English

Protests have once again erupted across Indonesia as students and workers confront rising living costs, austerity, militarisation, and the contradictions of the Prabowo government. This article examines the social and economic forces driving the unrest, situates them within the broader crisis of Indonesian and global capitalism, and argues that lasting change requires more than replacing governments. It makes the case for international working-class solidarity and the building of socialist organisations capable of transforming society.

Around 120 workers, the majority from Bangladesh, have raised collective grievances concerning unpaid wages, employment conditions, passports, recruitment-related debts, welfare, and immigration insecurity. Workers reported that they had not received wages for three months, while around 35 workers were affected by concerns over visa or PLKS renewal.

The harrowing rise of scam slavery in Southeast Asia, where hundreds of thousands are trafficked or baited into fortified compounds to conduct forced digital fraud under the threat of torture and death, is not a criminal anomaly, but a symptom of global capitalism in deep decay, fueled especially by a glut of Chinese capital and its intensifying exploitation of a growingly desperate surplus labor force from all over the world.

Reject the racist scapegoating of Rohingya refugees. Defend the stateless and oppressed, demand legal rights and protection, and unite Malaysian, migrant and refugee workers against exploitation, division and capitalist inequality.

A Marxist review of Jeyakumar Devaraj’s Malaysia at the Crossroads, examining PSM’s method, reformism, coalition politics, class independence, and the need for a revolutionary socialist alternative in Malaysia.

Socialist Alternative held its first public discussion at our new organising centre, examining Reformasi’s dead end and the urgent need to build an independent working-class alternative.

Bersama presents itself as a fresh alternative, but beneath its reformasi rhetoric lies the same capitalist politics that have failed workers and youth for decades. As Malaysia’s political crisis deepens, this article argues that only an independent socialist working-class movement can offer a genuine alternative.

In this year’s International Workers’ Day, the global working class is facing a deepening crisis of capitalism alongside escalating geopolitical tensions. Wars and armed conflicts continue to spread from Palestine, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Myanmar, while the threat of a wider world war is becoming increasingly real through the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Millions of workers and poor people have become victims of war, forced displacement, famine and worsening poverty. At the same time, the cost-of-living crisis, attacks on workers’ rights, unemployment, debt crises and austerity policies continue to burden the lives of ordinary people in almost every country today.

Between 2015 and 2025, Malaysia witnessed a staggering 17,609 reported rape cases — an average of five rape reports every single day… Only 7,090 of these cases, or roughly 40%, resulted in charges being filed… in an earlier decade only about 16% of reported rape cases were taken to court and only about 2.7% resulted in convictions… formal figures greatly understate the reality because many victims never file reports at all… only around 10% of rape incidents ever reach law enforcement, consistent with about 8–11% globally… Most crucially, a study of 304 sexual assault survivors… found that a large majority (about 76%) of victims were from a low socio‑economic class… Lower‑income individuals often have fewer resources, less social support, weaker bargaining power within households, and reduced access to protective services or legal recourse — all of which materially condition their exposure to violence.

We, the socialist, labour, and youth organisations endorsing this statement, demand that the Malaysian government, particularly the Department of Industrial Relations and the Department of Labour, take action to resolve the crisis faced by Bangladeshi workers who have been exploited and oppressed under the management of local agents and Malaysian companies. We also call on the Government of Bangladesh, especially the Ministry of Expatriates’ Welfare and Overseas Employment, to urgently act on the official appeal submitted by the Mediceram Workers’ Committee on 6 November 2025, which demands investigation, compensation, and justice.