Asia

The state has clamped down on protests, sweeping arrests have been made and are still being made. Hundreds across Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) are arrested, with many still unaccounted for. Mobile services and communications are blocked or suspended in many parts, amidst heavy policing. The JAAC has been deemed as engaging in ‘terrorism’, at least a hundred and fifty of their leaders are being held in preventive detention. The scenes are not unlike Indian-occupied Kashmir in the aftermath of Article 370’s repeal.

Throughout history, Armenia has been a fault line and a battlefield between East and West. Today, it remains a frontier between Western imperialism, centered on the US and the EU, and the emerging imperialist bloc in the East led by the Russia–China alliance. The liberation of the working class of Armenia and the Caucasus lies neither in the chauvinism of the old oligarchs who lean on Russia’s military and economic power, nor in Pashinyan’s pro-Western authoritarian liberalism, which presents the transformation of Armenia into a potential battlefield for the EU and NATO against Russia and Iran as a promise.

In this first fight, the political fault lines of the state have become clear. The TMC continues to wither away to dust, leaving the opposition space to the Stalinist parties, which maintain some grassroots support and organization, not enough to dislodge the BJP but still challenge it on the streets. The evictions have also made it clear that the BJP’s agenda is one of destruction. They seek to destroy the livelihoods of most of West Bengal’s poor, they are steadily clearing the way for their oligarch friends to take over the state’s economy, while crushing any opposition that stands in the way.

Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PAK) has witnessed increasing unrest since the beginning of the month. The people have been protesting against the reservation of 12 seats along with 37 other demands. Police firing on the demonstrators resulted in the killing of 15 persons and the injuring of 200 others. The Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), which has been leading the protests, was banned by the government under anti-terrorism laws on June 5, claiming that the group "engaged in terrorism." The popular demand touches the core issue of how Islamabad has governed the territory it calls "Azad" or "free" Kashmir.

The most violent episode in the current crisis occurred on June 7, 2026, after protesters organized a funeral (of a activist of JAAC was killed by security forces) and were protesting peacefully, using the funeral gathering as a platform to demand justice and the implementation of their rights. The funeral was transformed into a scene of bloodshed outside the Combined Military Hospital in Rawalakot. In a move that has drawn widespread condemnation, security personnel opened fire and resorted to shelling against the unarmed mourners. According to the JAAC's official account, at least 27 protesters were killed during the operation, while several others sustained serious injuries. Some local sources have suggested that the death toll could be over 100. it is fact by those were present that approximately 110 locals were detained from the hospital premises and that several people remain missing following the security operation. Authorities have been accused of taking custody of the bodies of deceased protesters, preventing families from performing last rites and further deepening the trauma inflicted upon the community.

For the first time in its history, the BJP has won the state elections of West Bengal, a state where until 2016, it did not control a single assembly seat. Not only did the BJP win the elections, it swept the polls securing 208 seats in the assembly of 294 seats, with a vote share of over 45% of all votes polled. The unprecedented rise of the BJP appears to defy all logic and the unique history of the state, yet this reality is rooted in the political developments in India and West Bengal since 2014. The BJP’s victory in West Bengal was not an overnight or sudden phenomenon but years in the making, with certain key events propelling these changes forward. The consequences of this victory are yet to be fully seen, but we may get a hint of what’s to come from statements made by BJP ministers, supporters and the actions of BJP cadres on the ground.

The meeting underscores what a segment of the global left denies: the Trump-Xi Jinping summit is a meeting between the world’s two leading imperialist powers. And this is far more significant than Trump’s last visit, during his first term.

Every year on May 1st, International Workers' Day is observed around the world. It is not merely a holiday to respect labor; rather, it is a day of remembrance of struggle and revolutionary resolve – the bloodiest chapter in the working class's struggle against the capitalist system. Pakistan is a textbook example of capitalist exploitation. The conditions of the working class here are barbaric.

It had been only a few months back that the contract workers of Indian Oil Company had revolted in a wildcat strike. They were protesting the conditions of work for contract workers. The uprising inspired petro chemical workers in Surat where the same conditions were replicated. Now, the fire spreads from Panipat in Haryana to the streets of Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Noida is the so-called Millenium city of India, a poster child for neo-liberal growth. The militant protests of workers have made non-sense of this illusion of neo-liberal capitalist development.

Pakistan’s role as an international mediator is not a sign of structural change, but a reconfiguration within the same system. The state uses its geographic position to enhance its relevance among competing global powers while managing internal instability. This external role is transformed into an ideological narrative domestically. State media and official discourse present Pakistan as an emerging global actor and an indispensable force for peace. At a time when the population faces inflation, unemployment, and severe economic pressure alongside repression, this narrative functions as a substitute form of hope—that international recognition is improving and future conditions will become better.

As Afghanistan and Pakistan slip into war, nationalism now dominates political discourse. The Pakistani elite accuses Afghan leadership of harboring terrorism, while Afghan authorities speak of sovereignty. Yet on both sides, structural violence is ignored: unemployment, extremely weak public services (education and health sectors among the lowest state expenditures), and militarized politics that channel vast resources into destruction instead of social investment.

The protests stands as one of the largest single action by workers anywhere in India. These are contract workers, many of whom come from rural regions of Bihar and North India, they come for a better life to Haryana. Their labour built up one of India’s fastest growing industrial regions. Yet, for their sacrifices, they aren’t given the basic respect of a regular pay.

There has been a general strike almost every year since the year 2010, yet the Indian capitalist class has grown only bolder in its attacks on the working class. It is important to understand why this contradiction exists, and to understand the general strike in context.

The 19th of February 2026 would mark the 80th anniversary of the naval mutiny, the event which shook the British Raj to its core and made British rule in India impossible. The uprising of the mutinying naval ratings of the British Indian Navy was not one isolated incident, it was the culmination of the rising class consciousness of the people of India, and it was the culmination of the growth of class struggle in British India.

Pakistan's participation in the US-led "War on Terror" has only resulted in more terrorism in Pakistan as the state itself becomes more and more violent

Reducing the Balochistan attacks this month to mere “security failures” or blaming them solely on “foreign conspiracies” is not only superficial but deliberately misleading. Violence in Balochistan did not emerge in a vacuum. It is the direct outcome of a colonial, class-based, and authoritarian state structure imposed on the region for decades.