Asia – Peter Taaffe from the CWI International Secretariat recently toured several countries in Asia. In tsunami-stricken Sri Lanka, Peter visited the CWI’s Sri Lankan section, the United Socialist Party (USP). The USP is organizing tsunami victims to struggle for worker and community control of tsunami relief. The USP is also organizing for working-class unity across ethnic, religious, and language lines.

In Malaysia, Peter met with the Socialist Party of Malaysia. The CWI is discussing collaboration with this group. Peter spoke to them about the world situation, the politics of the CWI, and the practical work of the party in Malaysia.

In Pakistan, Peter visited the newly formed Pakistani Socialist Movement (PSM), a new section of the CWI. The PSM is growing rapidly both in membership and influence.

Ireland – In Ireland, the construction company GAMA has been heavily exploiting workers brought in from Turkey. They are paid extremely low wages, and the GAMA executives even put a portion of these workers’ wages into a secret account in an Amsterdam bank.

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party (CWI’s Irish section) member of parliament, exposed the GAMA scam to steal workers’ wages. He threatened to bring the Turkish GAMA workers to Amsterdam to ask for their money. GAMA gave in and faxed the account information to workers’ leaders.