Email us at wsm_ireland@geocities.com for details of times and location
This day school will examine four of the greatest revolutions of the last century and a half, from an anarchist perspective. The Paris commune, the Russian revolution, the Spanish revolution and the less well known German revolution. Most history textbooks which address these events are principally concerned with political parties, treaties and elections. We, on the other hand, will attempt to look at these revolutions from the point of view of the people. Those organisations, collectives and communes which the people created themselves, before and during the revolution, independent of any political party or external power. These were the tools with which the people made and then defended the revolution.
We will discuss the social movements behind the revolutions and the historical setting. The revolution itself is normally just the tip of the iceberg. It has normally come at the end of a long period during which the workers have struggled for a better society. What caused these particular struggles to burst into revolution and how were these popular movements able to topple the state power?
Revolutions are never as homogeneous as they are presented by most history. Social upheavals create situations where radical opinions gain space to be heard and can win widespread support. This brings the revolution into conflict with the authoritarian and reformist groups who attempt to control and 'lead' it. We examine the arguments between and within the various revolutionary movements, what they said and what they did.
Despite their immense achievement in organising to defeat the bosses, none of these revolutions was successful in organising themselves to defend and expand the revolution. They were all eventually crushed by the forces of reaction, both external and internal. We ask the crucial question: why were these counter-revolutions able to destroy the freedoms, rights and dignity which the workers had taken themselves?
All of these short talks will be followed by an open discussion, during which all attendees will be able to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. The final session of the day will be given over to an open discussion where we will examine what lessons revolutionaries today can draw from these historical revolutions. This day-school is being presented by the Workers Solidarity Movement and we invite all interested parties to come along, share their insights and deepen their understanding of these momentous events.
The defeat of France, in the Franco-Prussian war, caused the collapse of Napoleon the third's empire. Just a few months later, 10 days after the appointment of a new bourgeois government, the workers of Paris revolted, took over the city and declared a commune. Their anger at the terrible conditions which they had to endure was exacerbated by their hunger during Bismark's 4 month siege of Paris. For two months the city of Paris administered itself, however the commune remained isolated, uprisings in other cities had been quickly put down. The bourgeois, terrified of losing their privileges, united and crushed the commune in a savage blood bath.
The struggle, by Russian workers, against the harshly oppressive ruling class and against the poverty of the majority had been simmering since the repression of 1905. The slaughter of millions of workers on the imperial battlefields of the first world war provoked the workers into two revolutions in 1917. The first overthrew the Tsar and replaced him with a liberal government. This created space in which the people could begin to take control of their own lives and build workers organisations. The second, really a coup, placed the Bolsheviks in control of the state apparatus. Over the next 4 years they were to increasingly use this apparatus to dismantle the revolution. The red army's bloody suppression of the uprising at Kronstadt naval base signalled that the revolution was definitely dead and paved the way for Stalin.
The prolonged slaughter of the First World War finally came to an end with the mutiny of the German navy. The mutiny spread to the army and turned into a full-scale revolution as the angry German troops returned home and rejected the state power which had used them as cannon fodder. Despite the defeat of Rosa Luxembourg's Spartacist uprising, the councils and collectives, created by the revolution, persisted. The Social Democratic government eventually succeeded in diverting the revolution towards reformist electoralism. The German bourgeois, on the other hand, were terrified by their loss of control and created the Nazis to oppose the revolution.
The 17th of July 1936, an attempted coup by the military sparked a revolution through much of Spain. The anarcho-syndicalist CNT organised much of the resistance to the coup and was at the forefront of the revolution. The next two years were to see the greatest flowering of libertarian society in modern history. The Spanish workers created their own communes, collectives and federations, in the shadow of the civil war, which functioned remarkably well, albeit for a short time. The revolution was put on hold in the name of winning the war. By the time that the fascists won the civil war most of the gains of the revolution had already been destroyed by the communist party and the social democrats.
In the open discussion it is hoped that we will draw common themes from the various revolutions and examine their relevance to present day struggles. How can we build for a revolution today?
Email us at wsm_ireland@geocities.com for details of times and location