Fightback against the billionaires: the radicals taking on the global elite

When Rutger Bregman and Winnie Byanyima spoke out about taxes at Davos they went viral. They talk with Winners Take All author Anand Giridharadas about why change is coming

Rutger: Winnie, why did the comments you and I made about billionaires and taxes at Davos go viral? Why do things seem to be changing right now?

Winnie: Why did we go viral? I think we said things that people have wanted to hear, especially on a big stage where powerful politicians and companies are represented. And they are rarely said. People go there and speak in coded words and praise themselves and spin out the stats that suit them, but for once we spoke plainly about the challenges that people face.

Davos is a Swiss ski resort now more famous for hosting the annual four-day conference for the World Economic Forum. For participants it is a festival of networking. Getting an invitation is a sign you have made it - and the elaborate system of badges reveals your place in the Davos hierarchy.

Humanism is not only for people on the left. It is for people who don't want to be gaslit by the pretensions of the private-jet set

You have a huge class of people who haven't done any real work themselves - they were just born into certain families

The super-rich use their money to buy the public voice, buy the media, buy impunity from justice

Ask people what kind of country they would like to live and almost everyone says: 'Somewhere like Sweden'