November 7, 1917
Great October Socialist Revolution

A Watershed Moment Still in the Making

November 7 marks the 107th anniversary of the 1917 Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia (October 26 on the old Julian calendar in use in 1917.)[1] As a result of the Revolution, 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 which created a socialist civil society with full employment, free education, health care and housing for all and no taxes. Its structures recognized membership in the body politic which means they provided political equality for all without exception. Equality is a structure, not a social relation. It must be enshrined in a country’s constitution and is not a matter for rulers to decide based on self-serving criteria as is the case today. So too the system of democratic rule must recognize the right of all citizens to elect and be elected. What are called rights cannot be based on class privileges and exploiting classes must be abolished.

Soviet Russia also ended the crisis created for the Russian people out of the First World War when the October Revolution and Soviet government took Russia out of that bloodiest war fought between the imperialist powers for the redivision of the world. Soviet Russia affirmed that peace, prosperity, freedom and fraternal unity of the peoples are not merely a utopia, a pipe dream. They are attainable when the initiative is in the hands of the working class and people, the necessity of our times.

The Great October Socialist Revolution 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.

In celebrating the achievements of the Great October Revolution, of particular significance is to appreciate how the revolutionaries led by V.I. Lenin solved the problem of vesting the decision-making power in the working class and working masses. 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, including the difficulties they faced, their cause and the means taken to deal with them.

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 by putting the decision-making power in their hands through the Soviets comprised of the working people themselves. Not only did the October Revolution bring an entirely new class to power – the working class – it also inspired the workers, peasantry and oppressed of all lands to embark on the same path.

Today the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) provides first-rate attention to carrying out theoretical work to provide modern definitions for democracy, people’s power, majority rule and related affairs. Its aim is to make sure a system of rule is brought into being which gives the crucial role to the working class and people to resolve the problems they and their society face. These solutions are found by activating the human factor/social consciousness to humanize the natural and social environment so as to provide society with an aim which puts human beings and rights by virtue of being human at the centre of its concerns. In the absence of this work, the ruling circles will continue to usurp the political power and wield it against the interest of the working class and people, causing massive damage to the social and natural environment and the danger of ever greater disasters because they activate the anti-human factor/anti-social consciousness.

Lenin declares Soviet power, October 26, 1917 at the historic meeting of the Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets at the Smolny Institute.

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.”[2]

“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.[3]

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 the historic mission of the working class is to constitute the nation and vest sovereignty in the people. The working class and working people 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. Soviet Russia officially adopted the Gregorian calendar on February 14, 1918.

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

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

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