The recession is raising major concerns in all areas of government policy. The adult education sector is no exception. Over the past two years 1.5 million publicly funded adult learner places have been cut. This has particularly affected those who are disabled, the elderly, second language speakers (Esol) and working class students in general.
India's growing economy has benefited a corrupt elite. But the masses only get poorer.
In a world dominated by capitalist crisis and war the life and writings of Leon Trotsky can offer socialists some pointers on the way forward.
To read the papers in recent weeks you might be forgiven for assuming that car workers' wage levels and public sector pensions caused the financial crisis currently wreaking havoc across the globe.
This time last year the world looked very different. Ian McCafferty, the chief economic adviser of the CBI, argued on New Year's Eve 2007, "While the 2008 slowdown may appear dramatic set against this year's strong growth, the fundamentals of our economy remain sound and talk of a full-blown recession is overstated."
So much for Gordon Brown's claim in November that "old free market fundamentalism, no matter how it is dressed up, has been found wanting". The publication of Richard Hooper's report on the future of Royal Mail, "Modernise or Decline", suggests that part-privatisation is well and truly on the cards.
Building a Low-Carbon Economy, Lord Adair Turner's 511 page report, made interesting Xmas reading for environmental campaigners. Produced by the Committee on Climate Change, which Turner chairs, it is the government plan to drag the world out of the clutches of uncontrolled climate change.
"Tell people that biology and the environment cause obesity and they are offered the one thing we have to avoid: an excuse," said Tory shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley last summer. "We have to take away the excuses." Having a job is probably one of those excuses too.
"I feel a terrible personal failure - it's a very nasty place to be if you're me," said Independent editor Roger Alton, after the newspaper lost 16.29 percent of its readership in one year.
Anger at the government's neoliberal policies and police brutality has electrified Greece, reports Giorgos Pittas.
For a decade global capitalism has suffered setbacks and defeats in the continent where it had been at its most aggressive. Mike Gonzalez argues it is the new forces that have led the resistance which are central to continuing the struggle for a new society.
Some people think that socialism sounds great but will never work in practice. John Molyneux challenges their arguments and explores what socialism would look like.
