Lenin

Why Lenin said Communists must try to affiliate to Labour

How to relate to members of the Labour Party has always been one of the most important questions for revolutionaries in Britain. In 1920, when the Communist Party of Great Britain was founded, it was a central debate.

Bosses' state of misrule

What is the state? Does it always act for the bosses or does it have its own interests? In the wake of the Mark Duggan verdict, Annette Mackin explains its role

Get ready to change the world

The Revolutionary Socialists sprung from underground to play a leading role in Egypt’s revolt. Sameh Naguib explains how they built a party to shape the struggle

Competition winners: Lenin Football T-shirt

We can now reveal the winners of our November competition to win a Philosophy Football T-shirt.

Competition: Lenin Football T-shirt

"For those who desire not simply an aimless skipping from instance to instance, an integral central movement will take us forward towards a great goal," said Lenin.

Egyptian Revolution: ‘None of us in our wildest dreams could have imagined what happened that day’

As the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin said, "There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen."

Is this a revolution or just a coup?

15 February 2011
Leon Trotsky recalls in his memoirs that, immediately after the Russian Revolution of October 1917, Lenin said to him in German, "Es schwindelt"—"It makes one dizzy."

Competition winners

14 December 2010
Congratulations to Stephen Lowdon of County Durham and Jimmy Burns of Southport who won our competition and will now receive a Lenin kitchen apron and a Big Red Diary—also available from <a href="http://www.redstuffshop.com">www.redstuffshop.com</a>

Red Stuff Shop

30 November 2010
The Red Stuff shop has an exciting range of new goodies, including the Ding, Dong, Thatcher’s Gone party pack and everything from socialist mugs to T-shirts and jewellery and a Lenin kitchen apron.

State and Revolution: Why we need to smash the state

09 November 2010
The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin wrote this book in the midst of the extreme violence of the First World War, and the revolutionary upheaval taking place in Russia in 1917.

Lessons from Lenin

20 October 2009
Whether supporting the post workers, trying to stop the fascists, or campaigning to end the war in Afghanistan, people may well encounter members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), intervening in and assisting these struggles.

Why read Lenin today?

09 December 2008
About 40 years ago, an ageing relative gave me a leaflet from 1925. Under the heading "Lenin Lives!" it urged us to "come en masse" to New York’s Madison Square Garden for a Sunday afternoon event.

Analysing imperialism and resisting the First World War

18 September 2007
In August 1914 the First World War broke out in Europe. Lenin, the Russian Bolshevik leader, had long argued that a war could create a revolutionary situation in which workers would rise up against the barbarism.

The art of intervening in shifting struggle

26 June 2007
The revolution in Russia in February 1917 created a very unstable situation with two sources of power – the provisional government and the soviets, or workers’ councils. Lenin called this "dual power".

A mass party born in the 1905 Revolution

12 June 2007
In the first few years of the 20th century, Lenin argued the case for a democratic and centralised revolutionary party made up of committed activists who could bring socialist politics to workers' struggles.

When spontaneous struggle is not enough

05 June 2007
The name Lenin tends to elicit two very different reactions from today’s anti-capitalists. As an uncompromising revolutionary, dedicated to the cause, Lenin remains an inspiring figure to this day.

A stark choice: Leninism or liberalism

15 April 2006
A stark choice: Leninism or liberalism

Lenin for the 21st century

24 September 2005
One of the best things about the current anti-war movement is the range of people involved. Nuns, Muslims and atheists march together in good-humoured unity. But one face that hasn’t been very visible is Lenin’s. If he appears at all, it is on banners alongside Stalin and Mao Zedong — company he would have detested.

The myth of Mao

18 June 2005
Many people on the left once saw the Chinese leader Mao Zedong as a great revolutionary — in the same league as Marx, Engels and Lenin. They carried Mao’s portrait on many of the demonstrations across the world in the late 1960s.

Who murdered this left wing leader?

29 January 2005
A popular left wing leader in the assembly of the Indian state of Jharkhand was assassinated by gunmen on 16 January. Mahendra Singh, a leading member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), was killed as he prepared to run for his fourth successive term in office.