The Hungarian presidency of the EU ended on 30^th June and life is supposed to be getting back to normal all over the country.  Or is it? The population of Hungary, that elected the right-wing FIDESZ/KDNP government just over a year ago with a two thirds majority, very soon discovered what such a government really meant.

Recent opinion polls show that a majority of Hungarians find life so miserable that they would like to live somewhere else. Many consider that life was much better before 1989 when people enjoyed full employment and an advanced welfare system. Capitalism has destroyed all that. However, as our correspondent points outs, what existed before was not genuine socialism, but a Stalinist regime that people rose up against. What is required is state ownership and planning, but under the democratic control of the workers themselves.

Overnight the world has woken up to intimate knowledge of the process of extracting aluminium from bauxite and its by-product the red mud, which devastated several villages, including Kolontár and Devecser, in the SouthWest of Hungary on Monday, 4^th October 2010, bringing with it a long term threat of environmental pollution in several countries.

Hungary is not normally a place with a lot of strike action, not nowadays at least. However, one firm down in the Southern sandy parts of the country is facing a courageous fight by its workforce.

As the realities of capitalist crisis are biting deeper into the Hungarian economy, more and sections of the working class are beginning to mobilise and take strike action.

Hungary is beginning to feel the effects of the general crisis affecting worldwide capitalism. On Saturday a demonstration of 10,000 public sector workers could be the first step towards a major strike in January.