Nirmala Rajasingam is an organiser with the Movement for People’s Struggle Sri Lanka (UK) which has been organising protests in London in solidarity with the Sri Lankan people, and a long-term activist with South Asia Solidarity Group.

Can you give a very brief overview of the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, its causes and the kinds of effects it has had on different sections of working people?

On 17 September, hundreds of masked and hooded men, some with weapons, marched through a largely Muslim area of Leicester, UK, shouting the slogan of ‘Jai Shri Ram!’ which, as everyone in the UK’s South Asian communities knows, is used in India by the RSS foot soldiers as they attack Muslims.

Massive protests have erupted in Iran against the custodial death of 22 year old women Mahsa Amini. Masha was detained by Iran’s “morality police” enforcing strict hijab rules on September 13th 2022 while she was on her way to Tehran. She was beaten up brutally and was taken to notorious ‘Vozara’ detention centre for schooling over the ’justification and education’ about hijab. She died on 16th September 2022.

On August 5th, 2022, the Israeli Occupation Forces launched a brutal military aggression in besieged Gaza leading to the massacre of 49 Palestinians, including 17 children. More than 200 people were injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed in the attack. Gaza, which faces a decade-long land-sea-air blockade, is at the verge of a severe humanitarian catastrophe. The 11-day long Israeli massacre campaign in Gaza in May 2021 had further exacerbated the already dilapidated humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Tyler Daguerre is a 26-year-old area organizer and barista in Boston. His Starbucks store became one of the first two stores to win their union election in Massachusetts. He serves on the organizing committee for his store as well as is involved at the regional and national level in the Starbucks workers’ movement. He focuses mostly on unfair labor practices, outreach, and community solidarity-building.

CPIML Liberation is deeply grieved by the news of death and destruction caused by a powerful earthquake in Eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday morning. According to reports, more than 1000 people have been killed in the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that struck near the city of Khost.

A hacker has exposed a trove of police files relating to China’s “re-education camps” for Uyghur people. These files conclusively disprove China’s attempts to showcase the camps to journalists as mere “re-education camps”. The files show thousands of haunting photos of incarcerated Uyghurs, including those of elderly people and children, whose crimes include “studying Quran with grandmother”, “growing beard” and so on. The youngest prisoner is a 15-year-old girl.

Last year, in 2021, the Latin American country of Colombia witnessed wave of mass uprising against the right-wing government of Iván Duque. The Duque government, riding on neoliberal policies, had introduced a series of anti-people measures including cuts in social security and privatization of healthcare. The brutal state repression against the striking workers, students, and indigenous population in April-June 2021 led to the death of over 80 people, and around 2000 arbitrary detentions.  

The island nation of Sri Lanka is swept by a relentless wave of people’s anger. Faced with the most severe economic crisis since its independence, Sri Lanka is witnessing a complete shortage of all essential commodities. Long queues for essential items have become the everyday reality for people in Sri Lanka, so has the mass mobilization by the people against those responsible for the current crisis.

The result of the May 8 presidential elections in the Philippines was an unimaginable tragedy for many who survived the decade long brutal dictatorship regime of Ferdinand Marcos (Marcos Sr). Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr or simply known as Marcos Jr, son of Marcos Sr managed to win the elections by securing nearly 30 million votes in his favor. He received backing from the outgoing authoritarian regime of Rodrigo Duterte through his daughter Sara Duterte who has been elected as the vice president.