of a private sector Chief Executive in the Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO). Mass demonstrations, marches and rallies organised by the […]
Shehzad Arshad from Revolutionary Socialist Movement, Pakistan, reports on the struggle of the electrical company workers in Karachi against their bosses and company thugs
“Yes we can!” gloated Barak Obama as he announced to the world that the US has assassinatesd enemy number one, Osama Bin Laden, reports Martin Suchanek. Read it here Dave Stockton looks at the relationship between Osama Bin Laden, his politics, and American imperialism. Read it here
The Pakistani ruling class is trying to force the working class to pay the price of the capitalist crisis. But over the past month a growing movement of resistance has shaken the country, writed Editor, Resistance magazine.
Pakistan’s finance minister, Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, has an international reputation as a privatiser, writes Shehzad Arshad of the RSL. He has headed World Bank and International Monetary Fund teams charged with forcing the sell-off of telecoms, electricity supply, transport, aviation, banking and manufacturing in some 18 countries, including Argentina.