Revolution Follow

This exhibition of 30 photographs from the archives of Novosti RAI, the Soviet Press Agency is a must see. It charts the history of Russia from the 1917 revolution to the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Socialist historians met in London last week for a conference on 1956, a key year which saw the Suez crisis and a workers’ revolution in Hungary. Stan Newens, the former left wing Labour MP, was a young activist in London at the time. He spoke to Socialist Worker about the impact of that year on working class people.

Read SR, our new monthly supplement, with a lead article on Venezuela, an interview with leading Marxist David Harvey and great columnists including China Miéville.

There was one word that could be heard being repeated throughout last week’s World Social Forum (WSF) – revolution.

It's barely a year since, at his second inauguration, George Bush proclaimed the commitment of the US to an apparently revolutionary programme of spreading democracy worldwide.

For the last four years Venezuela has been the political centre of the radicalisation of Latin America. Now those who started a revolutionary process are debating how to take the process further. Chris Harman reports from Caracas.

John Newsinger looks at Madison Smartt Bell's trilogy on the Haitian Revolution.

To mark the anniversary of the birth of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Salzburg, Austria, on 28 January 1756 we will once again be regaled with tales of the boy genius who was practically composing masterpieces in his crib.

The headiness of 1990s globalisation has waned. But even though the global economy has slowed and resistance has surged up in the Middle East and elsewhere, the world’s comfortable classes peer hopefully into the coming decades.

"No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, George Bush, says, millions of American people support your revolution. We are expressing our full solidarity with the Venezuelan people."US singer Harry Belafonte, on Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez

There are years when everything changes at once. Conflicts built up over a decade or more suddenly explode and the entire political landscape is transformed. For the British left, 1956 was one of those years.

Back in 1960s Iran, a favourite pastime was mountaineering. At the time, going up to the mountains was viewed by many as a revolutionary act.