It is said that revolution has never come to the British Isles. In fact, British parliamentary democracy was born out of a violent revolution and a bloody civil war, in which the king lost his head.
Today, we are witnessing one of the most turbulent periods in British history, and the ruling class fears the nation’s revolutionary past. This is why they seek to bury it under falsehoods. As Leon Trotsky wrote in 1925:
“The British bourgeoisie has erased the very memory of the 17th-century revolution by dissolving its past in ‘gradualness’. The advanced British workers will have to re-discover the English Revolution and find within its ecclesiastical shell the mighty struggle of social forces.”
A careful study of the English Revolution is obligatory for every class-conscious worker, Trotsky emphasised.
With this excellent advice in mind, our sister website In Defence of Marxism has launched a weekly series of talks by leading author Alan Woods on this very subject, entitled The English Revolution: the world turned upside down.
In this series, Alan examines the background and dynamics of the Revolution in-depth, drawing out the vital lessons for socialists today.
Tune in each week, every Friday, as Alan provides a Marxist analysis of this important chapter in British history; this colossal event that dealt an irreparable blow to feudal absolutism and paved the way for modern democracy as we know it.
