After President Chirac’s intervention
and the refusal of the government to back down, the only way to
defeat the CPE is for an all out mobilisation of the working class
for a 24-hour general strike to bring down the government.
As we reported, French workers and students took to the
streets on Tuesday, March 28, in a massive way. The only way the
workers and youth can move forward to victory and avoid falling into
tiredness and disappointment, is by declaring a proper and effective
general strike aimed not only at the withdrawal of the Contrat
Première Embauche but also at the unseating of the current
government, which has by far overrun its mandate.
Today’s
strikes and demonstrations brought over three million workers onto
the streets of France, with 700,000 marchers in Paris and 250,000 in
Marseille. In the last 60 years, this movement has only been equalled
by those of the revolutionary events of May and June 1968. It is
provoking serious divisions right at the top of the ruling class, a
clear symptom of revolutionary developments.
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.