International

Afghan women and girls are defying Taliban efforts to render them silent and invisible. They are out on the streets, braving Taliban whips and tasers and bullets, protesting the moves to roll-back their freedoms and rights.

The reforms agenda got going since 1978, but it really took off in 1980–81, when two of Deng’s close comrades came to the helm -- Zhao Ziyang became Prime Minister and Hu Yaobang replaced Hua Guofeng as the Party General Secretary .

“Mao repeatedly pointed out that the contradiction between capitalism and socialism is far from resolved. This struggle will go on for many years to come, may be a few hundred years, and thus the question who will win is yet to be resolved. Soviet leadership claimed that socialism can only grow into developed socialism and then into communism. Mao said no, this is wrong. This was yet another major contribution of Mao in the field of Marxist philosophy and theory.

The arrest of former President Jacob Zuma on the charges of corruption has resulted in a wave of violence and unrest in South Africa. What is even more concerning is the fact that the violence has resulted in increased ethnic tensions in a country where apartheid was ended less than 30 years ago. This has led to divisions regarding the fundamental cause of the violence as well as what responses should be given to it.

Bangladesh’s economic growth has been branded a miracle in South Asia, growing from one of the poorest countries in the world to one of the fastest developing economies comparable to the ‘Asian Tigers’. Recently the per-capita income of Bangladesh surpassed that of India. Much of this growth has been driven by export in garments. However much of the working class has been deprived off the benefits of its own labour as the recent factory fire in Narayanganj demonstrated.

The recent elections in the Latin American country of Peru witnessed a historic mandate for the revival of the Left and against the right-wing neoliberal forces and the Washington Consensus.

- CPIML Statement