Newly revealed documents reveal that MI5 taught Brazilian secret police the techniques deployed by the 1964-85 military dictatorship in horrific prisons like Rio de Janeiro’s House of Death. SARA VIVACQUA reports
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Report card on a failing economic system
Capital’s imperative to reproduce itself has taken it into riskier and riskier places, writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York
CHRISTOPHE DOMEC speaks to the France Insoumise politician facing constant persecution from French authorities
It can be hard to discern conspiracy theory from reality and under the Trump regime the two might just be the same thing, writes Linda Pentz Gunter
ALAN SIMPSON says responses to the Golders Green attacks risk deepening divides across our country
Capturing the general strikes history is a vital part of our struggles today, posits HENRY FOWLER
On a tumultuous day in Welsh politics DAVID NICHOLSON looks at the key issues for progressives in Wales to grapple with the rise of the far right
ON Friday May 6 the Federal Reserve released data showing that consumer credit (debt) has been accelerating since the fourth quarter of last year, with revolving credit (largely credit card debt) speeding up at an even greater pace since the third quarter of 2021.
Total consumer credit in the US grew by an annualised rate of 7 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, increased to 9.7 per cent in this year’s first quarter, and expanded to 14 per cent in March.
At the same time, revolving credit — the debt largely incurred through credit cards — grew 8.3 per cent in the third quarter and 12.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2021, and then 21.4 per cent in the first quarter of this year, and an astonishing 35.3 per cent in March.
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CLAUDIA WEBBE says the US is tightening the noose to destroy Cuban socialism — the need for immediate, international solidarity is urgent
If the government really wanted to address public finances, improve living standards and begin economic recovery, it would increase its borrowing for investment, argues MICHAEL BURKE
In 2024, 19 households grew richer by $1 trillion while 66 million households shared 3 per cent of wealth in the US, validating Marx’s prediction that capitalism ‘establishes an accumulation of misery corresponding with accumulation of capital,’ writes ZOLTAN ZIGEDY