Workers the World Over Aspire to a New Society

November 7 marks the anniversary of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. The first ever socialist workers' state was created and undertook the task to complete 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, which created a socialist civil society with full employment, free education and health care, no taxes and 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 significance of the Great October Revolution to human history has actually increased as a result of the restoration of capitalism in the former Soviet Union, which led to it becoming an imperialist superpower and then to its collapse. The consequence is the brutal neo-liberal anti-social offensive and wars to achieve regime change and domination led by the U.S. imperialists, as they collude and contend with other great powers for domination over spheres of influence and sources of cheap resources, labour and zones for the export of capital with highest returns. 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.

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 national crisis created out of the First World War was resolved in favour of the people. It also ended this bloodiest war in history which was being fought between the imperialist powers for the re-division of the world. The Russian Revolution brought to power those forces which lay latent 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.

  Lenin declares Soviet power, October 26, 1917 at the historic meeting of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets at the Smolny Institute (painting by D. Nalbandyan).

This was the first revolution that created an entirely new society. Socialism appeared on the world historical scene, as predicted by Karl Marx, and 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 socialist and communist society on the world scale.

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 for renewal of the world today which reinforces the Party's resolve to continue until final victory.

The world is in transition from one system to another. The workers of the world and progressive peoples are striving to bring a new world into being. They are taking stock of the present situation in which democratic renewal has emerged as the most important demand in order to humanize the social and natural environment. What people are demanding is to take control of their lives, their decision-making, their political power. The working class is the most important part of this struggle for renewal in which abolishing class privileges and discrimination based on race, culture, nationality, religion, gender, language and privileges has become the battle cry. The content, the words, the analysis and observations, and the demands which the working people are putting forward far exceed the possibilities that the existing forms can provide. As a result, they are calling for a change in the forms to ensure that they can bring about the necessary changes for the resolution of the conflict in their favour. Increasingly, the political processes are coming under fire and the politicians have to resort to even greater deception and anti-people, anti-social laws.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), taking into consideration all the developments of the past more than 100 years since the triumph of the Great October Socialist Revolution, calls on the workers to stand steadfastly behind their cause. The experience of this entire period is very instructive. CPC(M-L) calls on the workers to join with the Party to leave behind everything which has been negative, especially the influence of the bourgeois world outlook, in favour of elaborating their own reference points that help them make heads and tails of unfolding events, and work out what can be done to turn things around in their favour.

It Can Be Done! It Must Be Done!

Note

1. TML Daily, Vol. 22, No. 27, November 7, 1992.

2. TML Weekly, Vol 48 No. 38, November 3, 2018

(Photos: TMLW, TeleSUR)

This article was published in

Volume 49 Number 26 - November 10, 2019

Article Link:
Workers the World Over Aspire to a New Society

    

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