By Farooq Tariq
August 29, 2010 -- A multi-party conference in Lahore has decided to campaign for cancellation of Pakistan's crippling foreign debt and to organise mass rallies in Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad. The first rally will be on September 2 in Islamabad.
The Labour Relief Campaign in association with Oxfam Pakistan called the conference on August 29, in Lahore, to discuss the issue of debt repayment in the post-flood scenario. It was chaired by Aman Kariaper and Ammar Ali Jan. Senator Hasil Bezinjo vowed to take the issue to Pakistan's Senate and present a resolution to demand that government refuse to pay the foreign debt.

By Sonny Melencio, Partido Lakas ng Masa
August 28, 2010 -- The Philippines Partido Lakas ng Masa (Party of the Labouring Masses) commiserates with the families of the eight Chinese nationals killed in the tour-bus hijacking in Manila on August 23. The blunders of the Philippines police and officials in the hijacking crisis, which led to the deaths of the eight tourists, are indefensible from many aspects.

By Tony Iltis, Green Left Weekly
August 29, 2010 -- With floods caused by the heaviest ever recorded rainfall sweep down the Indus River toward the Arabian Sea, a fifth of Pakistan was under water by late August.
More than 16,000 people have been killed and 20 million displaced. The death toll is likely to rise due to hunger and disease. Food insecurity and malnutrition were endemic in Pakistan before the catastrophe.

[Image: Dongria Kondh protest against Vedanta Resources, Niyamgiri, India. Credit: © Survival.]
From Intercontinental Cry
August 26, 2010 -- After eight long years of protests and legal battles, India’s Ministry of Environment and Forests has rejected Vedanta Resources' controversial plan to mine for Bauxite on the Dongria Kondh's Sacred Mountain in Orissa, India.
Environment minister Jairam Ramesh announced on August 24 that the proposal was being dropped was because the UK-based company and their partner, the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, has extensively violated state and federal laws including the Forest Conservation Act (FCA), the Forest Rights Act (FRA), the Environment Protection Act (EPA) and the Orissa Forest Act.

By Reihana Mohideen, Socialist Feminist
August 25, 2010 -- Most Filipinos are shocked and angry at the outcome of the hostage taking and believe that the authorities bungled the operations, thus costing the lives of the seven tourists from Hong Kong. But then most Filipinos are a compassionate people who also feel a sense of responsibility and even duty towards their fellow human beings. Unfortunately, such humane values are not emblematic of the state institutions in this country – the law enforcement agencies and other government institutions, legislative and executive.

By the Labour Party Pakistan (Karachi) and the National Trade Union Federation
August 20, 2010 -- The recent floods represent the worst disaster in Pakistan’s history. The country has been devastated from the northern areas to its southern tip. The state, stripped of its capacity to meet peoples’ needs by neoliberalism and militarism alike, has been found wanting—both in its longstanding failure to maintain existing infrastructure, and in its response to the calamity.
The grassroots relief efforts that have emerged across the country are heartening, but a crisis of this magnitude can only be handled by an institution with the resources and reach of the federal government. As in all disasters, the assistance of the military will be necessary—but this must be subject to civilian oversight, and must not be exploited to glorify the army at the expense of the government. The military’s relative strength is a direct legacy of pro-amy federal budgets, and we remember too well the failures of the Musharraf government in 2005.

August 20, 2010 -- A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
PAKISTAN: Minister tasked with saving US airbase at the cost of the displacement of thousands
The presence of Pakistan army personnel speaks to the fact that the breach of Jamali bypass was intentional and ordered from above.

[From Australia Asia Worker Links.]
An unprecedented industrial campaign by workers in the garment industry that saw the monthly minimum wage increased from US$25 to US$43 is continuing.
Millions of workers are still on strike demanding the minimum wage be increased to US$73 a month, as well as improvements in a series of other conditions.

Press statement by the International Campaign for Justice for Bhopal
August 18, 2010 -- At a time when the world is focused on corporate accountability in the wake of the BP's Gulf Oil Spill, a leaked email from the Obama administration shows that it values profit over people, when the profit benefits American corporations. The victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster were disappointed to see today that the White House is not pursuing the same levels of accountability from American Dow Chemical as it has from BP. When Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, the corporation acquired outstanding liability for the ongoing disaster in Bhopal, which has led to the deaths of an estimated 25,000 people in Bhopal, India following the 1984 Gas Disaster.