The following two reports were sent to us by IWSN activists in Sanandaj, Iranian Kurdistan.

The past experiences of the Nepalese Maoists, and the failure of their attempts to carry out a revolution by “stages” has led to an internal debate in which some of its leaders have drawn the conclusion that the “national road” has not produced the desired results and that what is required is an internationalist position.

This summer The Red Spark [Rato Jhilko - see photo], a journal of the Communist Party of Nepal published an article by Baburam Bhattarai, which stated that, “Trotskyism has become more relevant than Stalinism to advance the cause of the proletariat”. This is the result of concrete historical experience that has revealed the real essence of Stalinism and vindicated the ideas of Leon Trotsky, in the case of Nepal in particular of the theory of the Permanent Revolution.

The US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan are fighting an unwinnable war. This fact is seeping into the consciousness of millions of people in the west who are now opposed to the war. But also in Afghanistan there are signs that the ordinary people are tired of both the imperialist occupation forces and the Taliban. The only alternative to the present barbarism is the struggle for a socialist federation of South Asia, which would include a socialist Afghanistan.

The declining economic and financial power of the United States has its political ramifications throughout the whole of the Middle East, as social upheaval increases and the reactionary regimes fear for their very survival in the coming period.

The sitting minister for privatisation, Naveed Qamar, has announced 12% ownership shares to half a million workers in the privatisation of 80 nationally owned institutions. Deceiving the working class into becoming owners is a condemnable conspiracy to paralyse the workers and to drive them away from the class struggle, which is the only path to their emancipation.