Communist organizations in Russia were joined by
representatives of political parties and
democratic and progressive organizations from
more than 80 countries at a march and rally in
Moscow honouring the 100th anniversary of the
Great October Socialist Revolution.
November 7, 2017.
November 7 marks the 104th anniversary of the
1917 Great October Socialist Revolution in
Russia. In "ten days that shook the world," the
first ever socialist workers' state was created.
The architect of that revolution, the great V.I.
Lenin, spoke to its significance saying that
this revolution undertook the task of completing
the democratic revolution that got underway in
England in the 1660s. Old forms of governance
based on liberal democracy and a bourgeois civil
society were replaced with new ones. This
created a socialist civil society with full
employment, free education, health care and
housing for all and no taxes. It provided
political equality before the law, full
democracy to elect and be elected, no class
privileges and no exploiting classes. It
affirmed that peace, prosperity, freedom and
fraternal unity of the peoples are not merely a
utopia, a pipe dream. They are attainable and
the necessity of our times.
Today, the dregs
of the deposed ruling classes of that time are
consumed with a spectre of communism which
haunts them every time they engage in practices
which go against the people's interests. They
have created a stereotype of socialism which is
a figment of their deranged imaginations,
dominated by morbid preoccupation with their own
demise. Such was the case in the United States
where the Trump campaign declared that a vote
for his adversary was a vote for socialism. Such
is also the case in the defamatory imperialist
propaganda against the Communist Party of China
or Putin's Russia which are called authoritarian
regimes that must be brought to heel by
following the constitutional order espoused in
the United States, Britain, Canada and other
countries. This constitutional order is a
Westminster-style democracy based on the 17th
century Covenant Thesis, which was given rise to
after the English Civil War in the 1660s. Though
outdated and not in sync with the needs of the
21st century, the rule through ministerial
prerogative powers is said to be the paradigm of
democracy.
The so-called rules-based international order
these powers espouse is in fact the paradigm of
authoritarian rule. Nonetheless, accusations are
hurled against those who are seen to be rivals
over control of the sources of cheap resources,
labour, markets for the export of capital and
zones of influence. All of it is used to divert
the attention of the workers and peoples of the
world from how decision-making takes place, and
how to create a system which is able to
effectively channel all the human and material
resources of their countries in a manner which
favours them. This is something which cannot be
done by imposing police rule as the U.S.
imperialists and their allies, including Canada,
are doing.
Where the decision-making power lies must be
acknowledged if a system is to be devised which
puts it into the hands of the people. It is
important to study the achievements of the
Soviet Union and the people's democracies on
this front, the difficulties they faced and
their cause. Unless theoretical work is done to
provide modern definitions for democracy,
people's power, majority rule, public interest
and all other related affairs, the ruling
circles will continue to usurp the political
power and wield it against the interest of the
working class and people.
In fact, the more the counterrevolution
launched since the fall of the former Soviet
Union deepens, the more the significance of the
Great October Revolution to human history
increases. It was the restoration of capitalism
in the Soviet Union which led to its collapse in
the 1989-91 period. It was not a failure of
socialism but of capitalism. Since then, the
consequences of the U.S.-led brutal neo-liberal
anti-social offensive and the wars it has
unleashed to achieve regime change and
domination, have caused tremendous damage to the
peoples of the world and planet earth.
In the conditions of the retreat of revolution,
the world is now waking up to take stock of what
it means to have a society such as the one which
came into being just over one hundred years ago
when Soviet Russia was established and Soviet
power created a new society where the workers
decided all matters in a manner which favoured
their interests.
The conditions of the present are forcing all
concerned to look at the most important events
of the past with the eye of the present, to
assist in securing the future. All over the
world, the peoples are striving to bring new
forms into being, based on democratic principles
which vest sovereign decision-making power in
the people in a manner which is consistent with
the needs of the 21st century.
The October Revolution brought to power those
forces which lay dormant in the bosom of the old
society. The workers, peasants and the
intelligentsia and other working people
established a power which favoured them for the
first time in human history. Not only did the
October Revolution bring an entirely new class
to power -- the working class -- it also
inspired the workers and oppressed of all lands
to embark on the same path.
The crisis created out of the First World War
was resolved in favour of the people when the
October Revolution ended that bloodiest war in
history, a war fought between the imperialist
powers for the redivision of the world.
Lenin declares Soviet power, October 26, 1917,
at the historic meeting of the Second All-Russia
Congress of Soviets at the Smolny Institute.
This was the first revolution that created an
entirely new society. Socialism appeared on the
world historical scene, as predicted by Karl
Marx. The practice of the proletarian revolution
ushered in an entirely new period, the period of
ending the exploitation of persons by persons
and of creating a society based on the working
class constituting the nation and building it in
its own image.
The founder and leader of the Communist Party
of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), Hardial Bains,
emphasized that during the entire period which
has followed the October Revolution, "people
have been profoundly imbued with change.
Everything points to a great upheaval in the
making for the renewal of the society again at
this time. Workers cannot but draw the
conclusion that prejudices and dogmas are no
substitute for a clear conscience and scientific
analysis, on the basis of which the crisis in
the sphere of ideas can be overcome and
cognition can take place in favour of the people
and that this is the necessary ideological
preparation for renewal."[1]
"This period in history is increasingly
bringing forth the necessity to look at all
events in history with an open mind, by
depending on the body of knowledge and
experience of life itself to come to pertinent
conclusions. A grasp of the present, a strong
handle on what is going on in front of one's
eyes, has become vital to ward off that
blindness which presents events in history as
the work of some evil forces, instead of
recognizing them as important milestones on the
high road of civilization," Hardial Bains added.[2]
The Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist) hails the Great October
Revolution with a great deal of revolutionary
optimism, by always keeping in mind that it is
the working people who are to decide their
future themselves. It is their stubborn
persistence to bring about the renewal of the
world today which reinforces the Party's resolve
to answer the call of history.
Notes
1. TML Daily, Vol. 22, No. 27,
November 7, 1992.
2. TML Weekly, Vol. 48, No. 38, November
3, 2018.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 11 - November 7, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M5101115.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
