100 Years Of November Revolution
This is the hundredth year of November revolution. About a hundred years ago in November 1917 the working class of Russia overthrew the bourgeois rule and captured power. In the history of the proletarian class struggle, the significance of November Revolution is immense. It is that revolution which for the first time aroused hopes of liberation from all kinds of exploitation and oppression among the working class and all the exploited, toiling masses of the world. It aroused the belief, the conviction that truly such a society can be built in this world where there won't be any exploitation of man by man, the rich-poor discrimination will be swept aside and all human being will be equal.
The hundred years that followed that earth-shaking revolution has been a period of tumultuous events and unfettered stirring up not only in the history of the working class struggle but for the humanity at large. While in the first half of this hundred years there has been big advances in the struggles of the working class and toiling masses, in the second half there have been equally big debacles. After the Russian revolution with the spread of the communist movement to the colonies and semi-colonies it truly became an international movement. With the workers and peasants capturing power through the Chinese people's Democratic Revolution and the revolutions in the East European countries just after the Second World War, the socialist camp appeared irresistible before the world. It was such a time when not only the workers and peasants and toiling masses were attracted towards the emergent possibility of a classless society throughout the world but even the exploiters started thinking that there end was near.
But from this point of culmination started a period of unprecedented defeat. The decline that occurred in the international socialist movement during the subsequent 40-50 years is really unthinkable. Proletarian power got defeated in Russia. Not only in this country but in numerous countries the Revisionists-Reformists established their dominance in the communist parties. It is not that there haven't been any resistance against the campaign of the Revisionists and Reformists. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party political-ideological struggle started, revolutionary parties were formed in different countries. But those parties soon came into the grips of ultra-left deviations. The result has been disastrous. For the last 40 years there is almost no communist party in any country of the world. Russia and East Europe fell. Actually the defeat of proletarian power had occurred earlier and capitalist rule had been established in these countries. But there was a facade of communist party rule, of socialism over that capitalist rule. With mass protests that facade also fell. The facade of Chinese Communist Party rule still exists in China but it is no more a secret that what is continuing there is nothing but capitalism. All in all the deep and extensive defeat of international socialist movement has raised profound questions about socialism and communism, within the working class and different sections of the toiling masses. Working class is presently dispersed and devastated.
In such a devastated condition of the proletariat we are commemorating that great event of proletarian class-struggle which at one time not only greatly inspired the proletariat and all the toiling sections of the world but also showed them the path ahead. Undoubtedly to the communists this is a time for self-introspection, a time for re-examination of lots of apparently accepted ideas. The communists i.e. the advanced proletariat must understand why such a big defeat has occurred. But at the same time if we are unable to remember those positive lessons of history, from the glorious history of working-class struggle that we have inherited, then how will we get the strength to move forward? How will we be able to inspire and encourage the working-class to carry out the cherished tasks?
The positive lessons of Russia's November Revolution are so extensive and deep that it is impossible to be explained within the small confines of this editorial. We can at most discuss some primary, initial aspects. However, that is also very much necessary for the present. This is necessary because the way the Revisionists-Reformists are commemorating November Revolution, the way they are bringing before us its lessons, through that they are actually confusing the very revolutionary essence of it. On the one hand, they are hailing the November Revolution, while on the other, by betraying with the revolutionary politics and the lessons of the November Revolution, they are limiting the working class and the toiling masses into the arena of crass obsessive electoralism and parliamentarism, which are confines of reformist politics. In this way they have betrayed against the working-class, revolution and socialism. Because of this the revolutionaries, the representatives of the proletariat must understand in clear terms the actual lessons of the November Revolution, which will clearly demarcate and define the direction in which we must proceed today.
November Revolution is the first revolution in world history where the majority of exploited, oppressed people living in the lower rungs of society consciously arose to free themselves from all kinds of exploitation and oppression. The peasantry arose against the landlords. They wanted rights over land. The workers demanded the end to exploitation by the employers. All the oppressed people demanded end of autocracy and establishment of democracy - not the fake democracy of the bourgeoisie that merely ensures the right to vote. They aspired for truel democracy where really in the interests of the workers and peasants the worker-peasants power will be established. Their conscious aim was establishment of a classless communist society. The November Revolution of 1917 was the first step in that direction by the Russian working class, when they captured power by dislodging the provisional government of the bourgeois and Mensheviks. What the revolutionary government did on assuming power, did the world see such things done anytime anywhere earlier? No, never. All revolutions prior to this destroyed the power of one exploiting class to establish the power of another exploiting class. November Revolution is the first revolution that did not seize the power of one exploiting class and place the power in the hands of another exploiting class. Dislodging the exploited classes, it placed the exploited classes in power. November Revolution did not teach the exploited, oppressed masses to live with some mere reforms and relief. It brought to the exploited and oppressed masses the real flavor of liberation from exploitation.
