This month marks the 100th anniversary of the writing of Lenin’s great work The State and Revolution, written in the midst of the Russian Revolution to prepare the working class for taking power. To mark this important anniversary we reproduce here key extracts from an introduction of a new edition of this pamphlet, written by Alan Woods.

At their manifesto launch this week, the Green Party called for a “peaceful political revolution”, announcing a range of progressive reforms designed to challenge austerity and an economy “being run for the benefit of the few, not the many”. Matt Rider of the Swansea Marxists looks at the Greens’ manifesto promises and analyses how can we fight for these demands.

Across Europe, support for the traditional parties of bourgeois democracy has collapsed. The crisis of capitalism has exposed the rottenness of the mainstream parties, as they carry out the cuts on behalf of the bosses and bankers. As a result, in Britain, there is growing force on the electoral plane that is partially reflecting the radicalisation in society: the Green Party.