Following a fratricidal period for the left with Morales and Arce at loggerheads, right-wing, anti-MAS candidates obtained over 85 per cent of the votes cast in the latest general election, writes FRANCISCO DOMINGUEZ
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Behind the Budget smoke and mirrors, there is only more austerity
Comparing Budget measures to fictional Tory plans rather than actual spending levels conceals continued austerity, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP, as workers face stealth tax increases to bear the cost of economic stagnation
(L to R) Rachel Reeves with the ministerial red box; Songi cartoon after Edvard Munch's The Scream
The US could imminently return to the Wild West days of widespread and sometimes violent corporate repression of workers, says MARK GRUENBERG
Thousands rallied in Tel Aviv on Saturday, against the war of extermination of Gaza, reports AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN
From training Israeli colonels during the slaughter to protecting Israel at the UN, senior British figures should fear Article 3 of the Genocide Convention that criminalises complicity in mass killing, writes IAN SINCLAIR
General secretary of the YCL GEORGINA ANDREWS looks at the priorities of her organisation, from Palestine solidarity to trade unionism and fighting privatisation at a local level, ahead of its 52nd congress
LUKE FLETCHER fleshes out Plaid Cymru's plan for the revitalisation of Wales's economy
BUDGETS are accompanied by a blizzard of documentation designed to illuminate the detail of the big fiscal events. But the real effect can be to obscure what the real thrust of policy is and what its impact is.
The confusion surrounding the October 2024 Budget is even greater than usual. Essentially, what is being discussed as a huge tax-and-spend Budget is in reality, a Budget which not only extends austerity but actually deepens it.
First, let us highlight some of the things that have happened (or not) that give the lie to the idea that this is a big tax-and-spend Budget. One striking development is that the IMF has welcomed the Budget. The IMF has never supported what might be called “Keynesian” increases in taxes and public spending; it is an institution gripped by neoliberalism. But it specifically welcomes the central aim to “reduce the deficit by raising revenues.” As we shall see, the burden of that deficit reduction will be taxes on ordinary people.
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