The government has now pumped about £60 billion of our money into Northern Rock. That’s a lot of money – it’s more than half what the health service costs. Now the NHS is looking after millions of people at any one time and hospital services are available round the clock for you in case anything goes wrong. It employs over a million people and its benefits are there for all to see.

As we explained in the last issue, the vultures are hovering round Northern Rock. There are the shareholders on the one hand, people who think the rest of us owe them a living and, if they bet on a horse that loses, then we should just give them their money back.

Thousands of Revenue and Customs workers are to start voting on whether to stage a one-day strike and a ban on overtime in protest at job cuts and office closures.

The walkout will be held on January 31, the deadline for self assessment tax returns, if there is a yes vote by members of the Public and Commercial Services union.

This article was originally written on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the 1929 Wall Street Crash. It was not intended purely as a commemorative or historical piece. It was written because, to Marxists, all the signs were then apparent that another stock price ‘correction’ was in preparation.

Republication of the article is timely. In 2007 the sub-prime mortgage bubble finally burst. The financial crisis has already had a knock-on effect on the banks through the credit crunch. The capitalist world stands on the threshold of recession.

In April and May of 1797 the British ruling class was horrified when two naval mutinies broke out; the first was at Spithead, close to Portsmouth; the second at the Nore which marks the seaward approach to the Thames Estuary.

The State can ultimately be reduced to bodies of armed men. These bodies of armed men are used by the ruling class either to maintain its power against what it sees as internal enemies, to defend itself against foreign aggression, or in support of its own aggressive action against foreign nations. Since its power lies in its ability to threaten or actually to use force, the ruling class regards anything that jeopardises the effectiveness of the State apparatus with the utmost seriousness. This explains why mutinies in the armed forces are of such concern to them.

In Bangladesh politics revolves round the prices of staple foods. The price of rice in Bangladesh has a correlation with poverty, economic and political stability. In 2000, a wage labourer could buy 6-7 kg of rice with his daily income (Taka 60 per day, about 43 p). Now, less than half of that can be bought, even though the income has risen over time. Rising food prices stand out as a problem that, if left unresolved, could derail all political predictions and spell disaster for the country in 2008.