The PTUDC in Pakistan has been active all over the country in organising relief for the victims of the floods. In some areas, however, they have met opposition from the Pakistan Army which prefers to back fundamentalist organisations. The Pakistan state has failed abysmally to help its own people, but still finds the forces to harass genuine socialists who are merely trying to help their own brothers and sisters.

The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign has launched Revolutionary Flood Relief and Protest Committees across Pakistan, especially in the intensely affected areas, to conduct an efficient and effective rescue and relief effort. Fifty seven camps of this campaign have been set up in various regions and is appealing for help.

The PTUDC has set up a Mobile Medical Relief Team, which include volunteer doctors and other medical staff that are providing medical aid to the flood victims.

National Marxist Youth Summer School was held from 30^th July to 1^st August 2010 at Abbottabad. In spite of the heavy floods and landslides due to disastrous rains, long distances and difficult economic situation, more than 100 comrades from all over the country participated in the school with a great revolutionary spirit.

On 5^th July 1977 general Zia Ul Haq overthrew the government of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in a military coup. He later proceeded to have Bhutto hanged. This year that dark day in 1977 was marked by a day of remembrance in Rawalpindi, where the speakers emphasised the need to carry out the founding socialist programme of the PPP.

A huge rally and conference was organised by the Jammu Kashmir National Student Federation (JKNSF) on June 24. Lal Khan was one of the main speakers, stressing the point that genuine self-determination for the Kashmiri people can only be achieved as part of a socialist federation of the whole of the South Asian subcontinent.

Over the weekend the Punjab People’s Student Federation (PSF) held a convention under the title “Bhuttoism—Socialism”, officially organised to mark the 57^th birthday anniversary of Benazir Bhutto. The convention, representing a large number of campuses across the Punjab, elected Zohaib Butt, a Marxist and supporter of The Struggle, as its President.

265 Workers of Merk Marker factory in Quetta who were sacked last year are still struggling for their reinstatement and call for solidarity from Merk Marker workers in other countries.

On May 7 a protest broke out in Malakand over water and electricity shortages. The Army was brought in and was preparing a brutal clampdown. In the face of the wrath of the masses, led by a Marxist, Shakeel Khan, who was temporarily arrested, they had to back off and give in to all the demands of the protestors.

On May Day 2010 rallies, seminars and processions were organised by the PTUDC (Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign) in 52 cities across Pakistan. This shows the degree to which more and more workers, peasants and youth are looking for a revolutionary alternative to capitalism in the country. We provide reports from some of the cities and towns where comrades from the PTUDC and the BNT organised programmes in order to pay tribute to the martyrs of Chicago.

Comrades of the Struggle in Pakistan have sent us this picture gallery of mobilisations on 1 May across the whole of Pakistan from Karachi in the south to Kashmir in the north. A report will follow.

The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) will be intervening on the many May Day rallies across the country and have produced a special poster for the occasion which we make available here for our readers.

In 2008 the people of Pakistan voted into office the PPP, hoping that this would bring genuine change, i.e. a real improvement in their living conditions. Instead we have a worsening economic situation, real suffering of the millions of poor, and warfare killing many innocent civilians. Meanwhile the PPP leadership is busying itself applying the IMF-imposed policies of cuts and privatisations. In these conditions it is not surprising that many are asking themselves what democracy has meant for them.

Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation held a protest in Rawlakot on 15^th April to support the strike of 450,000 government employees in Indian Jammu and Kashmir, who are protesting for the payment of their salaries. The participants of the rally supported the Joint Action Forum which is leading the protests and raised slogans against the state authorities which are attacking the workers.

A worker has lost his hand while working in the unsafe conditions of Unilever in Rahim Yar Khanu. Management have attempted a cover up by taking the worker to a hospital where no one, including the unions, are allowed to visit him. The PTUDC is raising a campaign of protest.