Our economic system is broken – and unless we break with the government’s obsession with short-termist private profit, things are destined to get worse, warns Mercedes Villalba

WOMEN across the world are suffering an unprecedented assault on our rights but a collective fightback is also starting to grow.
The women’s rights movement is developing in an uneven and confused way, with conservative political forces positioning themselves as champions of women’s rights when nothing could be further from the truth.
The defence of Russell Brand by some on the left signifies that we continue to have a woman problem. A key question we should ask ourselves is why the left consistently fails to put women’s interests at the heart of our movement.

As more people on the left are now questioning the sex industry, HELEN O’CONNOR reports from a timely fringe at TUC Congress where women on the front line gave their perspective on why prostitution should never be considered ‘work’


