November 9, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin wall, was the occasion for self-congratulation by supporters of the capitalist system. They talked of the wall's fall as heralding a new era of freedom.
They failed to note that other walls have been built or strengthened during the past 20 years.
One such wall is Israel's apartheid wall that confines Palestinians within a small part of their homeland. In 1948. Israel seized 78% of Palestine's territory.
Under the 1993 Oslo agreement, the Palestinians had expected to be able to establish a state on the remaining 22%. But Israel has built a wall that extends deep into the West Bank and further reduces the territory available for such a state, if it was ever established.
The wall cuts off many Palestinian farmers from their land and almost totally surrounds some Palestinian towns.
There is also the fence built by US authorities along the US/Mexico border to keep out Latin Americans fleeing poverty and repressive regimes in their home countries.
This poverty is largely caused by US economic exploitation of Latin America, and repressive regimes in the region have historically been backed by the US government.
Those that have died trying to enter the US illegally greatly outnumber those that died trying to leave East Germany illegally across the Berlin wall.
Australia also has its own walls: the walls of detention centres used to imprison refugees seeking asylum. Such detention now mostly occurs on the isolated Christmas Island or in Indonesia, rather than the Australian mainland.
But there is certainly no "new era of freedom" for refugees fleeing from Iraq, Afghanistan or Sri Lanka.
The fall of the Berlin wall was the result of a growing series of protests against the Stalinist regime in East Germany.
The year 1989 was one of protest and rebellion throughout Eastern Europe. The ruling Stalinist parties were forced from power, or changed their leaders and proclaimed themselves supporters of democracy and reform.
But the term "reform" meant different things to different people. For most ordinary people in Eastern Europe, it meant things like freedom of speech and democratic elections.
But for others, including some of the protest leaders, but also many bureaucrats in the "reformed" Communist parties, "reform" meant the restoration of the capitalist economic system.
Pro-capitalist forces succeeded in taking control of the new governments that came to power in Eastern Europe on the back of the rebellions. They implemented neoliberal policies such as the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, the sacking of large numbers of workers and cuts to social services.
These policies led to severe economic decline, reaching depression levels in some cases. Even after the economies of these countries began to recover, unemployment remained high.
Many socialists had hoped for a different outcome to the upsurge in Eastern Europe — one of opening an era of genuinely democratic socialism. However, the forces consciously striving for democratic socialism in Eastern Europe were too weak to lead these countries towards that goal.
Many intellectuals in Eastern Europe, disillusioned with the Stalinist version of socialism, had been won to the view that "free markets" guarantee prosperity and democracy.
Many working people were also disillusioned with socialism, due to the corrupt and repressive nature of the Stalinist regimes that claimed the socialist mantle.
Although most workers did not want the neoliberal policies of privatisation, sackings and social service cuts the "reformers" had in store for them, they were not sufficiently organised to fight against them.
Living standards for ordinary people across Eastern Europe have dropped since the reintroduction of capitalism. A November 4 Wall Street Journal article revealed the disillusionment of ordinary people in Eastern Europe 20 years on.
The article referred to a wide-ranging poll by the Pew Research Center. The WSJ said the poll found: "In every former Soviet bloc country polled, fewer people now support the shift to capitalism than in 1991. Seventy-two percent of Hungarians say their economic situation was better under the Communists."
The fact that the fall of the Stalinist regimes led to capitalist restoration, rather than democratic socialism, was a setback for the people of Eastern Europe and the world.
The triumphalism of the US ruling class after the fall of the Berlin wall strengthened their confidence in their ability to dominate the world. This led to the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq — generating refugees who sit behind the walls of detention centres on Christmas Island and in Indonesia today.