The revelations in the Paradise Papers detailing the offshore tax-avoiding activities of the global elite tell us what we already know: that whilst they demand austerity attacks for the vast majority, the super-rich do not pay their taxes. Ben Gliniecki looks at the latest scandal exposing the hypocrisy of the Establishment and their system.

The decision to jail eight members of the Catalan government, and to issue an arrest warrant for the Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, along with a further four members of his government, is an unprecedented and very serious violation of basic democratic rights. But, as Jorge Martin reports, this attack by the Spanish state has revived the Catalan independence movement.

As Brexit negotiations grind to a halt, big business is entering panic mode. A no deal, “train-crash” Brexit – the one scenario that capitalism wants to avoid at all costs – looms large. And caught on the tracks is Ireland, the only country that shares a land border with the UK. Ben Curry looks at the the chaotic perspective facing Ireland, in the North and the South, as a result of Brexit and the global capitalist crisis.