Revolutions

1848 was a year of revolution in Europe, with French workers rising up and exploding onto the streets in a struggle against the old order. Today, as Marx wrote then, a spectre is once again haunting the ruling classes – the spectre of communism.

The Paris Commune of 1871 remains an inspirational episode in the history of the class struggle. Revolutionaries must study the lessons of the Communards’ heroic efforts to build the first workers’ state.

Beginning 150 years ago, on 18 March 1871, the masses of Paris rose up and established the first ever workers’ state. It is vital for socialists to study the Commune: its heroic rise, its tragic fall, and its lessons for revolutionaries today.

50 years ago, the Allende government was elected in Chile. It carried out a host of radical reforms. But capitalism was not abolished. The tragic conclusion was the coup of 11 Sept 1973. We must remember this important episode from history.

We continue our series on the English Revolution by republishing an article by Dudley Edwards on the Levellers. Subscribe to Marxist Voice to listen to Alan Woods’ podcast on this revolutionary episode from history. 

We continue our series on the English Revolution by republishing an article by Rob Sewell on Oliver Cromwell. Subscribe to Marxist Voice to listen to Alan Woods’ podcast on this revolutionary episode from history.

We continue our series on the English Revolution by republishing an article by David Brandon on the English Civil War and the Levellers. Subscribe to Marxist Voice to listen to Alan Woods’ podcast on this revolutionary episode from history.

We continue our series on the English Revolution with an article by Rob Sewell examining the dramatic events leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War. Subscribe to Marxist Voice to listen to Alan Woods’ podcast on this revolutionary episode from history.

Socialist Appeal are proud to publicise a new podcast series by Alan Woods on the English Revolution of the 17th century. Subscribe to Marxist Voice to listen to weekly installments of Alan discussing these dramatic and revolutionary events.

We are pleased to announce here the release of the latest publication by Wellred Books and Alan Woods. In this article, Alan introduces the book and discusses the hidden revolutionary history of the Spanish working class.

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. To mark this, we republish here an analysis by Jorge Martin, explaining how the revolution came about – and where it is heading today.

100 years ago, revolution broke out across Germany, bringing the horrors of WWI to an end. To mark this centenary anniversary, we publish here an extract from Rob Sewell’s new book, “Germany 1918 – 1933: Socialism or Barbarism”

50 years ago, USSR-backed tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia to crush the Prague Spring. But could the movement have been successful?

50 years ago, the workers and students of France shook society. Alan Woods looks at the revolutionary events of May 68.

370 years ago this weekend, the Putney Debates of 1647 took place: meetings of elected representatives from the Army ranks, chaired by Oliver Cromwell himself, which discussed the future direction of England. The demands put forward by the Levellers were revolutionary. To commemorate this anniversary, we republish here an extract from a longer series on the English Revolution by David Brandon.

Fifty years ago today, Che Guevara was brutally executed by Bolivian soldiers, so ending the life of one of the great revolutionary figures of the 20th Century. To commemorate Che’s life and ideas, we republish here an in-depth article by Alan Woods, originally written ten years ago, discussing Che’s experiences and what he really stood for.

On Friday 25th November, Fidel Castro died at the age of 90. His whole life was closely linked to the Cuban revolution. An appraisal of his role is therefore an appraisal of the Cuban revolution, which for over five decades resisted the onslaught of US imperialism. Jorge Martin looks at the life and legacy of Fidel Castro.

60 years ago, on 23rd October 1956, political revolution against Stalinist dictatorship lept from the pages of Leon Trotsky’s writings and roared into life in Hungary. Contrary to Stalinist slanders at the time, this was never a movement for the restoration of capitalism, but an attempt by Hungarian workers to establish a healthy socialist society.

On 17-18 July, 1936, General Franco began his military uprising in Morocco, a prelude to the fascist uprising throughout Spain. The workers responded in a spontaneous fashion. Rob Sewell and Alan Woods discuss the revolutionary events of the 1936 Spanish Civil War.

