Comrade Riaz Lund, a leading member of the Pakistan section of the IMT and well-known class fighter in Karachi, has been shot in cold blood by assassins. In a cowardly and brutal assault, he was hit three times, twice in the stomach and once in the chest. We publish here statements by Alan Woods and the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) calling for solidarity against this horrific attack.

The main outcome of the recent NATO summit was decision to launch a new ‘spearhead’ rapid response task force. This ‘achievement’ is something that NATO’s political and military leaders seem to be very proud about. In reality this new project is yet another landmark in the weakening of US imperialism, the crisis in world relations and the decline of the global capitalist system as a whole.

As politicans from across the world met at the NATO summit in Wales, the crisis in Ukraine saw an escalation in rhetoric. The same people who told us about Saddam’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” are now raising a hue and cry about thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Russian troops having invaded Ukraine and are demanding swift action to counter them.