Six months into China’s new Politburo Standing Committee under Xi Jinping’s Presidency, it has become abundantly clear that the next ten years under his rule will not resemble the relative social stability and rapid growth of the past ten years. Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party stand at a crossroads, facing that classic dilemma of all ruling classes – either to open up to democratic reform or clamp down on growing dissent. Daniel Morley and Congyue Dai analyse the current economic, political, and social tensions in Chinese society.

Michael Noonan’s Budget 2014 will take a further €2.5bn out of the Irish economy; in other words a figure of around €600 for every man, woman and child in the state. It is evident also that as anticipated the losers are the old, the sick and the young unemployed. Tony Healy reports on the latest round of austerity in Ireland.

We publish here an article by Stamatis Karayannopoulos, member of the Communist Tendency in SYRIZA in Greece and member of the SYRIZA Central Committee. This article was written before the arrests of the leadership of Golden Dawn. However, the analysis it contains regarding the Golden Dawn – a neo-fascist organisation in Greece – has been absolutely confirmed by the subsequent events.