At the beginning of this month, as the first wave of strikes loomed the Blair
government was preparing to square up to the firefighters. "Picket lines
might be crossed… no options are being ruled out" Blair triumphantly
proclaimed. This was a blatant threat of attack. Such actions would have put the
government on a collision course with the unions. It shows how removed from
reality Blair is in arrogantly attempting to trample over the concerns of
working people. However they are in for a rude awakening.
Industrial militancy in Britain is on the increase. It reflects a general
mood in the workplace that enough is enough. The Blair government is not only
confronting the first national firefighters' strike in 25 years, but is facing
action on a number of other fronts. This has raised the spectre of another
Winter of Discontent similar to the one faced by the Callaghan government in
1978/79.
Interview with Mick Shaw member of the FBU EC for the London Region: "We
have now reached the stage where the government and the employers are hiding
behind this so-called 'independent inquiry', and are refusing to engage in
negotiations. Our members see no alternative but to take industrial action in
order to persuade the employers to return to negotiations."
Strikes and protests erupt on women's day in Petrograd and develop into a mass movement involving hundreds of thousands of workers; within 5 days the workers win over the army and bring down the hated and seemingly omnipotent Tsarist Monarchy.
Following the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the reformist leaders called a demonstration to show the strength of "democracy". 400,000 people attended, the vast majority carried banners with Bolshevik slogans.
Spontaneous, armed demonstrations against the Provisional Government erupt in Petrograd. The workers and soldiers are suppressed by force, introducing a period of reaction and making the peaceful development of the revolution impossible.
Following the July days, the Bolsheviks were driven underground and the forces of reaction were emboldened. This process culminated in the reactionary forces coalescing around General Kornilov, who attempt to march on Petrograd and crush the revolutionary movement in its entirety.
The Provisional Government is overthrown. State power passes to the Soviets on the morningm of 26th October, after the Bolsheviks’ Military Revolutionary Committee seize the city and the cabinet surrenders.
The February Revolution saw a mass strike develop from below at a furious pace which posed the question of state power within a week of its inception. Workers in Petrograd took to the streets against intolerable bread shortages, the slaughter…
This reading guide contains some of Lenin’s most important writings and speeches made in the April period, accompanied by works which provide further details of events at that stage of the Revolution.
This reading guide informs the May-June period of the Revolution with analysis, accounts of those who were involved and important speeches and writings of the time.
This selection of texts covers the background, events and consequences of the July Days. Next, we will turn our attention to one of those consequences – the Kornilov putsch in late August.
Kornilov’s failed coup brought the direct action of the masses into play again, and proved to them once and for all that they were the only force in society capable of transforming their own living conditions. For the first time,…
The following series of articles provides in-depth analyses and first-hand accounts of the events immediately preceding, during and after the greatest event in human history: the October Revolution, in addition to reflections on its aftermath.