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In this latest video from our series on the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods – author of “Bolshevism: from Revolution to Counter-Revolution” – discusses the failed coup attempt by General Kornilov and the impact this had on the political consciousness of the masses.
Rob Sewell provides another contribution on the debate about the way forward for the unions and the Left in the fight against the Blairites, the Tories, and the cuts. The position of Socialist Appeal is clear: all forces on the Left should get organised, support Corbyn, and fight to transform the Labour Party into a genuinely socialist party.
This week marks 100 years since the attempted coup by General Kornilov in Russia, the aim of which was to completely crush the revolution. Dejan Kukic examines the events leading up to the Kornilov affair and explains how the working class, headed by the Bolsheviks, was able to defeat this counter-revolutionary putsch.
Continuing our commemorations of the centenary anniversary of the Russian Revolution, we republish here extracts from Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian Revolution, in which the author explains the events surrounding the attempted – and failed – coup by General Kornilov and the forces of reaction surrounding him.
Marxists are commonly accused of wishing to crush individuality, wanting to enforce homogeneity and put everyone into the same grey, uniform box. In this video from our “Myths of Marxism” series, Kevin Chang dispells this misconception, arguing that it is in fact the profit system that restricts each and every individual from fulfilling their full potential.
So-called “pragmatists” often say that it is unrealistic to struggle for socialism. Even if we had a successful revolution in Britain, for example, it is clear that an island of socialism could not survive in a sea of capitalism. But is it realistic to expect revolution to spread internationally?
20 years ago today, on 31st August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died as a result of injuries sustained in a car crash in Paris. In the following weeks, a spontaneous mass outburst of grief swept across the country, catching the whole Establishment by surprise. We republish here an article written by Alan Woods analysing this unprecedented phenomenon.
The crimes of Stalin and Mao are frequently held up to demonstrate the apparent failure of socialism and communism; to invalidate the ideas of Marxism. But what failed in the Soviet Union and China, as Maciej of the Swansea Marxists explains in this latest video from the Myths of Marxism series, was not socialism or communism, but a bureaucratically controlled society – a caricature of Marxism.
In the fourth and final part in his series about the violence and barbarism of the capitalist class throughout history, Fred Weston looks at the contemporary crimes committed by the capitalists and the imperialists, including the degrading everyday violence that the capitalism enforces on ordinary people every day in terms of homelessness and hunger.
77 years ago, on 20th August 1940, Leon Trotsky – the great Marxist, international socialist, and Russian revolutionary – was struck down by a Stalinist agent in his home in Mexico. He died the following day. To commemorate Trotsky’s life and ideas, we republish this article by Alan Woods, originally written in January 2000.
We publish here the fourth part in a series by Alan Woods looking at the theoretical differences between Marxism and anarchism. In this fourth and final part, Alan discusses the question of revolutionary violence and looks at the inspiring example of the Russian Revolution as historical proof of the need for a workers’ state.
We publish here extracts from Alan Woods’ introduction to the new Wellred Books’ edition of Ted Grant’s Russia: from Revolution to Counter-revolution, republished this year to celebrate the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution. In this intro, Alan discusses the enormous gains of the revolution – and how they were destroyed by Stalinist degeneration.