We publish here the first part of a draft document which will be discussed at the World Congress of the International Marxist Tendency this summer. The aim of this document, originally drafted in October 2015, is to outline the main economic, social and political trends in the world today and to develop a perspective for the class struggle in the period ahead.

This Easter Sunday, an official state ceremony was held in Dublin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The officials present represent a class that did not support the Rising in 1916, but who now wish to present themselves as heirs to that heroic struggle. Alan Woods exposes the utter hypocrisy of these people and recalls what the Rising was really about.

On the evening of Sunday 28th March, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a children’s park in Lahore, Pakistan. At least 72 deaths have so far been confirmed and more than 250 are reported injured. This is yet another in the series of terrorist attacks continuing in this “land of the pure” in recent years.