International

In 2008 the people of Pakistan voted
into office the PPP, hoping that this would bring genuine change, i.e. a
real improvement in their living conditions. Instead we have a
worsening economic situation, real suffering of the millions of poor,
and warfare killing many innocent civilians. Meanwhile the PPP
leadership is busying itself applying the IMF-imposed policies of cuts
and privatisations. In these conditions it is not surprising that many
are asking themselves what democracy has meant for them.

The eurozone countries in particular are caught in a vice. After the
binge comes the hang-over. The Common Market was set up to develop a
European-wide market as a means of overcoming the narrow constraints of
the
nation state.

The world economy is gradually emerging from the biggest economic crisis
since the 1930s. In Britain last year we saw the biggest fall in
economic
output in any single year since 1921. Now there are signs of a slow
painful
recovery. However, there will be no return to “normality”. The crisis
marks the
end of an epoch economically and politically. We are now entering the
age of
austerity.

After eight years of war in
Afghanistan, the inability of Western imperialism to quell the
insurgency has entered into a period of crisis. Cracks and divisions
within the central government are becoming more and more critical as
the military and political situation becomes ever more unstable. Major
conflicts within Afghanistan’s Western-backed ruling clique were first
brought to a head in August during the presidential elections. The
accusations of fraud have left Karzai’s grip on power extremely
strained and have left Karzai wondering whether the NATO mission is more
hindrance than help.

The recent death of Eugene Terre
Blanche, leader of the AWB (Afrikaner Resistance Movement), at the
hands of two farm workers, has highlighted the situation that exists
today in South Africa, on the one hand the many unresolved problems of
the huge majority of black workers and poor, and on the other a
minority within the white population who cannot reconcile themselves to
the end of Apartheid, upon which their privileges depended.

The government of Kyrgyzstan has
fallen! According to reports this morning President Kurmanbek Bakiyev,
who opened fire on his own people, has fled. The government has been
dissolved and opposition forces have begun to assume power. Yesterday
www.marxist.com
received a report from a comrade in Russia, which gives a graphic
account of these events.