Category: South Asia

  • Anger erupts in Tamil Nadu over slaughter of Tamils in Sri Lanka

    Campaign launched to demand end to war and to fight for democratic rights There is ferment among Tamil-speaking people, worldwide, over the slaughter taking place in the north of Sri Lanka. Over 2,000 people have died already in recent weeks. All critics of the government are silenced. Nearly 200,000 Tamil people are still trapped in…

  • Lankan leader seeks SAARC’s intervention

    This article appeared in The Hindu. Siritunga Jayasurya, General Secretary – United socialist Party (CWI – Sri Lanka) spoke at meeting jointly organized by New socialist Alternative on ongoing war against Tamils in Sri Lanka. Group urged to send a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka. ‘2,50,000 civilians still trapped in the northern part’ Expressing concern…

  • Editorial: India and Pakistan conflict

    Politicians use terrorism for their own ends Once again, terrorist carnage – this time in Mumbai in India – has shocked working people around the world. In a thoroughly planned and financed operation, a group of right-wing Islamic terrorists turned buildings and streets in Mumbai into a killing field, slaughtering and injuring innocent people, with…

  • MUMBAI MAYHEM

    Defeat the terror of communalism and capitalism The horrific terror attack in Mumbai on 27 November must be condemned on all counts. It took place at the usually crowded CST railway station and six other prime locations killing at least 140 people (the figures are likely to reach 200 or more) and injuring hundreds. The…

  • ‘India should pressure Sri Lanka for a political solution’

    It can be the first step in solving the ethnic crisis: Siritunga Jayasuriya This article appeared in the Hindu on 22 October, 2008. Siritunga Jayasurya, General Secretary – United Socialist Party (CWI – Sri Lanka) spoke in a seminar organized by New Socialist Alternative (CWI – India) in Bangalore on the nationality question in Sri…

  • Elections in the teeth of violence.

    The Provincial Council election in the East will enter history as one of the most rigged elections in Sri Lanka. From the day of nominations up to the 10th May – the day of the election – there was a full scale terror campaign of intimidation and fear launched by the armed groups which are…

  • Maoists election victory in Nepal

    Need for socialist programme to break with landlordism and capitalism The Maoists won a spectacular victory in the Nepalese elections. In a shock for regional and global powers, the Prime Minister as well as ministers of Finance, Defence and the Interior, will now belong to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) who received over a…

  • A country on the edge

    State and society in crisis Pakistan, even before the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, was gripped by a severe political and social crisis. There are country-wide protests against the price hikes and power shortages. There seems to be no end to the suicide bombings and terror unleashed by the reactionary armed Islamic groups. The state apparatus…

  • 25,000 textile workers protest against poor wages

    Textile workers are on the move again. More than 25,000 textile workers defied a ban on protests in emergency-ruled Bangladesh to demand back pay and bonuses in one of the country’s biggest industrial zones. The workers walked off the job in Tejgoan industrial area in the capital Dhaka and held protests in the streets, forcing…

  • Violence erupts in Karachi as political polarisation increases

    Fifty killed and more than 150 injured Karachi, Pakistan’s biggest city saw its worst political violence in decades on 12 May. Over 50 people were killed and more than 150 injured in clashes and gunfights between the pro-government Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM – a chauvinist reactionary party which primarily bases itself amongst the Mohajir minority)…