The statistics and facts reveal a clear trend: over the past 30 years workers are taking a smaller slice of the economic output in society. Conversely, there has been an accelerating increase of the concentration of wealth at the top. Darrall Cozens discussed this growing inequality and presents a motion from the Coventry Trades Council that calls for the leaders of labour movement to organise workers and begin the fight back against low pay, precarious jobs, and the capitalist system that give rise to these.

With recent figures indicating a small growth in the economy, a number of commentators are once again talking about the “green shoots of recovery”. But for the majority of people, this does not feel like a recovery. Unemployment is still high, and those jobs that are being created are low-waged and insecure. Matthew Wood discusses the state of the UK economy and its real effects on living standards.

When the current crisis began, there were some who painted it as simply a Western crisis; a crisis that was unique to Europe and America. The theory of a “decoupled” world economy was put forward, with the senile, crisis-ridden West on one side, and the dynamic and growing “BRICs” and “emerging” economies on the other. But now growth in the BRICs is slowing, emerging economies are facing their own crises, and this theory of decoupling is being seen for the myth that it always was.