We publish here a recent article on the tragedy at Rana Plaza, an eight-storey building in the town of Savar in Bangladesh that housed five garment factories and thousands of garment workers, which collapsed a couple of weeks ago. At the time that the article was written, over 500 had died as a result of this collapse. Latest estimates for the death toll are now over 1,000 and the Bangladeshi army are still searching through the rubble for survivors. Adam Pal looks at the horrific effects of capitalism in Bangladesh.

The epoch of the Cold War and the relative stability between two major super powers is long gone. The capitalist crisis and shrinking markets have forced the different national capitalist classes to use each of their individual state apparatuses in a fierce competition over markets, raw materials and control of the major trading routes. But such manoeuvres do not come cheap, and it is the working class that is expected to pay the bill.

We publish here two recent articles by Fightback – the Marxist tendency in Ireland – about the latest developments in the Croke Park 2 deal, which has now been rejected by several unions. An escalation of the struggle is now on the horizon.