Asia
Malaysia: Bicycle protesters for workers' rights defy police intimidation
Cycle protesters in Penang, December 5
By Oppressed People’s Movement (Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas, Jerit)
December 6, 2008 -- The Oppressed People’s Movement (Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas, Jerit) is conducting a cycling campaign throughout Malaysia to highlight demands for workers' right, which will be presented to the prime minister of Malaysia. The campaign officially began on December 3 at Wisma Darul Aman Kedah, where 50 cyclists were flagged off. They will cycle for 16 days through Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor. On December 18, they will hand a memorandum to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, at the national parliament in Kuala Lumpur.
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist): The differences of opinion within our party
By Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplap’
Thailand und der Coup für die Reichen
Von Giles Ji Ungpakorn.
Indonesia: Activists debate electoral tactic

Indonesia: Tracing a path towards parliament
By
Thailand: A second `coup for the rich'

By Giles Ji Ungpakorn, Bangkok
December 2, 2008 -- Today the constitutional court dissolved the democratically elected governing party, the People Power Party, in Thailand for the second time, forcing the government to resign. This follows the refusal of the armed forces and the police to follow government instructions to clear the two international airports blocked by armed People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) fascists. [The constitutional court dissolved Thailand's top three ruling parties for electoral fraud in the 2007 election that brought them to power. Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat has been banned from politics for five years.]
Socialist Party of Malaysia: The left in coalition politics (+ interview with PSM MP)

By Jeyakumar Devaraj
November 8, 2008 -- Ever since the First International, building and working within coalitions with other groups has been one of the strategies used by the left to attempt to advance its political agenda. This practice has continued up until the present.
However the strategy of working in coalitions with other groups has, fairly often, led to controversy, disagreements and even acrimonious splits, both of the coalitions as well as within the left parties involved themselves.
Why does this happen? Is the strategy of coalition work worth the effort and trouble? What are the benefits of coalition building? What are measures a socialist party can take to avoid some of the negative consequences of coalition political work?
Let's party in "Get up! Stand up! Stand up for your rights!" Human Rights Concert
in conjunction with 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights!
Date: 13 December 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 3.00pm – 6.00pm
Venue: KLSCAH-MCPA Hall
Making the world's poor pay: The economic crisis and the Global South
[This article is available in Spanish: ‘Que pagu
China and the global capitalist economic meltdown
By Peter Boyle
Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) -- As the US, Japan and Europe slide into recession, the leaders of many smaller countries are desperately hoping that continued strong growth in the Chinese economy, which has contributed about 15 per cent of world economic growth in recent years, might save them from this meltdown.
