In Britain, a handful of super-rich plutocrats control our lives. On a world scale, according to Oxfam, a mere 85 top billionaires, who could all comfortably fit into a double-decker bus, own more wealth than half of the world’s population put together. Rob Sewell, editor of Socialist Appeal, looks at the obscene levels of inequality under capitalism.

We are publishing here the latest analysis of the world situation by the International Marxist Tendency. In this first part, we look at the world economic situation and discuss the global crisis of capitalism – the deepest crisis in the history of capitalism. This forms the background to the political and social situation, which has developed to revolutionary proportions worldwide.

We publish here a short obituary to Pete Seeger, the American folk singer and activist, who sadly passed away last week on 27th January at the age of 94. Seeger was a decent man who suffered disgraceful harassment at the hands of the US establishment throughout the 1950s and 1960s.