We are publishing here the introduction by Alan Woods to Felix Morrow’s Marxist classic Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Spain, which provides a brief analysis of the reasons for the defeat of the Spanish Revolution of 1931-37, while also drawing the lessons for today.

14th July marks Bastille Day in France – the celebration of the 1789 French Revolution. This year’s celebrations mark the 225th anniversary of the Revolution. To commemorate this anniversary, we republish here an article by Alan Woods on the fall of the Bastille, originally written in 1989 on the 200th anniversary as part of a series on the history of the French Revolution.

For millions of people around the world, the United States represents the ultimate citadel of reaction: imperialism, sanctions, war, drones, anti-communism, discrimination, and exploitation. Many people — even on the left — imagine that the US is immune from class conflict. However, the United States is in fact a society riven with deep class contradictions. It has an enormous and powerful working class and an inspiring revolutionary past — and future.

This year marks the 90th Anniversary of the German Revolution of 1923. The tragic failure of this revolution marked a turning point and represented the end of the revolutionary wave that had swept Europe from 1917 onwards. It is no exaggeration to say that the consequences of the failure of the 1923 revolution determined the fate of Europe. A victory for the working class in Germany would have prepared the way for the European socialist revolution and would have changed the course of world history.

Today (March 18th) is the 140th anniversary of the start of the Paris Commune of 1871. We mark the event by re-publishing Greg Oxley’s account of this important event, first published in 2001. Greg is a supporter of La Riposte, the French Marxist paper.

This year marks the hundredth
anniversary of one of the great events in modern history. On November
20th of 1910 Francisco I. Madero denounced the electoral fraud
perpetrated by President Díaz and called for a national insurrection.
This marked the beginning of the Mexican Revolution. Today, the
conditions have matured for another revolution, this time with a mighty
proletariat at its head.

Ninety years ago, on the morning of 13th March 1920, a brigade of
soldiers marched into Berlin and declared the German government of the
Social Democrats to be overthrown. Not a shot was fired by any side and
the response of the leaders of the government was simply to flee. The
very forces which the Social Democrats had place so much trust in had
turned against them. The Kapp Putsch, as it has become known as, was
challenged instead by the workers.

Ninety years ago, on the morning of 13th March 1920, a brigade of
soldiers marched into Berlin and declared the German government of the
Social Democrats to be overthrown. Not a shot was fired by any side and
the response of the leaders of the government was simply to flee. The
very forces which the Social Democrats had place so much trust in had
turned against them. The Kapp Putsch, as it has become known as, was
challenged instead by the workers.

Yesterday (Monday 5th Oct) marked the
75th anniversary of the
Asturian Commune. The mining and industrial region of Asturias in Spain
witnessed one of the key revolutions of the 20th century. We want to
bring to the attention of our readers an article by Ramon Samblas
written in 2004 for the www.marxist.com website and Socialist Appeal.

Here is part two of Alan Wood’s article on the history of the French Revolution, first published in 1989 to mark the 200th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille

Thirty years ago the overthrow of 2500 years of monarchy brought Iran to the attention of the world. However, what many experts, journalists and academics concentrate on is that the Shah left the country forever on January 16 1979, and that on February 1 Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran and was greeted by over three million people. This has helped to create the big myth that this was an ‘Islamic revolution’ and a rejection of modernity.

In November we wrote about how the German Revolution ended
World War I in November 1918. After 4 years of intense warfare, the
German workers and soldiers ended the war that had cost millions of people their lives. The
emperor fell and a Social Democratic government came to power. This was
Germany’s own equivalent of the Russian "February Revolution" of 1917
that overthrew the Tsar.
The workers and soldiers had taken power into their hands but also
handed it over to the very same people who so shamefully supported the war in
1914. Right wing Social Democrats Ebert, Scheidemann and Noske were catapulted
into power and Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who

had opposed the war, were left
with a small group of 3,000 revolutionaries in the Spartacus League.