Not only in our country, in many countries the Revisionists-Reformists are continuing with their dominance in the struggle of the working class and toiling masses. They have taught the working class and the toiling masses to remain satisfied with the reforms and relief doled away by the ruling classes. They have made these masses forget the necessity of revolution, surrendered away the agenda of liberation, making them only think of how to remain somewhat better within this system. Their logic has always been, revolution is not possible now and so there should be attempts for getting some reforms only. But if we really want to learn lessons from the November Revolution then we must understand that November Revolution did not suddenly come in one day. There was a long history of struggle of the Russian working class behind it. Through small reliefs the Tsar repeatedly tried to keep the working class struggle confined within the ruling system. The Reformists also tried to teach them to remain confined within it. The Bolsheviks, under whose leadership the struggle of the Russian working class advanced, taught how to keep aloft the flag of revolution even in an extremely non-revolutionary situation, how to keep alive the vision of a revolution continuing the struggle against reformism. Do the Reformists-Revisionists who have betrayed against the working class struggle, followed the capitalist policies, taught the masses to live satisfied with reforms by forming a government within the bourgeois system, have any right to commemorate November Revolution? Definitely not. But those who think of themselves as revolutionaries are they also being able to really keep aloft the flag of revolution? Those who are setting aside the agenda of revolution and bringing into prominence the demands for reforms on the alibi of the present situation being non-revolutionary, are they playing a revolutionary role in real terms? Can November Revolution be commemorated in this way? On one hand we will set aside the agenda of revolution, display with prominence to the toiling masses the demands for relief and reforms, and on the other commemorate November Revolution - isn't this mere formal worship?
Another big lesson of November Revolution is, the emancipation of working class is the task of the working class itself. It is not a mere platitude that the working class is not only able to emancipate itself; it is the only class which is destined to bring along with its emancipation the emancipation of the whole of the exploited, oppressed masses. This very truth has once again been proven by the November Revolution after the Paris Commune. Every phase of the November Revolution carries with it the imprint of the great role played by the working class. The receptacle of revolutionary power the Soviets were purely the creation of the working class. Not only that, the workers' insurrection during the 1917 February Revolution was not due to any prior plan of the party but a result of the initiative of the advanced sections of the working class themselves. The insurrection and seizure of power during November, though carried out as planned by the Bolsheviks, but still then it is the working class who played an active role in it. Then holding on to that power, spreading the Soviet power to the countryside during the subsequent four years of civil war, liberating the whole of Russia from the rule of the capitalists and landlords, all these would not have been possible if thousands of advanced workers did not keep alive the revolution and advance it, in spite of great sacrifices and heroism. The working class forces led and directed the battle against the aggression of an alliance of imperialist countries and the reactionary white guards, drew the peasantry in favour of the revolution and carried on with the factory production in the midst of all this. They tried to lead the factory productions, started with accounting, attempted to establish the control of the total production of the country, and also tried to play the active role in the new ruling system of the country. Thus through their heroic role in the November Revolution the Russian working class proved before the world that they were the real leaders of the revolution, that the agenda of working class leadership is not merely a platitude. May be being the working class of a comparatively backward capitalist country their role had many incompleteness, but still they displayed, as their rich experience reveals even today, that the working class can only emancipate the society from exploitation and carry it forward towards a communist society.
November Revolution once again reminds us that as a communist our commitment towards working class leadership cannot remain as merely lip-service, the actual task of the communists is to help the working class so that they can act independently for their cherished role, helping the class to attain its true leading position. No other class, no other section of society can replace working class from this position. The Revisionists and Reformists have for a long time removed the working class from its real class position and placed them in the ranks of all other oppressed classes. They have betrayed with the working class and diverted them from the path of class struggle to that of class compromise. And those who claim themselves to be communist revolutionaries, they are also not ready to recognize the importance of the working class in respect of the other exploited classes, although in words they recognize the leadership of the working class.
But the Russian working class would not have been able to play this role if its advanced detachment did not get organized within the Bolshevik Party and had they not gone through a continuously developing class struggle against capital and against Tsarist monarchy and for it the very necessary task of continued political-ideological struggle against reformism-revisionism under the leadership of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party. Through such struggles the party prepared the class and the class helped the party to develop. On one hand the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, the name by which the communist party was called then, especially after a period, its Bolshevik wing organized the advanced sections of the working class, the class-conscious detachment within the party. On the other, as the advanced detachment of the working class was organized in the party, it got the strength to struggle and stand firmly against various bourgeois deviations. It is true that sometime later, the party went out of the grip of the working class, and the capitalist roaders inroaded the party. But that doesn't take away from us the relevance of the lesson of the November Revolution that, for overall fundamental change of a society, for advancement towards a communist society, the working class needs a class-party of their own, a party which is not a working class party merely in name, but is built up mainly on the strength of advanced sections of the working class, a party that will proceed with working class politics and it will protect the interests of the working class as against all other classes in society. Those who point out at the degeneration of the communist parties and on that basis question the necessity of a working class party, they actually prescribe the working class and toiling masses to surrender away their weapon, to make the working class helpless against the exploiting bourgeois class and the toiling masses helpless against all exploiting classes.
It is true that November Revolution has been defeated. But it will remain alive in the midst of proletarian class struggle with the aim of liberation from exploitation, its lessons will remain alive and it will always be like a beacon showing the path ahead. Long live November Revolution!
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