To mark 150 years of the Canadian state, we are publishing some of the articles from our magazine that covered different parts of Canada’s history. Working people built Canada – physically and politically. For most of Canada’s history, life for workers was hard and wages were low. The government regularly crushed strikes and killed workers. […]
Continue Reading
André Ferrari is a member of Liberdade, Socialismo e Revolução (CWI in Brazil). On 28 April, the Brazilian working class gave a clear sign of its strength and ability to mobilise. A 24-hour general strike was called, as a unified action by all the trade union centres of the country, against the pension and labour […]
Continue Reading
Paula Mitchell is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). On 3 April 1917, Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin returned to Russia from exile. Lenin’s arrival turned the Bolshevik party upside down and changed the course of history. Just weeks earlier, demanding an end to the bloody slaughter of World War One, the masses of […]
Continue Reading
The February revolution in Russia, started by women striking on International Working Women’s Day, quickly pushed aside the Tsar. The main demands were Bread, Peace and Down with the Autocracy (feudal dictatorship). The next nine months were a living struggle around these slogans. A revolution is not an event; it is a process. Two Opposing […]
Continue Reading
Robert Bechert is a member of the Committee for a Workers’ International. The overthrow of Tsarist rule in February and the winning of some important democratic rights did not mean the end of the revolution. Rather it was the beginning of the struggle to determine what would be the shape of the new Russia that […]
Continue Reading
Heather Rawling is a member of the Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales). Striking women workers kick-started the February 1917 revolution then, following the Bolshevik-led October revolution, women gained full legal equality with men. The preceding period had seen an intense battle of ideas between various strands of feminism – debates which are just […]
Continue Reading
Vincent Kolo is a contributor to chinaworker.info. In the February Revolution of 1917, (March in today’s calendar) the centuries-old system of Russian tsarism came crashing down. It was the working class especially of the capital Petrograd that made this revolution, spurred into action by the heroic women workers. The emblem of the February Revolution was […]
Continue Reading
Russia in February 1917 was a mass of tensions and contradictions. The slaughter of war seemed endless, the countryside remained gripped by feudal backwardness, the workers in the cities were hungry and angry and millions of national minorities were locked in the oppression of the empire. The soldiers were often sent to the front without […]
Continue Reading
In 1917, the Russian people, especially the working class, took control of society and history. The October Revolution delivered Peace, Bread and Land by ending the slaughter of the Russian soldiers, cutting the working day to eight hours and distributing the feudal estates to the peasants. The new government introduced sweeping democratic gains for women, […]
Continue Reading
Niall Mulholland is a member of the Committee for a Workers’ International. The month of January 1917 began with more setbacks for the Russian army, as the great imperialist slaughter or World War One drew closer to an end. On the Romanian front troops retreated. Morale in the Russian army was extremely low. One and […]
Continue Reading