As the world reels between escalating wars and economic stagnation, the Chinese masses are also suffering from the consequences of these developments.

‘Marxist-leaning president wins Sri Lanka’s elections’: this is how the result of the country’s presidential elections on the weekend have been reported in the international press. The headlines are incorrect, but the facts are sensational enough.

Two years ago, the world bore witness to extraordinary events in Sri Lanka. On 9 July 2022, the Sri Lankan masses swept aside the heavy cordon of police outside the presidential palace as if it was little more than a cobweb. To the astonishment of the world, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had to flee in a panic.

In the past weeks, the ruling party of Vietnam, the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) experienced a sudden change of leadership after the death of its aging General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng on 19 July. Trọng had been the de facto supreme leader of the country for 13 years, and oversaw a process of concentrating power in the state and in his person, not unlike the process in China around Xi Jinping. What is the significance of this post being passed on to Tô Lâm, the President? How will all this affect the perspectives of Vietnam and its class struggle moving forward?

On 24 August 2024, the Revolutionary Communist International’s group in Taiwan ‘The Spark’ held a public meeting entitled “Proletarian Class Struggle 2024” in Taipei. A total of 13 people were in attendance, seven already organised as communists. Attendees came not only from Taipei, but travelled from all across the country to participate.

The Malaysian ‘unity’ government, under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim, has now been in power for nearly two years. The watchword of Anwar and Pakatan Harapan (PH), the largest coalition in parliament, has been reformasi – cleaning up corruption in politics, ‘strengthening democracy’, and promising a ‘humane’ economy that ‘prioritises the needs of the people’.

On the morning of Thursday 22 August, upon learning that parliament planned to change an election law to the benefit of President Jokowi’s youngest son, tens of thousands of youths took to the streets and stormed parliament. 

Between 9 and 12 August, the Revolutionary Communist Party in Pakistan organised their first country-wide three-day ‘Communist School’ in Rawalakot, ‘Azad’ (‘free’) Kashmir, with 350 students, workers, farmers and youth attending.

The revolutionary overthrow of the Hasina regime, sparked by the students and their courageous protests, have opened the floodgates for a fresh wave of class struggle in Bangladesh. The revolution surges forward!

On Sunday 18 August, 13 days after Bangladesh’s dictator Sheikh Hasina fell, the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI) held an online discussion to celebrate this victory and to offer a communist perspective and programme. The first phase of the revolution is over. Now it is necessary to complete the revolution! We include the recording of that discussion here.

The revolution in Bangladesh has scored its first victories – but it is incomplete! This Sunday, the Revolutionary Communist International is hosting a meeting to which all are invited. We will be discussing the revolutionary communist perspective, how the revolution can advance, and why you should organise with us if you agree. The speakers will include Fiona Lali; student activists directly involved in the struggle in Bangladesh; and leading comrades from the Revolutionary Communist International and the Inqalabi Communist Party in Pakistan.

Amidst the pomp and pageantry of Independence Day, a furious protest movement following the rape and murder of a young medic tells the real story of Modi’s India. The Revolutionary Communists of India (RC(I)) demand justice – for the victim of this heinous crime as well as allwho suffer under capitalism, which poisons human relations and subjects billions to oppression, violence and misery.

Since the revolutionary tide swept away Sheikh Hasina one week ago, the masses, led by the students, have continued to mobilise. Committees have been expanding across the country – especially, but not exclusively, among the students. In many places they have displaced the functions of the state. The ruling class is suspended in midair. A kind of dual power exists. But the revolution now faces new dangers – not only of conspiracies by the deposed Awami League, which continue, but of confusion as to the direction of travel.

Today, Bangladesh is glowing with the white heat of revolution. The masses have once more entered the arena of struggle. They are rediscovering a rich revolutionary tradition that goes back decades. Really, the tasks of this revolution are the unfinished tasks of an unfinished revolution, which began more than fifty years ago and culminated in the War of Independence against the domination of Pakistan in 1971. Learning the lessons of that period is vital to not only understanding the present, but to ensuring that the revolutionary struggle today is carried forward to victory.

Last week Talha Mahmud Chowdhury, a student and supporter of the Revolutionary Communist International, was abducted by members of the Chhatra League, the thugs of Hasina’s Awami League, and imprisoned on serious, trumped-up charges of attempted murder and vandalism. Today we received the news that, following the fall of Hasina’s regime, he is expected to be released tomorrow.