The Taliban are not a homogenous whole and the Islamic parties have no fundamental ideological differences with imperialism. The conflicts erupt when competing groups of these zealots are sponsored by imperialism.

Yet another excruciating wound inflicted. Insult heaped upon the injuries of the brutalised masses. It is the further exacerbation of the misery of the impoverished souls of this tragic land. The people already suffering from the ethos of this bestial capitalism in terminal decay are groaning with the pain of these policies of ‘reforms’.

“Ever since the national liberation movement in Balochistan abandoned socialism from its programme, it became an easy prey for the imperialist vultures. They can now play with the sentiments of national exploitation and oppression of the people only to utilise them for their own imperialist designs.”

It is becoming more and more evident that the bosses of the world cannot control the vicious downward spiral that is unravelling. The bourgeoisie is worried!

The innumerable Muslim Leagues that traverse the spectrum of Pakistan’s dominating political establishment in a number of ways reflect the disarray and the pathetic conditions of the ruling classes and society they try to scathe and exploit. Like Pakistan, their putrescence lies in their origins.

The All Pakistan Progressive Youth Alliance, Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) and BNT (Unemployed Youth Movement) organized countrywide protests against the target killing of political activists and state terrorism in Balochistan.

The workers of federal hospital are protesting against the new service structure (CHPS) which is a form of privatization. The hospitals include Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences PIMS, Poly Clinic Hospital and National Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine.

It is not ruled out that if the democratic facade of imperialism creates a crisis that threatens to unravel the economic system, the imperialist bosses would not hesitate to revert back to military dictatorship.

One of the most extraordinary features of human psychology is adaptation. The tolerance of the masses is being tested to the extreme. Every passing day the grim social scenario becomes even gloomier. The masses are seething with anger and revolt against the sharply rising prices, unemployment, poverty, energy shortages and misery. Apart from the rhetoric from right-wing populism, they are presented with no real choice to put an end to this agonising situation. The vacillating petit bourgeoisie in its characteristic haste and impatience goes for this populism but will revert back in the same manner. The mass movement is yet to explode. And the working classes will

On 17^th January, the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign organized a historic Labour convention and a protest rally in Islamabad. More than 300 trade union activists, students, political workers, women and youth from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Taxila-Wah, Abbottabad and surrounding areas participated in the convention.

A marvellous rally attended by thousands of workers was organized by the Mazdoor Action Committee (Workers’ Action Committee) against the unannounced load shedding of gas and electricity. The decision to organise a rally and protest was taken previously by the Workers’ Action Committee.

Forty years ago last month [16 December 1971] Dhaka fell. The laying down of arms by the Pakistan Army to the Indian Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh Aurora was the biggest military surrender in post-Second World War history. It was in the period when a revolutionary storm swept across the planet in the years 1967-74.

Even by Pakistani standards the turbulence taking place in the state and society is exceptional. The economy is floundering and forecasts by the experts are bleak and scary. It is not without reason that the economy is hardly discussed in the media networks and amongst the dominant intelligentsia. The experts and the strategists running the economy do not have a clue how to come out of this mess. To be honest, it is not their fault. The prevalent capitalist economic system has reached a state where it is incapable of achieving, never mind maintaining, a steady growth rate or enhancing production.

The year 2011 was perhaps the most turbulent year in recent history. The Arab Spring, the European Summer and the American Fall were an upheaval that traversed the planet. For the first time in history there were demonstrations in more than 900 cities across the world in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US. The main cause that triggered this massive response of the workers and youth throughout the world was the eruption of a rebellion in the very womb of imperialism.

The world’s attention is once again focused on North Korea. This is not due to a new nuclear test, imperialist saber-rattling, or a military clash with South Korea along the world’s most militarized border. This time, the reason is potentially even more explosive: the death of Kim Jong-il.