 |
|
From the third to the thirteenth of November, Alan Woods participated in a
lightening speaking tour of Spain to present the new Spanish language edition of
his book Bolshevism - the Road to Revolution. Around 600 people
attended the meetings, which showed a colossal enthusiasm for the ideas of
Marxism and the lessons of the Russian revolution.
|
|
On Friday November 7, the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, Alan spoke to a meeting of workers and young people in Gijon, in the Asturias, where he opened with the following comment:
"Today is a very special day. It is the anniversary of the greatest event in human history. Why do I say this? Because here for the first time - if we exclude that glorious but brief episode that was the Paris Commune - millions of ordinary men and women overthrew the old oppressive regime and began the task of the socialist transformation of society."
Alan pointed out that there have been many slave rebellions in the course of history, and that the destiny of all these uprisings was to be crushed in blood:
"If you ever visit Rome, you can stand on the Appian Way and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere of the sunset with its glorious colours and the song of the nightingale. But you must try to imagine that same scene with thousands of slaves placed at regular intervals all along the Appian Way, crucified after the defeat of the uprising of Spartacus."
He continued:
"Today there is a growing industry in books about the Russian Revolution. All these books have one thing in common: they are motivated by hatred of the October Revolution, the Bolshevik Party and its main leaders Lenin and Trotsky, who are depicted as bloodthirsty monsters.
"Reading these books, mostly written by ‘learned professors’ with strings of letters after their names, one is struck by the completely venomous tone they adopt when they write about the Bolsheviks. Despite the air of spurious ‘impartiality’, which they always try to adopt, we can see the hatred and spite dripping from every line.
 |
|
In the course of his lectures Alan gave some fascinating insights into the history of the Bolshevik Party and the three revolutions that took place in 1905, February 1917 and October 1917. But above all he stressed the relevance of this to the new generation:
"Why should we study history? What use is it to read about events that have passed long ago? We do not regard history, as most people do, just as a series of more or less interesting anecdotes or a fairy story to be read at bedtime to send one to sleep. No! History is much more important than that! The importance of history was very well expressed by the American philosopher George Santayana, who said: ‘He who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat it.’
"History is like the collective memory of society. And memory is very important for all of us. Where would we be without memory? We would be always like babies, crawling on all fours. In animals, important information is transmitted genetically. But in humans that is not the case. Where is the mechanism whereby the lessons of the past can be transmitted from one generation to the next? The only mechanism is the party. The revolutionary party is the memory of the working class.
"Just as army officers study the history of past wars to prepare for the wars of the future, so revolutionaries have to study the history of the class struggle in general and revolutions in particular. That is the purpose of the present lecture."
In several meetings Alan answered questions put by anarchists. Although they are still very weak, recently anarchist trends have been growing as a result of the bankruptcy of the reformist leaders of the mass workers organisations. As Lenin once said, ultra leftism is the price the movement has to pay for opportunism. The monstrous opportunism of the workers leaders gives rise to ultra left and anarchist moods among a layer of the youth. But Alan pointed out that anarchism is a blind alley:
"Bukharin once said that anarchism has two rules. The first rule is that you must not form a party. The second rule is that nobody must obey the first rule! The argument that we don’t need parties and leaders is false to the core. As a matter of fact it is not even logical. If my shoe pinches my foot, the answer is not to go barefoot but to get a shoe that fits. If our food is bad the conclusion is not that we must go without food altogether but that we need decent, tasty wholesome food. If I am not satisfied with my doctor, I look for a better one.
Why should it be any different with a party or leadership? The present leadership of the working class is very bad. We agree on this. But the conclusion is not that we do not need a leadership, but that we must fight to replace the present leadership - one that really represents the interests and aspirations of the working class."
Alan went on to explain how in Spain in 1936 the leadership of the anarchists refused to form a workers government in Catalonia when they had the chance and then joined a bourgeois government and helped to shipwreck the revolution.
The composition of these meetings was very mixed: workers and students, young and old, Socialists and Communists. In the meeting in Bilbao university - a particularly lively and enthusiastic meeting - there were also some radical Basque nationalists who asked about the national question, and were given a lesson on proletarian internationalism, which they listened to very intently. As in Ireland the tactics of the radical nationalists have led to an impasse and there is a deep crisis in their ranks. Many of the rank and file are thinking long and hard about the past, present and future and are increasingly turning in the direction of Marxism.
 |
|
The tour covered many parts of Spain: Barcelona (Catalonia, 2 meetings), Vitoria, Bilbao (Basque Country), Oviedo, Gijon and Aviles (Asturias), Seville (Andalusia, 2 meetings) and finally Madrid (2 meetings). The final meeting in Madrid was held in the headquarters of the Workers Commissions. The hall was packed with well over a hundred people. In the audience, alongside the trade unionists and youth, there was a very well known Spanish writer, Gonzalo Puente Ojea. A confirmed atheist and Marxist, by some miracle, Gonzalo was made ambassador to the Vatican under the last Socialist government. Naturally, he did not last long!
Gonzalo has written many books on philosophy and religion, mostly attacks on religion and the Catholic Church. He is a great admirer of Reason in Revolt, which he has cited in his own books. He is known and respected for his outspoken views. And when he spoke in the meeting, he was on excellent form. His remarks were mainly on the question of the so-called Transition in Spain after the death of Franco, which he characterised as "the fraud of the century". Speaking with indignation, he denounced the role of the leaders of the movement who did everything in their power to derail the revolutionary movement of the masses. The result was the present abortion of the so-called "constitutional monarchy".
Alan ended an inspiring meeting with an appeal to all workers and youth to join the Marxist tendency represented in Spain by El Militante and fight to build a mass revolutionary movement that will be capable of ousting the right wing and reclaiming the workers movement, returning it to its real traditions:
"There is no power on earth that can stop the working class once it is organised and mobilised for the socialist transformation of society," he said. "It is time to stop telling the workers ‘We are too weak’ ‘We cannot’ It is time to say ‘We can, and we will’. We are not so few, as this meeting shows. What is needed is to unite the Left with firm policies. This can only be done by Marxism. Together, we can win!"
The meeting ended with enthusiastic applause and the singing of the Internationale.
November 25, 2003.