As the collapse of Iceland's economy threatens workers' living standards there, Sarah Ensor reveals how the Icelandic working class met the depression of the 1930s with militant resistance.
My first thought when the government bailed out Northern Rock last year was, where the hell does it find this kind of money when there's never a spare million for a new school or hospital?
Can public spending solve the crisis?
Many economists and politicians – Gordon Brown included – are calling for major public spending projects to stave off the worst effects of the recession. This is sometimes dubbed a "Keynesian" solution.
Until A few weeks ago, supporters of free market capitalism were confident enough to proclaim that their system was the only way that the world could be organised. Now their certainties have vanished.
The fight against redundancies at the Jaguar car plant in Coventry in the early 1990s shows how workers’ collective strength can hold back the bosses’ plans.
The crash of 2008 is forcing governments to make previously unimaginable inroads into the private sector. Pumping capital into the banks by partly nationalising them – the key measure announced by the New Labour government in Britain last week – looks set to spread to the US and Europe.
Hundreds of workers in Liverpool unanimously voted to say they would take strike action against redundancies at a mass meeting on Thursday of last week.
The drive of the market into public services and the ongoing economic turmoil has opened up the prospect of council workers across the country not being paid at the end of the month.
Gordon Brown’s decision to gamble £500 billion of public money in an attempt to stem the crisis in the banking industry has stuck in the throats of millions.
