Surviving Capitalism (Not) : [Russian Revolution part 7 of ?] In Defence of the Russian Revolution

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

[Russian Revolution part 7 of ?] In Defence of the Russian Revolution - part two

The following is a 21:16m concluding video presentation by Alan Woods (via YouTube) regarding some of the major effects of the Russian Revolution on not only Russia but the rest of the world. Woods is a British Marxist expert and author regarding issues and history related to Marxism.

In the second of a series of videos celebrating the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Alan Woods - editor of In Defence of Marxism, www.marxist.com - examines the lies and slanders used to attack the Revolution, the Bolsheviks, and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.

In this second part of "In Defence of the Russian Revolution", Alan examines the nature of the revolution and the subsequent civil war, answering the myths and distortions presented by bourgeois historians about the October Revolution being a "coup" or that Lenin and Trotsky were blood-thirsty tyrants.

As Alan explains, the rhetoric of the capitalists and their apologists reeks of hypocrisy from beginning to end, and it was the counter-revolutionaries in Russia who were responsible for violence.