Here we republish an extract from the new introduction to Peter Fryer’s ‘Hungarian Tragedy’, by General Secretary of the RCP, Ben Gliniecki. This begins our series of articles to commemorate the Hungarian people’s noble and valiant struggle for genuine socialism.

Tomorrow marks the 250th anniversary of America’s independence from Britain. The writings of English revolutionary democrat Thomas Paine were instrumental in this revolutionary struggle. His radical ideas form part of our communist heritage, writes Rob Sewell.

In this episode, leading member of the RCI James Kilby, explains the revolutionary process that developed towards the Second World War, and how the reformists and Stalinists in one betrayed these incredible movements, thus setting back the world revolution by decades.