It is hard to believe that nearly four years have already passed since the election of Barack Obama. The streets were filled with honking cars, waving flags, and shouts of excitement. Tears of unbridled joy and relief streamed down the faces of many. After eight long years of Bush, change had come at last! Or had it? As the months—and the crisis—wore on, it became increasingly clear that in all essentials, Obama’s presidency was more like Bush 2.0 than a new dawn of peace and prosperity.

The National-led government has passed the legislation by one vote in parliament to part-privatise 4 state owned energy companies. This is a highly unpopular policy with the public with all polls showing 70% or more members of the public opposing the sales. Such opposition is not surprising as New Zealanders have learned through the bitter experience of the consequences of privatisations in the 80s and 90s.

On July 1^stover a $1 billion of government cuts will start to come into effect and will be phased in over the next 3 years. This is from the 2011 budget. Therefore any suggestion that the 2012 budget was austerity-lite is just a smoke screen. The 2012 budget will go down as the budget that taxed the earned pocket money of children; student allowance removed for post graduates - making it virtually impossible for working class post graduates to access such courses, as well as an attempt by government to inform the public that the way to improve a child's education is to sack a 1000 teachers and increase class sizes. The higher education proposals were met by student demonstrations showing the volatility that exists within society. Increasing class sizes was dropped very quickly indeed when it ignited a wider public furore in the country.

Since ancient times, homosexuality has been documented amongst humans. Despite this, there is considerable debate, even amongst Marxists, as to whether homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or the product of genetics or a combination of both. While many Marxist groups have come out in favour of supporting gay rights, Stalinists condemned homosexuality for decades as a bourgeoisie perversion and in most countries where the Stalinists seized power homosexuality was banned.

Just five years ago, not a day would go by without global warming making the headlines. The American politician Al Gore’s documentary film about climate change, An Inconvenient Truth, was seen by hundreds of thousands in cinemas across the world. The National Party re-branded themselves as the champions of the environment, nailing their ecological colours to the mast and urging people to ‘vote Blue / Green’. Even the arch-reactionary American president George W. Bush was forced to concede that, maybe, the environment was worth thinking about.

The Muslim Brotherhood's candidate Mohammed Mursi has won Egypt's presidential election with 51.73% of the vote. Ahmed Shafiq, the candidate of the military, got 48.27%, according to the election commission. However these figures should be treated with caution.

The Egyptian revolution has taken a new turn in the last few days. The ruling Military Council (SCAF) has launched a number of very serious attacks on the revolution. The military police can now arrest civilians at will and parliament has been dissolved. The generals have also announced additions to the Constitutional Declaration of March 2011 which give them virtually unlimited powers. What was supposed to have been the first democratic presidential elections in the history of the country has ended in a farce and a power struggle between two rival factions of the Egyptian bourgeoisie: The Muslim Brotherhood and the Armed Forces.

A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of capitalist crisis. Events are moving at lightning speed. This slow-motion train wreck has suddenly speeded up. Each day we come closer to a Greek default and its exit from the euro. Squeezed by foreign bankers, demanding their pound of flesh, ordinary Greek people are being pushed to the limit. They are being reduced to a state of wretchedness and indignity.

Socialist Appeal calls upon the delegates of the Regional Labour Party conferences to push for a truly socialist programme: