2011 will be remembered as the year that young people and workers internationally really began fighting back against the devastating effects of the current crisis of capitalism. After the events in Cairo, Tunis, Athens, Madison and New York, the world will never be the same. Years of revolution and counter-revolution will follow.

The death of the long time Stalinist dictator of North Korea brings no relief to the workers of the country. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the economy of North Korea suffered setbacks and it is estimated that more than two million people lost their lives during famines at the end of the 1990s. North Korea is now one of the poorer countries in the world, but until well into the 1970s, the income per head of the population was higher than in South Korea.

This statement on world and European perspectives is being proposed by the CWI's International Secretariat to a meeting of the International Executive Committee of the CWI in January. Following discussion and amendments at the meeting, the final version of the document will be published on socialistworld.net at the end of January

According to reports from the Public commission for investigating the bloody events of 16-17th December in Aktau, young workers from the “OzenMunaiGaz” company who have been arrested in Zhenaozen are being thrown into the open yard at the remand prison and are having water thrown over them. The temperature is currently MINUS 17 CELSIUS. The torturers are attempting to get the workers to admit to rioting and to give evidence against their friends.

The province of Cajamarca has become a political epicenter where the masses have organized a general strike against the abuses of the mining industry. President Ollanta Humala has betrayed his election promises and besieged the town for two months, "for the sake of piece and quiet." This has meant democratic rights being denied to the population, and continued increased profits for the mining industry at the expense of the environment.

If, even a month ago, someone had suggested that nearly 100,000 people would flood a Moscow square chanting "Putin is a thief! Putin is a thief! ", there would have been, to say the least, certain skepticism amongst most people. And yet the anger of an increasingly large part of the population at the fact that the ruling regime had to falsify recent parliamentary elections is now starting to threaten the very existence of the Putin regime itself.

In the largest day of strike action in Britain since the 1926 General Strike, millions of workers came out yesterday to demand an end to the budget cuts and attacks on pensions.

Everything in Europe has turned into its opposite. The euro was intended to speed the integration of the participants and create a stable currency zone. Instead, it has currently become the main immediate source of instability and crisis in the world economy. Following the subprime crisis and collapse of the banking system in 2007-08, with a flight from complex financial packages and derivatives, the banks moved into sovereign debt as a supposedly "risk-free" investment. Now, the banks – including U.S. banks – are faced with potentially catastrophic losses as a result of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

Long queues formed at many polling stations, on 28 November, in Cairo and other Egyptian cities and towns. Millions voted in the first elections since the former dictator, President Hosni Mubarak, was overthrown by a mass revolutionary movement last February.

"The military promised that they would hand over power within six months," one protester said. "Now 10 months have gone by and they still haven’t done it. We feel deceived."

In the last week the ruling elite have mobilized their police forces in an attempt to smash the Occupy movement, which they correctly see as a threat to their rule. Democratic and Republican Party mayors and city councilors have sent out their police to obediently do the dirty work. But tearing down tents and arresting protestors will ultimately fail to repress a movement that has broad support. They may evict some occupiers in this or that city, but they cannot contain the deep anger in US society forever.

The G20 meeting of the world’s most powerful government leaders on 3 and 4 November was a "No Cannes Do" summit. The discussions were hijacked by the Greek crisis. George Papandreou’s call for a referendum on the eurozone bailout package - additional loans for even more savage cuts - infuriated European leaders and led to the withdrawal of the package.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou was forced to leave office last weekend and for his PASOK government be replaced by a ’national unity’ coalition government. This new PASOK/New Democracy ‘austerity coalition’ will agree a bailout package which entails yet more punishing cuts that are driving millions of Greeks into poverty.

Interview with Andreas Payiatsos, Xekinima (CWI in Greece) From Socialist View, the political journal of the Socialist Party (CWI Ireland)

On November 2, the events in Oakland represented a new peak for the whole occupy movement – up to 20,000 came together to defend our right to protest against all attempts to crack down with police brutality. They didn’t limit themselves to demonstrations alone. Teachers left their schools, public sector workers went on sick-out, and the port was shut down. Unions called for support for the demonstrations when Occupy Oakland called for a “general strike.”