The crisis of capitalism means attacks on workers at all levels, including women, who very often work in low paid jobs. The Austrian Social-Democratic Women’s Organisation prides itself at being “feminist”. However, when it comes to sacking women workers or cutting their wages the “feminism” of this organisation proves to be wafer thin, as we see in this case of the Sozial Global AG company in Vienna.

For most of 2010 all eyes were fixed on Europe and the travails of the euro. The crisis of capitalism has revealed the existence of deep fissures in the EU. The first phase of the crisis was mainly characterised by defaults of the banks. The second phase is characterised by defaults of states. [part 1]

The year 2011 began with the customary toasts to health, happiness and success. As the bourgeois clinked their champagne glasses, it seemed as if their dreams were coming true. The collapse of financial markets that threatened to destroy the economic recovery in 2010 had failed to materialise. Global output has probably risen by almost 5%, a lot faster than forecasters were expecting 12 months ago.

Hieronymus Bosch was one of the most remarkable and original painters of all time. His works were painted five hundred years ago, yet they seem astonishingly modern, anticipating surrealism. This is the art of a world in a state of turbulence, torn by contradictory tendencies – a world in which the light of reason has been extinguished and where animal passions have gained the upper hand, a world of terror and violence, a living nightmare. In short – a world very like our own. Alan Woods examines it from the standpoint of historical materialism.