Revolution

Hillel Ticktin: The transition to socialism (3 parts)

• No more historical abortions December 14 2006
  Hillel Ticktin highlights the bogus nature of planning in the Soviet Union and locates the central importance of Europe for the transition to socialism
• Seeds of the new society December 7 2006
  Within the symptoms of decline, Hillel Ticktin argues, there are anticipations of the future
• The transition to socialism November 23 2006
  Hillel Ticktin, editor of Critique, examines some of the central elements of Marx’s theory about the future society

• Russia 1917 and the global revolution October 26 2006
  What were the conditions that made Russia ripe for revolution? What were the factors that led to its failure? Boris Kagarlitsky, one of Russia’s leading Marxists, argues for a dialectical approach in analysing the Soviet Union and resuming the tasks of October
• Lessons of October October 26 2006
  Chris Knight of the Radical Anthropology Group looks at how the Bolsheviks combined illegality and legality
• Revolution at the roof of the world April 27 2006
  Communists and democrats throughout the world have been inspired by the determined struggles of the masses in Nepal, writes Eddie Ford
• Arriving republics? April 27 2006
  Dave Craig of the Revolutionary Democratic Group contrasts the anti-monarchist mass movement in Nepal with the queen’s birthday celebrations in Britain
• Labour and revolutionary strategy September 22 2005
  The role of revolutionaries is to understand and connect with the living mass movement, argues Graham Bash (Labour Left Briefing) in this edited version of his speech to this year’s Communist University. But what do we do when that movement is at a low ebb?
• Trotting out time-honoured falsehoods February 24 2005
  Ted North reviews Roy Bainton's A brief history of 1917: Russia’s year of revolution
• Marxism, the general strike and the 1905 revolution January 13 2004
  One hundred years ago the workers of Russia shook tsarism to its very foundations and announced to the world that revolution was once more back on the agenda. General strikes were central to these events. Marxist thinkers - crucially Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg - drew profound conclusions, which, argues Jack Conrad, have today lost none of their relevance

Peaceful revolution? (7 parts)

The 'What we fight for' column of the CPGB states that "workers must be readied to make revolution - peacefully if we can, forcibly if we must." This has provoked some instructive debates amongst CPGB members. References to articles penned by the opposition can be found within the articles below.

• Formulation nine and the possibility of peaceful revolution - part 1 September 19 2002
  Jack Conrad responds to the recent debate over the nature of socialist revolution
• Formulation nine and the dictatorship of the proletariat - part 2 September 26 2002
  Jack Conrad continues his reply to those who have attacked the recently updated ‘What we fight for’ column as a move to the right
• Dictatorship of the proletariat and the Second International - part 3 October 3 2002
  In the third of his articles discussing peaceful and violent revolution Jack Conrad examines the use of the term ‘dictator-ship of the proletariat’ after Marx an Engels
• Russian means and the dictatorship of the minority - part 4 October 10 2002
  In the fourth of his series of articles Jack Conrad examines the background to Lenin’s use of the word ‘dictatorship’ and the role played by the Mensheviks
• Proletarian dictatorship as theory and practice - part 5 October 17 2002
  In the fifth part of his series of articles Jack Conrad discusses the contradictory impact of the October Revolution
• Dictatorship of the proletariat: Bolshevism versus Kautskyism - part 6 October 24 2002
  In the sixth part of his series of articles Jack Conrad discusses the debate between Lenin, Trotsky and Kautsky
• Preparing for power - part 7 October 31 2002
  In the seventh and concluding article in his series Jack Conrad peers into the future
  
  
• Trotsky and the Thermidorian chapter February 28 2002
  The fight to prevent the degeneration of the Bolsheviks was handicapped by an excessive desire to make analogies with the French Revolution, argues Martyn Hudson. In the first of two articles he looks at how Marxists in Russia drew parallels with the downfall of the Jacobins in 1793
• Jacobinism and the Soviet Thermidor March 7 2002
  Turning to the past, especially the France of 1789-1815, in order to understand the Russian Revolution and its subsequent degeneration, had terrifying consequences. Martyn Hudson concludes his two-part discussion