On Tuesday and Wednesday, June 1 and 2, most workers returned to work at the Honda plant in Foshan, China, after strike action which had started on May 17. As we reported earlier, the workers were fighting for substantial wage increases.

A high profile two-week long strike by 1900 workers at the Honda Motors transmission plant in China has paralysed production at Honda’s four plants in the country.

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.

Bangkok is in flames as the counterrevolutionary violence in Thailand reaches a bloody climax. The long-awaited assault by the Thai army has already taken place, and will not cease until every trace of the protest has been wiped out. No-one can be sure of the number of casualties, but the final figure will certainly be more than what the authorities have admitted to so far. It seems that some Red Shirts have responded by setting fire to banks, shopping malls and other buildings in the city, and there are reports that protests and violence is erupting in other parts of the city.

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.

After having mobilised the masses for a five-day general strike, the Maoist leaders in Nepal called it off without having achieved any of their demands. The mass movement potentially has immense power and it could overthrow the present regime and move towards a Socialist Nepal. The Maoists have a huge responsibility in this situation. Time is running out. They should take the power.

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 calling of a general strike in Nepal is an important turning point in the situation. The Maoist leaders are using the classical method of the organised working class. It has the potential to go well beyond the drafting of a new constitution. The potential is there for the working class, backed by the peasants, to come to power.

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.