It was 38 years ago when one of the most progressive events in Afghanistan’s history — the Saur Revolution — took place. Since its demise imperialist aggression and fundamentalist reaction have wrecked havoc on this tragic land. This week the Taliban announced the beginning of their usual summer offensive against the Ghani administration in Kabul […]
The mayhem in Balochistan
The grotesque, remorseless and relentless slaughter of the Shiite Hazaras in Balochistan is yet another grim episode that lays bare the escalating conflagration in the region and the extreme complexity the national question and the sectarian strife have plunged into. This was an act of barbarity that is the outcome of a rotten state and […]
Subverting revolutions
Yet another facade of a movement has been unleashed by sections of the state, imperialist interests and factions of the ruling classes to undermine and cut across a genuine revolutionary upheaval of the toiling masses from below. Millions are being squandered on the ‘long march’ called by the rightwing demagogue Maulana Tahirul Qadri. The bourgeois […]
Old Europe: new normality
Six months after the acute economic crisis that had engulfed Europe, threatening the expulsion of Greece, collapse of the euro and breakup of the European Union, it seems that the economic and financial Armageddon has been averted. The reality is different. Far from being resolved, it has penetrated from the peripheral economies to the main […]
May Day in a deceptive election scenario
This year the May Day falls during the electoral campaign in Pakistan when the main contesting parties have nothing to offer the toiling masses of this country. All parties have a similar economic programme of neo-liberal market capitalism under the overarching political hegemony of the ruling elite. The main economic mantra is the notorious Direct […]
Revolution and counter-revolution in Venezuela
The victory of Nicolas Maduro in last Sunday’s presidential election with a narrow margin of 1.6 percentage points brings to the fore the threats posed to the Venezuelan revolution. This revolutionary process began after a combination of mass upheaval of the working classes and the revolt by the young officers and solders when within 48 […]
Challenges to Bhuttos legacy
This year’s April 4th marked the 34th death anniversary of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s founding chairman Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. On this day in 1979 Bhutto was executed by Ziaul Haq, the most brutal dictator in Pakistan’s history. However, if we compare the election manifestos of the PPP in the 1970 elections and that […]
The gimmickry of electoral scrutiny
The entire process to scrutinise the electoral applications of the candidates for the forthcoming general elections on May 11 has been a cynical farce. The obsessive implementation of Articles 62 and 63, despotically inducted into the constitution by the Zia dictatorship, has triggered an unprecedented furor in recent days. These include certain ‘qualifications’ a member […]
Relevance of Bhuttos legacy
Whilst the masses are being ground down under the excruciating weight of the crisis of Pakistani capitalism, the politics of the PPP revolves around many commemorations of the births and deaths of its leaders. December 27 marked the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. On January 5 was the birth anniversary of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Benazir […]
Palestines festering wounds III
The present conflict has once more utterly exposed the impotence of the Arab leaders, particularly Egypt and the so-called United Nations. The attack on Gaza is threatening to unleash a renewed instability in the West Bank and arouse the Palestinians in Jordan. Even before the Gaza crisis, Jordan has been going through a mass revolt, […]