On the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918,
the armistice took effect on the Western front. One year after the
victory of the Russian Revolution, the German proletariat had entered
the scene of world history and brought an end to "the Great War".
Austria-Hungary soon followed suit and the "old regime" had collapsed.

Thirty
five years ago on 11th September 1973 a coup eliminated the
democratic Popular Unity government in Chile and killed the elected President
Salvador Allende in the presidential palace. In the days, weeks and months that
followed tens of thousands of activists were murdered and dumped in unmarked
graves by the military. Tens of thousands more were imprisoned and tortured –
many in Santiago football stadium. This was a catastrophe for the Chilean and
international working class.

On the 26th of Ocotber 1972, the then President of the Republic of
Dahomey was deposed in a coup d’etat led by Major Mathieu Kérékou. He deposed a
system in which three members of a presidential council would rotate power.  He overthrew the President Justin Ahomadegbé,
who was placed in house arrest until 1981 alongside the other members of the presidential
governing council who were Hubert Maga and Sourou-Migan Apithy.

This year sees the 40th anniversary of the May events of France 1968,
which culminated in the biggest general strike in history, involving
more than 10 million workers. TV programmes and newspaper columns will
mark the occasion but few, if any, will give a real reflection of the
role played by the main actors and actresses, the working class.

In August 1968 Ted Grant drew a balance sheet
of the revolutionary crisis ignited in France with the May events. In this
important article he carefully analysed the main problems facing the
revolution, exposing the treacherous policies of the Stalinist CP leaders, who
gave De Gaulle the possibility to recover from his earlier paralysis, and the
sectarian mistakes of the leaders of the "revolutionary left".

"…the French events
suddenly brought home to me the reality of socialist revolution and how we had
entered a new stormy period, which the tendency had predicted. Within a couple
of years, the Labour government had fallen and Britain entered a convulsive
period including a near general strike. The French events of 1968, after a
short delay, had even found an echo in Britain. Those days of 40 years ago will
return again. This time we can be better prepared. Without doubt, 1968 will be
forever remembered as a political turning point by all those who were touched
by those historic events. That was certainly my experience."

Che Guevara was a dedicated revolutionary and Communist. He was also an
internationalist and understood that to defend the Cuban revolution it
was necessary to spread it to other parts of the world. He attempted
this in Africa and Latin America. This was his strong side. His weak
side was that he saw the revolution fundamentally as a peasant
guerrilla struggle and did not fully understand the central role of the
working class in the socialist revolution.

Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was executed by Bolivian troops near the town of La Higuera on 9 October 1967, following an ambush. The operation was planned by the CIA and organized by US Special Forces. On the 40th anniversary of his death it is appropriate that we make a balance sheet of this outstanding revolutionary and martyr. Alan Woods in a two-part article looks at the evolution of Che Guevara from his early days to the day he was killed.

Forty years ago this month, in a small school hut in La Higuera,
Bolivia, Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara was brutally executed by the Bolivian
army. Since Che’s death, the popular media have tried to
assimilate his image and turn it into a harmless symbol. They have,
however, not succeeded in burying the memory of Che, just as they have
not managed to solve the problems of poverty and destitution in the
third world.

On April 26th 1937 General Franco commissioned from the German High
Command, against Republican Spain, the aerial bombardment of the small
and defenceless Basque town of Guernica,
visiting a hell on earth in the form of bombs weighing up to 1000lbs
across the town of 10, 000 people. Two months later, seventy years
ago, Pablo Picasso unveiled Guernica. Despite his enormous prestige the
establishment rarely tell us that Picasso was a man of the left.

The titantic events in Germany between 1917 and 1923 constitute a tragic and bitter chapter in the international workers' movement. Golden opportunities, in which the German working class could have repeatedly taken power, were lost, eventually ending up in the ghastly victory of the Nazis in 1933 and the obliteration of the workers' movement. A book review by Rob Sewell.