Asia

This article, written in 1998, looked at the severe crisis that was affecting Japan, with big falls in investment and thus in productivity, rising unemployment and falls in the real level of wages. The Liberal Democratic Party started losing support; the Democratic Party emerged in an attempt to prepare a bourgeois “alternative” to the fall of the LDP, while on the left the Communist Party was doubling its forces.

We often hear of the brutal conditions that workers have to suffer in underdeveloped countries. Here we have an example of a famous multinational, Unilever, which is making huge profits while paying starvation wages and using draconian measures when the workers dare to protest. Send messages of protest and let these workers know they are not alone.

When the CPN-Maoist joined the coalition government in Nepal after the revolutionary events last year, the media, the imperialists and last but not least the Nepali ruling class proclaimed a new era of peace and prosperity. This was never going to be the case and now, not even a year after the formation of the government, the Maoists have left the government and Nepal is heading back down the road of crisis.

More people have been killed in Myanmar (Burma) as the military try and hold back the wave of protest. But pressure is building up on the regime. Whether it will clamp down firmly or move in the direction of negotiations depends on the power of the movement in the coming days.

The sudden steep increase in the price of fuel in Myanmar (Burma) in August pushed the already impoverished masses beyond the limit. Now a mass movement threatens to overthrow the rotten military regime. But the lack of a genuine workers’ alternative has left a vacuum into which the bourgeois opposition are stepping.

What started as an argument and scuffle between a group of army officers and students watching a football match has ended up as a widespread movement of the youth in Bangladesh, followed by curfew and sever repression, which has only served to spread the movement throughout the whole country.

Just One Day Comrade (Sehari Saja Kawan) is one of many poems written by a well-known Indonesian poet Wiji Thukul about the strength of workers’ unity. Through the power of his words, he has inspired many youth and workers to fight against the oppressive capitalism.

The influence and strength of the Marxists in Kashmir continues to grow apace. Testimony to this is the fact that around 800 attended the regional conference held last Sunday, September 9. This all bodes well for the future revolutionary events.

On September 7, the South Punjab Labour Conference was held in Multan with many delegates from workplaces and workers’ leaders present. The conference was organised by the Multan Joint Action Committee and the purpose of the gathering was to unite all the various struggles of the Pakistani workers on one platform.

Today August 31, Malaysia celebrates half a century of independence from British colonial rule.  At the age of 50, Malaysia still suffers from a deep ethnic and religious divide sown by imperialism. Today's problems are the legacy of colonial rule and continuing capitalist interests pitting ordinary working people against each other.

In the 1940s the Communist Party of India (CPI) was a prisoner of the policies imposed by Stalin on the international communist movement. In backward and colonial countries, Stalin decreed, the movement had to go through two stages - democracy, then socialism. This proved disastrous for the workers of the whole of the Indian subcontinent.

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Indian independence from British rule. In reality, the partition of India in 1947 cut through the living body of whole communities, leading to untold death and misery. This was all part of the tried and tested method of “divide and rule” and behind it lay the interests of privileged ruling elites, not those of the poor masses.

There are very repressive labour laws in the United Arab Emirates. In spite of this a strike has erupted at the Consolidated Construction International Company (CCIC) in Abu Dhabi. The official media is not reporting on this. Send the government and the company a message letting them know we know what is going on.