revolutions
Articles about political and social revolutions.
The German Revolution - Paul Mattick
The German Revolution, chapter 7 from Mattick's work Reform or Revolution, looks at the events upsurge of working class militancy in Germany during November 1918.
Contrary to Bolshevik expectations, the Russian Revolution remained a national revolution. Its international repercussions involved no more than a growing demand for the ending of the war. The Bolsheviks’ call for an immediate peace without annexations and reparations found a positive response among the soldiers and workers in the Western nations.
The Hungarian Soviet Republic of 1919: The Forgotten Revolution - Alan Woods
Trotskyist Alan Woods on the Hungarian uprising of 1919. Wood's account suffers from the usual analytical errors by Trotskyists but is included for reference to these little-known events.
November 12, 1979
Hungary '56 - Nick Heath
A history of the Hungarian uprising of 1956, published as a special supplement of Anarchist Worker on the 20th anniversary in 1976
IT IS NOT out of love for nostalgia that we are commemorating the 1956 Hungarian uprising. Hungary '56 was a prime example of the working class itself reaching for power: doubly significant, it took place in one of the mythical 'workers' states'.
1917: The Proletariat's Democratic Revolution in Finland
The following is an excerpt from 'The Truce and the Great Retrenchment' - Chapter 6 of Year One of the Russian Revolution by Victor Serge.
Sacrificed by the Bolsheviks at the negotiating table as they agreed the Brest-Litovsk treaty with international capital ("The revolution will not be lost simply because we will be giving the Germans Finland, Latvia and Estonia" - Lenin, Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp.
The Hungarian Revolution: 1956
This is an anonymous account of the events of the near revolution of 1956, containing interesting information from interviews with participants.
Details are included from Columbia University Research Project interviews with participants which are a nice complement to the information in our other Hungary '56 articles.
[11,000 words]
For a short history, we recommend our article The Hungarian Uprising, 1956 on libcom.org/history.
Gasping from out the Shallows: Reflections on revolution in the early twenty-first century
A text by Wayne Spencer giving an overview of struggles in the UK, Poland, South Africa and Italy alongside his reflections on the possibilities for revolution and revolutionary theory in the 21st century.
Gasping from out the Shallows
Reflections on revolution in the early twenty-first century
By Wayne Spencer
1890-1924: Anarchism in Hungary
A history of the anarchist movement, and key anarchists in Hungary up until the aftermath of the 1918 Revolution.
In reaction to the pedestrian Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, founded in 1890, which constantly appealed to the bourgeoisie, often forming alliances with its progressive elements, emerged a far more radical anarchist current. Count Ervin Batthany became friends with Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin whilst in London.
1867-2000: A people’s history of Mexico
A working class history of Mexico from the Diaz administration of 1876, through the Revolution of 1910 to the beginning of the 21st century.
The Revolution was the period which saw the Mexican state begin its transformation from an oligarchical-landowners' government to the one-party corporatist model which survived for so long
1944-1989: The coup and US intervention in Guatemala
Noam Chomsky on the US intervention and coup following the 1944 revolution which overthrew Guatemala's brutal dictator.
Making Guatemala a killing field
1978-1979: The Iranian Revolution
A history and analysis of the revolution in which socialists aligned themselves with Islamists to overthrow the West-backed Shah.
Following the success of the revolution, the Islamists instituted a theocratic dictatorship and wiped out the workers' movement and the left.
