The revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg

Peter Taaffe is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). On 15 January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the finest brains of the German working class and its most heroic figures, were brutally murdered by the bloodthirsty, defeated German military, backed to the hilt by the cowardly social-democratic leaders Noske […]

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Russian revolution – from December 1917

This is the final part of our series on the 1917 revolution – this one including some key events in subsequent years. Dates are given in the old style Julian calendar (13 days earlier than the Gregorian calendar) up to the point it was replaced in Russia (1/14 February 1918). December 1917 2: An armistice […]

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Marx still matters

Iain Dalton is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). Review of Marx, Capital and the Madness of Economic Reason, by David Harvey As well as 2017 marking one hundred years since the Russian revolution, it is also 150 years since Karl Marx published the first volume of Capital, a vital […]

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When Britain invaded Soviet Russia

Lynn Walsh is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). Within months of the victorious October revolution British forces landed in northern Russia, the start of a counter-revolutionary armed intervention. In an article that first appeared in Militant, No.511, 11 July 1980,  reviewed When Britain Invaded Soviet Russia (The Journeyman Press, […]

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Russian revolution timeline – November 1917

Dates are given in the old style Julian calendar used in Russia at the time. This was 13 days earlier than the Gregorian calendar (adopted in Russia in 1918). The world’s first workers’ state had been set up on 25/26 October, when workers and soldiers led by the Bolshevik Party took power – ratified by […]

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Finland – Tragic outcome of a revolution without a Bolshevik party

Per Olsson is a member of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (ISA in Sweden). The October socialist Revolution in Russia was met with enthusiasm from workers and the oppressed around the world. Not least in neighbouring Finland which was under Russian control since 1809. It was a large principality of the Tsarist Empire, an empire which the Bolsheviks […]

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October 1917: When workers took power in Russia

Hannah Sell is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). With monotonous predictability the centenary of the Russian revolution has led to an outpouring of bile – not aimed in the main at the ‘acceptable’ February revolution – but at October. A cacophony of slander is attempting to drown out the […]

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Russian Revolution timeline – October 1917 – overthrow of capitalist rule!

This is the eighth in our series on the events of 1917. Dates are given in the old style Julian calendar used in Russia at the time. This was 13 days earlier than the Gregorian calendar (adopted in Russia in 1918). The working class and poor are on starvation rations. Grain prices rocket, provoking food […]

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Women of the Russian Revolution

Heather Rawling is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). Women workers launched the Russian revolution in February 1917. And increasing numbers would join the Bolshevik Party in the course of that revolutionary year. HEATHER RAWLING writes about how they forced their way onto the historical stage, an inspirational example to […]

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Che Guevara 50 years on – revolutionary socialist and fighter

Tony Saunois is a member of the Committee for a Workers’ International. Fifty years after his death, the image of Che Guevara is familiar to most people. A fashion statement for some, for many others it is a political declaration. They identify with the legacy left by Che Guevara as a symbol of struggle, defiance, […]

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