The following is an address that a Consistent Democrats spokesperson delivered on 8th November. to an event hosted by the New Communist Party to celebrate the anniversary of the Russian October Revolution of 1917.
I bring greetings on behalf of the Consistent Democrats to this reception organised by the New Communist Party, which celebrates what is still (so far) the greatest event in world history, the Russian October revolution of 1917. We in the Consistent Democrats stand in the tradition of the Bolshevik Party, and of the Communist International it created, with other revolutionary forces, after the Revolution. The revolution grew from mass working-class discontent with the imperialist world war, not just in Russia, but throughout Europe, the main war theatre. Which then spread worldwide.
In Russia the backwardness of the Tsarist regime, and its terrible fortunes in war, the privations of the mass of the people, especially women, caused an explosion first. And there was a party, the Bolshevik Party, with the programme and will to seize the revolutionary situation that resulted, that was able in the nick of time to correct its course. As immediately after the February Revolution, before Lenin was able to return to Russia, the party had settled on a perspective of supporting the bourgeois coalition “Insofar as” it supposedly supported the revolution. But Lenin, armed with his new understanding of the imperialist war, understood that the Provisional Government was a disguised imperialist government, and would seek to crush the revolution to maintain Russia’s role in the war. So Lenin presented his April Theses on his return to Russia, which put forward a perspective of no support to the bourgeois Provisional Government. It started with the perspective that the party should ‘patiently explain” to the masses the imperialist nature of the Provisional Government and the need to replace it with a workers’ and peasants’ government.
As the inevitable conflict between the masses and the government developed, the Bolsheviks raised slogans such as “down with the ten capitalist ministers” aiming to force the Mensheviks and other ‘lefts’ to break with the imperialists… And later “All power to the Soviets’ as is became clear that the masses’ conflict with the bourgeoisie was headed for civil war. Even though they had to briefly draw back in July, as the danger of a premature confrontation loomed, and Lenin had to go into hiding. When the situation calmed down, and the revolutionary situation further matured, Lenin was able to work with others, notably Trotsky, in pushing forward the organisation of the masses to actually overturn the imperialist government in real life. I will pause the narrative there, as that is a brief, perhaps too brief, description of what we are celebrating. I did say that the October revolution was the greatest event in human history “so far”. We have not quite reached those heights since. Because even though there have been crucial revolutions since, and huge wars of liberation and defeats of imperialism, the 1917 revolution was unique because of the internationalist vision of its leading party.
The Bolshevik Party saw themselves, and the international movement they founded, the Third or Communist International, as a political army fighting for the world socialist revolution in an immediate sense. Whereas later, by the late 1920s, after Lenin had died and Trotsky, among others, had been driven away from the leadership, the international became quite conservative, and retreated from fighting for international revolution. It was would up in 1942. And nothing has been created to replace it since. Trotsky in exile tried hard to create a replacement, the Fourth International, but simply did not have the forces to do so at the time. That is not to speak of the fact that many who should have known better, were hostile to the idea at the time.
Today, we need an international like the Communist International. We face capitalism in decay, with is nuclear destructive capacity, and its irrationality threatening humanity with destruction, either nuclear holocaust, or an environmental holocaust that is on the horizon. We also have several partial gains of the world revolution, direct and indirect, which must be defended at all costs against imperialist attack, and attempts by imperialism to make use of capitalist forces within them. We still have workers states in China, Vietnam, Cuba, Laos and the DPRK. Some of them are severely deformed, and/or have strong and dangerous capitalist forces within them but must still be defended.
Then there is Russia, where the counterrevolution didn’t really succeed, and there has been a partial return to a new kind of mixed economy, where the state component is not capitalist at all, unlike with nationalisation under capitalism. That must also be defended. In all these places, and the world generally, we need to see the rebirth of something like the Third International, a genuine world party of socialist revolution. Whatever number you put on the International, whether Fourth, Fifth or whatever, it has to be like the early Third.
It needs to fight to complete what Lenin and his comrades – the world socialist-communist revolution, with the party at the head of a class-conscious proletariat. That is what the Consistent Democrats want, and we will work side-by-side with any Communists, from whatever background and tradition, who seek the same thing. That is why we are here today. Thank you, comrades.
