Revolution

Hungary's chaotic and magnificent revolution

28 October 2006
It is 50 years since the Hungarian people overthrew the Stalinist regime in our country, in a chaotic yet magnificent revolution. Memories of the Second World War were not distant in 1956.

Hungary 1956: autumn of hope

28 October 2006
More than any other event, Hungary’s revolution in 1956 revealed the real nature of the Soviet bloc’s "socialism". What had begun in Russia in 1917 as a genuine workers revolution had, under Joseph Stalin, degenerated into an imperial system imposed by force and defended by tanks.

Labour in cartoons 2: 1924 - The Trojan horse

21 October 2006
The end of the First World War coincided with a huge wave of workers’ uprisings across Europe, fuelled by the Bolsheviks coming to power in the 1917 Russian Revolution.

Tony Cliff: arming the party for future struggles

21 October 2006
The opportunities for revolutionary socialists in Britain began to improve in the 1960s. The long economic boom was faltering, with Britain falling behind its competitors.

Pierre Broué: The German Revolution, 1917-1923

14 October 2006
Pierre Broué’s brilliant Marxist history of the German Revolution has just been published as an English language paperback. Ian Birchall introduces two extracts from the book

Tony Cliff: How were Third World revolutions deflected?

14 October 2006
Last week I discussed how Leon Trotsky’s followers were thrown into confusion when the reality of the world after 1945 failed to fit with Trotsky’s predictions.

George Galloway: Unite to end disaster of Blairite policies

16 September 2006
He who half makes a revolution digs his own grave. Those words from the great French revolutionary Saint-Just don’t appear to have made much of an impression on the well read chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown.

The Russian Revolution and national freedom

09 September 2006
We live during a new wave of struggles for national freedom and dignity, expressed most strongly in the Middle East and Latin America, but finding a reflection in the heartlands of imperialism.

Power that came from the rank and file

19 August 2006
The upturn in industrial militancy that took place from 1970-4 remains the most intense period of British class struggle since the turbulent years at the end of the First World War when Britain stood on the brink of revolution.

Is an Arab revolution on the agenda?

19 August 2006
"The Arab people now consider Hizbollah to be heroes because they are confronting the enemy Israel and protecting their land... Even if Hizbollah were destroyed, another Hizbollah would emerge within a year or two somewhere else - maybe in Jordan, in Syria, in Egypt or in Iraq."

An agricultural ‘revolution’ begins in Bolivia - but many obstacles lie ahead

12 August 2006
On 2 August, Bolivia’s radical president Evo Morales and his cabinet travelled to the small town of Ucureña, where, in front of 50,000 agricultural labourers, they pledged to radicalise the process dubbed Bolivia’s "agrarian revolution".

Democracy and revolution in the Arab world

12 August 2006
"How long before there’s a revolution?" This question was asked by the journalist Robert Fisk in the Independent last week as he considered the implications for the Arab world of the turmoil in Lebanon.

Ted Grant 1913-2006

29 July 2006
Ted Grant, who died last week, was one of the last survivors of the generation of Trotskyists who inherited the movement after the Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky’s murder in 1940.

The Spanish Revolution 1936 to 1939

22 July 2006
Our commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Revolution starts with Fighting the fascists, creating a new world by Andy Durgan, historical advisor on Ken Loach's Land and Freedom, examining the politics of the cilvil war.

Timeline of the Spanish Revolution

22 July 2006
September 1923King Alfonso XIII scraps parliamentary monarchy, installs a military dictatorship under General Miguel Primo de Rivera.January 1930Faced with rising opposition, Primo de Rivera is replaced.April 1931The left wins local elections. The king flees Spain. Crowds enthusiastically proclaim the new Republic.October 1934Right wing government takes office. Armed miners rise and create the Asturian Commune.

Russia and socialism

15 July 2006
Many people today are interested in a revolutionary alternative to capitalism. But they often worry that socialism is associated with the brutality of Stalinism, a system which dominated Russia and Eastern Europe for much of the 20th century and that was no better than Western capitalism.

Reviews round-up

08 July 2006
Kandinsky: The Path To AbstractionTate Modern, central London until 1 October<a href="http://www.tate.org.uk" target = "_blank">www.tate.org.uk</a> A new exhibition follows the journey of Russian revolutionary artist Wassily Kandinsky from a figurative landscape painter to one of the founders of modern art. Kandinsky’s artistic revolution was heavily influenced by the Russian revolutionary movement and the revolution that occurred in Russia in 1917. This is an inspirational exhibition, with paintings conveying political turmoil and the birth of a new hope.

Karol Modzelewski: ‘The rebellion had all the features of a classic revolutionary uprising’

01 July 2006
Karol Modzelewski was a student and political activist in 1956. He went on to co-write the Open Letter to the Party, which challenged Stalinism from the left and was key to setting up the Solidarity union. Karol answered questions from Socialist Worker

Irish independence didn’t bring radical change

01 July 2006
James Connolly, the Irish revolutionary socialist executed for his part in the 1916 rising, said that partition of Ireland would produce a "carnival of reaction North and South".

French left debate need for alternative

01 July 2006
The Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR) held its national conference last weekend. The main item discussed was the policy of the organisation towards the 2007 presidential election.