Notes from the front of 05-03-2018
*** Left implodes in Italian elections, big advance for right
*** German SPD decides yet again to enter right wing coalition
Europe
BBC interview with Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou McDonald
BBC interview with Sinn Fein Leader Mary Lou McDonald, following her meetings this week with Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May.
Pamphlet: Russia 1917 – the revolution that created today’s world
The Russian Revolution of October 1917 was the pivotal event of the 20th century and of subsequent history until today.
Download the Socialist Action pamphlet here
‘Independence March’ – The Unholy Alliance of the Polish Right
By Gavin Rae
The annual Independence march (Marsz Niepodległości) took place in Warsaw on 11 November. Over 60,000 people attended, some of them masked and setting off red smoke bombs. Banners were carried with slogans supporting things such as a ‘white’ Poland and Europe and against refugees and Muslims. Some demonstrators wore the Celtic cross or the pre-war fascist symbol (the falanga). Representatives of other far-right parties in Europe attended the march, with the former leader of the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson, boasting that he ‘had an amazing time with polish patriots marching against Islam’.
Russia 1917: another world made possible
On 25 October 1917 (7 November in the Gregorian calendar) the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, organised an uprising that overthrew the weak and vacillating Provisional Government that had emerged from the overthrow of the Tsar earlier that year.
At 10am on the 25th the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies announced that the Provisional Government had been deposed and that state power had passed into the hands of the Military Revolutionary Committee, pending the convocation of the All Russian Congress of the Soviets.
The articles below explore the significance of the October Revolution, the state it created and its contribution to the progress of humanity.