As many as two million public sector workers are on strike against austerity and slashing pensions in Britain today. This is the biggest strike in Britain in 30 years, when the protests focused on another purveyor of austerity, Margaret Thatcher.

Depending on what you read, the Occupy Oakland protests last night were either a resounding success or a chaotic mess. Let’s piece together what happened.

Today is general strike day for the Occupy Oakland protests, an escalation of the anti-Wall Street demonstrations throughout the country. The general strike, called in the wake of a brutal crackdown by area police departments, has garnered national attention and at least tacit support form labor unions. The march to the port has begun.

It’s not clear how the general strike called by the Occupy Oakland general assembly for Wednesday, November 2, will fare. The protesters passed the resolution in the haze of the brutal crackdown last week on their encampment, where police used rubber bullets, flash grenades and other projectiles.

Over 100,000 people again protested in Madison on Saturday and welcomed the Fab 14 Democratic Senators back. Protests in smaller parts of Wisconsin grew in size as well – one in Washburn, timed with an appearance by Gov. Walker, doubled the total size of the town. Legal challenges to the bill and the process by which it was passed have only begun; the next hearing in Dane County Court is on Wednesday.

And then we have the upcoming elections and recalls. . . .

The workers movement has stepped back onto the stage of world events in a big way, as the a new Egyptian trade union association is formed, and finds plenty of support for its immediate call for a general strike against the Mubarak regime.

Over a hundred thousand Greek protesters took to the streets and shut down the country as popular unrest grew, aimed at a viciously strict austerity program, dictated by the Germans and the IMF to help pay for an economic bailout of Greece. The crisis has threatened the stability of both the European Union and the Euro, and is sending political tremors across the continent.