The July 15, 2009 edition of the Japanese Ashahi Newspaper has an article pointing candidly to the underlying reason behind the recent popular riot by ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang (Ürümqi riots) and the Chinese state’s brutal suppression of it, with now nearly 200 people dead, mostly Han Chinese, and about 1500 people injured.  Among the growing underclass of largely Muslim Uyghurs, 70% of men between the age of 20s and 40s are out of work, cons

This week construction workers on London's 2012 Olympic site will protest conditions and blacklisting by construction firms on the site (details below). Meanwhile union activists attempting to monitor conditions at the site of Delhi's Commonwealth Games are finding themselves faced with repression and secrecy

Perhaps a bit of fancy footwork and a catchy show tune is the key to introducing a new generation to Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. At least that’s what He Nian, director of the upcoming musical, is anticipating for the Shanghai theatregoers. The play which is on schedule to open next year, is meant to serve as a kind of ‘edutainment’ providing the audience with amusement but also an intellectually sound interpretation of Marx’s work. Shanghaiist and The Guardian report more extensively:

Sadly the last issue of Prol-Position. This issue presents 'preliminary thoughts on the current crisis' and the editorial (reproduced here in complete form), reflects upon the global transformation of the conditions of exploitation that PP has tracked and reported on since 2005. We wish best of luck to PPers with the online 'version and any future projects

Editorial

All-too-plausible explanation from Asia Times (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/JH13Ag02.html) of Georgia's attack on South Ossetia (2,000 civilians killed and refugees made of another 30,000; a helping hand from US airlifts of 2,000 'essential' Georgian troops back from Iraq) in terms of the push to extend NATO into the Caucasus, which, as it says in the title, would 'end the post-Cold War era', permanently activating the military faultline along Russia's southwestern border and the course of the major Central Asian gas and oil pipelines.