Yesterday, two workers - Usman and Arshad - were killed and 23 others severely injured after a fire broke out at the Al Badar factory located on Sheikhupura Road near Lahore. The fire was caused by a boiler which exploded in the factory. Twelve of the injured workers are in a critical state, with more than ninety percent burns. They have, according to hospital reports, little chance of surviving.

On 2 February last year two PIA workers were killed and many injured at Karachi airport by para-military forces as they protested against privatization together with hundreds of other workers. After those killings a total stoppage of PIA operations was imposed by the workers and all domestic and international flights were cancelled for eight days.

The crisis of capitalism in the West has taken centre stage, with the spectacle of Donald Trump's election, and Brexit. China has dropped out of the limelight, for the time being retaining a degree of stability. This at least is the message the party leadership would like to present.

On 2 February, 2016, two workers of PIA were killed while dozens of other protestors were injured when paramilitary forces of the Pakistan Rangers and Sindh Police indiscriminately opened fire on a rally of hundreds of PIA workers.  These workers were protesting against the privatization of PIA being carried out under the dictates of IMF.

On 9 December 2016, the South Korean National Assembly voted to impeach President Park Geun-Hye with 234 out of 300 votes, including 62 votes from the president’s ruling Saenuri Party. This came after a wave of mass protests against Park has been taking place for seven weeks.

“I announce my separation from the United States… I have realigned myself in your [China’s] ideological flow… I will be dependent on you for all time.” “I will not go to America any more. We will just be insulted there. So time to say goodbye my friend.” “There are three of us against the world - China, Philippines and Russia. It’s the only way.” Rodrigo Duterte, new President of the Philippines, on his recent trip to China.

In an unsurprising turn of events in Taiwan, the new government led by the bourgeois Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has begun its assault on the working class, by continuing the previous KMT administration’s policy of lengthening the working hours by cutting holidays, and refusing to legislate for a full two day weekend.

The past four months have seen a movement, which has been unprecedented in the history of Kashmir. Nearly 100 people have been killed by the ruthless repression of Indian armed forces while 17,000 people, including women and children, have been injured. A large number of the dead and injured have been youngsters, some less than twelve years old. The pellet guns used by security forces have damaged the faces of 1600 people and more than 1100 people have partially or lost their eyesight completely. In many aspects, this has become the biggest uprising in Kashmir's history.

On Saturday more than 200,000  people took to the streets in South Korea calling for President Park Geun-hye to step down. This latest protest, was the biggest for several years and it highlights the deep crisis of the Park government.

Gaddani is one of the largest Ship Breaking Yards in the World. Located near the industrial city of Hub in Balochistan, bordering Karachi, it supplies twenty five percent of the steel demand of the country.

On Monday night once again blood flowed in Quetta. At least 61 were killed and 117 wounded, many of them in a critical condition, when terrorists attacked a police training college in Quetta. Around 9:30 in the evening three terrorists entered the college where 700 trainees were present. They entered one of the hostels rounded up and then killed trainee cadets in the building.

The recent rally in Jaffna, a Tamil populated capital in the Northern province of Sri Lanka, under the banner “Ezhuka Tamil” (Rise Up Tamils!) has once again posed the question of Tamil self-determination to the fore since the bloody defeat of Tamil Tigers 7 years ago. This demonstration is an indicator of swelling discontent among the Tamil minorities. Despite Sri Lankan State’s victory over the armed separatist Tigers the national question has not been solved in Sri Lanka and the misery of the Tamil population in the North and Eastern provinces have only worsened.

Indian-occupied Kashmir has been in revolt since the killing of Burhani Wani, a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen group, by Indian troops on 8 July. The killing sparked a massive protest movement across the whole of the Kashmir Valley. The Indian state has responded brutally, imposing a draconian curfew, killing over 80 people and injuring thousands. We publish here a comment on the present situation by Yasir Irshad, a Marxist of the IMT in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

"As in the entire third world, women, especially poor women workers of Pakistan, are suffering. Sometimes I feel that they need a socialist revolution more than anyone. It is the only way to freedom! "(Anam Patafi)

On Friday the 2nd of September 2016 the biggest single strike action in world history took place in India. As many as between 150 and 180 million workers took part in the All India Strike around a 12 point charter of demands put forward by the Central Trade Unions. These included a raise to the minimum wage and pension for all workers, an end to privatization of state owned enterprises and contractorisation of the workforce, a halt to price hikes, the enforcement of labour rights and the scrapping of pro-employer labour law amendments.