The global microchip shortage has shed light on the retreat from globalisation across the world. The scramble to re-shore industries can only intensify the crisis of capitalism. The only way out is international co-operation and socialist planning.

Capitalist governments the world over are exploiting of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to curb civil liberties and clamp down on dissent. It is vital that the workers’ organisations fight back to defend these basic democratic rights.

Loyalist rioting in the North of Ireland has raised fears of a return to ‘The Troubles’. This sectarianism is a Frankenstein’s Monster of British imperialism’s creation. Only a united class struggle for socialism can offer a way forward.