Covid-19 has shown how much we miss a powerful workers movement.

by Aasim Sajjad Akhtar When Mashal Khan was brutally lynched four years ago, the Tehrik-e-Labbaik-Pakistan (TLP) was still a relatively new and unknown force. As we remember Mashal today, the TLP has dramatically become Pakistan’s most powerful Islamist group, with unmatched mobilizational capacity. TLP activists block roads in various cities of Punjab, Sindh and KP to protest detention of their …

By Amir Roshan A massive protest joined by mourners on the occasion of Chehlum of the martyrs of Karbala at Aliabad Hunza on October 8. Photo by Ali Ahmed As the sit-in and protests for the release of Awami Workers Party (AWP) leaders Baba Jan, Aleem Ahmed, Iftikhar Karbalai, and 11 other imprisoned comrades continue, more people pour into Aliabad …

Leaders of AWP, other parties have condemned the brutal murder of Professor Naeemuddin Khattak, a progressive academic in broad daylight in Peshawar and expressed solidarity with his family. AWP deputy secretary Ismat Shahjehan, Usman Gujjar, Sher Rehman, Sayed Alam offer condolences to Shahab Khattak on the tragic death of his elder brother Prof Naeemuddin Khattak. The noted teacher was shot …

The team is there to re-measure the height of Everest, which is on the two countries’ border A team of Chinese surveyors have scaled Mount Everest, becoming the only climbers to summit the world’s highest peak during the coronavirus pandemic. Chinese media report the team is there to re-measure the height of Everest, which is on the two countries’ border. …

AWP observes two-day mourning. CPIM, PWA, PMA and others pay homage to the oldest beacon of Left Movement by Herald Special Correspondent TOBA TEK SINGH/Islamabad: Veteran socialist leader and founding member of the Awami Workers Party Chaudhry Fateh Mohammed, the oldest beacon of Left and peasant movement goes out. Draped in the party’s red and white flag, he was laid to …

There was an uncanny similarity between the lives of Pushkin and Manto, writes Raza Naeem. Both were largely unrecognised in their own lifetimes, despite believing unapologetically in their own greatness, achieving immortality only after death   Herald Report On May 11, Google celebrated the 108th birthday of renowned short story writer Saadat Hasan Manto with a doodle. Saadat Hasan Manto was …

By Lorenzo Alfano Antonio Gramsci died on April 27, 1937, after eleven years in fascist prisons. We remember his revolutionary life and his contributions to the struggle against capitalism. It’s late at night on Turin’s Via dell’Arcivescovado. A man with a Southern accent shows up at L’Ordine Nuovo’s office, insisting on speaking with the lead editor. For L’Ordine Nuovo is not only the workers’ …

The inspirational senator’s youth-led movement pushed for sweeping social change but fell far behind Joe Biden in a bid for the nomination, writes Lauren Gambino, in The Guardian.   Bernie Sanders, the 78-year-old senator from Vermont who reshaped American politics with his youth-led movement for sweeping social change, announced on Wednesday that he was ending his presidential campaign for the 2020 Democratic …

History remains the slave of victors only when people internalize the master’s version of history. History can be salvaged, retrieved and appropriated through multiple and even in mundane sources not necessarily sublime one, writes Aziz Ali Dad. By Aziz Ali Dad History is an enigmatic discipline because it deals with events of the past but its understanding tends to change …

The AWP leader’s sister has written an open letter to the CM about a ban on family members’ visit to jail and violation of prisoner’s rights   Herald Special Correspondent   Family members of Baba Jan, a political prisoner serving a life term at Damas jail in Ghizer District of Gilgit-Baltistan, have complained against new restrictions on the prisoner, drawing …

The artist took photography as seriously as painting By Celia Stahr Frida Kahlo, like her father, used photographic images—often with written words accompanying them—much the way she used painted images: as a repository for her profound and sincere emotions and ideas. When Frida was in San Francisco she continued this photographic tradition. The calculated image she projected for the camera was intended …

  by Farhatullah Babar   The death of comrade Dr Yasrab Tanvir Gondal, popularly known as Lal Khan for his Marxist views, last Friday is an occasion to reflect on the politics of the Left in Pakistan. Son of an army colonel from Chakwal, Lal Khan was the author of over a dozen books. including Partition – Can it be Undone? He was …

Hong Kong, Lebanon, Sudan, Brazil and Colombia are witnessing similar movements.   by Alka Kurian Women are among the strongest opponents of India’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens, which threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims, poor women, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people. The Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for undocumented refugees from …

What does it mean to be a comrade today? What unfulfilled desire, what future promise, does it hold? By AYYAZ MALLICK  Bekari-e-junoon ko hai sar peetne ka shughal Jab haath hi toot jaein tou phir kiya kare koi Husn-e-farogh-e-sham’a-e-sukhan duur hai Asad Pehle dil-e-gudaakhta paida kare koi Passion, now eclipsed, is indulgent in self-flagellation With the hands amputated, is there else …