October Revolution and the victory over fascism

Along with speakers and special guests from fraternal embassies, our party will be marking the 108th anniversary and celebrating the historic achievements made possible by the Great October Socialist Revolution.

We will be marking the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism, a victory possible only because of the impact the October Revolution had not just on the Soviet Union, but also on China, the other principal force in the antifascist fight.

Why celebrate the October Revolution?

We live in a world dominated by greed and misery – billions labour in poverty so a tiny minority of people can live unimaginably extravagant lives. While most workers in Britain have generally been better off – bought off by the loot from the British empire, conditions here are rapidly worsening. Constant wars, increasing poverty, unaffordable housing, rampant inflation, a disappearing social security net and destroyed public servives define 21st-century Britain.

The October Revolution of 1917 is by far the most progressive event in human history; it proved conclusively that there is a way of out of the downward death spiral of imperialist crisis and war.

It ushered in the era of the end of imperialism and the victory of proletarian revolution. Despite all reverses, this is the era we continue to live in; and with capitalist economic crisis again raging, there has never been a better time to revisit the lessons of October.

The history of almost the entire 20th century was shaped by the tremors set in motion by this gigantic earthquake in what was then tsarist Russia.

Defying all predictions, and in the teeth of bitter hostility from the overthrown exploiting classes as well as of international imperialism, Soviet workers and peasants went on to build a powerful socialist state and a powerful socialist economy, in which planned production to satisfy the constantly rising needs of the working masses replaced the anarchy of capitalist production, whose sole motive force is the production of ever increasing amounts of surplus value to satisfy the insatiable greed of a handful of exploiters.

By 1935, the USSR was the only country that had got rid of the scourge of unemployment, while the capitalist world saw the devastating waste of capitalist crisis; unemployment rates in USA (and elsewhere) hit 25 percent. The only ‘way out’ for the imperialist nations (Britain, USA, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, etc) was to drive the entire world to war, at the phenomenal cost of more than 60 million lives (in WW2 alone).

Such was the vitality and strength of the social system of the USSR that she made the single most important contribution to the defeat of the allegedly invincible Nazi war machine. The courage and heroism with which the Soviet soldier and civilian alike fought against fascism is an eloquent tribute to the socialist system that was founded through the October Revolution; a source of pride to workers all over the world.

By its earthshaking achievements in the field of socialist construction, the Soviet working class provided living proof that the working class everywhere is not only capable of destroying the old but also of building the new.

The smashing of tsarism and imperialism by the workers and peasants of Russia and the Russian empire, the successful building of a planned socialist economy by the united Soviet workers and peasants, and the smashing of the ‘invincible’ Nazi war machine by the Soviet armed forces, partisans and peoples – these earth-shaking achievements of workers who had set themselves free from the shackles of capitalist exploitation and servitude lit a flame that still burns, continuing to light the path for workers and oppressed peoples everywhere.

Whatever the zigzags of history, the final victory of communism is inevitable, as is the demise of capitalist imperialism.

As the imperialist plunges ever deeper into its worst-ever crisis, and as its ravages and war drive spark a new wave of anti-imperialist and socialist revolutionary struggles, it is more important than ever not only to celebrate the history of our movement, but to recongnise the necessity of continuing to fight for the bright future the awaits humanity along the road of October.

October proved, and our party stands by the truth, that communism (Marxism-Leninism) is the ideology of the modern working class, which can no more be exterminated than can the proletariat itself.

Come and celebrate, and join with us in struggling to build a bright socialist future for Britain and the world.