The revolutionary masses have overthrown Hasina, ending her 16 years of brutal rule! As we write these lines, millions have descended on Dhaka, with millions more expected to arrive in the course of the day. The masses have taken possession of the Ganabhaban (the Prime Minister’s residence). As of 14:25 local time, Sheikh Hasina and her sister were flown to the air force base in Kurmitola, and from there will flee the country. But conspiracies are afoot in the army to steal the people’s victory. The masses must be more vigilant now than ever! We say: all power to the workers’ and students’ committees!

Talha Mahmud Chowdhury, a student of East Delta University (CSE Department, Spring Intake 2020), was forcibly abducted by 20-30 members of the Bangladesh Students’ League (the student wing of the ruling party Awami League) at 8:48pm on 17 July. This abduction took place at the intersection of Road No. 5 in the Agrabad CDA residential area. They checked his mobile phone and, upon finding posts on his Facebook supporting the ongoing quota reform movement, handed him and three others over to the patrolling team of the Chittagong Double Mooring Police Station.

The courageous movement of the Bangladeshi students continues despite murderous repression by the Sheikh Hasina regime. Hundreds have been killed and thousands arrested. The curfew continues (though in a milder form) and while communications are being restored, messaging services and social media platforms remain blocked. The government arrested six of the coordinators of the movement and forced them, under duress, to make a press statement saying all further protest actions had been called off. Even under these conditions, however, there were student protests across the country on Monday 29 July,  including in Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Barisal, etc. These were met with further

The Revolutionary Communist International salutes the inspiring bravery of the students of Bangladesh. Their movement, which began in protest against a rotten quota system, has escalated to demand the downfall of the murderous Hasina regime. Our comrades, in over 40 countries around the world, stand in full solidarity with you. The just cause of Bangladesh’s students is the cause of the working class and youth of the whole world! The world must know what is really happening in Bangladesh.

The Inqalabi Communist Party in Pakistan extends complete solidarity to the students’ movement in Bangladesh and support for all their demands. We condemn the brutality and repression by Sheikh Hasina’s government which has killed at least 200 people and injured thousands more. Curfews have been imposed. Orders to shoot at sight have been issued while the army is deployed on the streets of Dhaka.

In the past four days, Bangladesh has completely changed. Since Thursday, the Sheikh Hasina government has drawn a veil of darkness over the entire country. Under the cover of a telecommunications blackout, it has committed the worst massacre Bangladesh has seen since the 1980s, if not since the 1971 war of independence. With it, the last drop of legitimacy has expired from the Awami League (AL) and Sheikh Hasina’s government.

Massive anger has erupted across Bangladesh, after the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina sent police and paramilitary forces to murder students protestors. 39 were killed in the slaughter, conducted beneath an internet blackout. What started as a student protest movement after the government reintroduced a hated quota system for sought-after public sector jobs that would favour ruling supporters of the ruling Awami League, has now turned into a bitter struggle against a murderous regime.

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The recent general elections in India have exposed the rottenness of the whole political edifice in the country. Almost all the parties involved have been revealed as bankrupt, with diminishing authority, and having nothing to offer the toiling masses. But Modi’s ruling BJP, which was once considered invincible, came out the biggest loser.

The Morning Star, the political mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Britain, is praising and promoting two new books analysing China, China’s Great Roadby John Ross, and The East is Still Redby Carlos Martinez. As you can tell from the titles, both books present the modern day Chinese economy and Communist Party as genuinely Marxist, which in their eyes obliges all communists to actively support them. Both books argue that China is blazing a trail towards socialism and ultimately communism. 

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2023 saw the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, and the man at the heart of the state today. The anniversary was marked by a torrent of remembrances of the figure once described by Henry Kissinger as “one of the asymmetries of history.” Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Lee Kuan Yew’s son) is stepping down on 15 May and passing the baton to a new generation of leadership unrelated to the Lee family. The continuation of Lee’s People’s Action Party and the entire edifice of the Singaporean state hangs in the balance.

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