uprisings
1921: The Kronstadt rebellion
The history of the rising of the naval town of Kronstadt in Russia by workers and sailors supporting the original aims of the 1917 Revolution against the new Bolshevik dictatorship. The rebellion was crushed by Red Army troops under Trotsky's command.
The Kronstadt rebellion took place in the first weeks of March, 1921. Kronstadt was (and is) a naval fortress on an island in the Gulf of Finland. Traditionally, it has served as the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet and to guard the approaches to the city of St. Petersburg (which during the first world war was re-named Petrograd, then later Leningrad, and is now St.
1920: An uprising in Munster
A hidden history of sympathy strikes, socialism, workers' councils and revolution in a corner of rural Ireland.
When the red flag flew in Munster
1917-1921: The Ukrainian Makhnovist movement
The history of the revolutionary movement in the Ukraine - the anarchist Makhnovists - at the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
The revolution in the Ukraine was a libertarian revolution, and the workers and peasants fought both Tsarist reaction and Bolshevik domination.
1909: The Barcelona revolt
A brief history of a successful general strike and rebellion in Barcelona.
The spontaneous revolution Spanish anarchists had long hoped for seemed to have started on Monday 26th July 1909 when Barcelona was shut down by a massive general strike. The revolt started after the government called up military reservists to fight in Morocco.
1871: The Paris Commune
A brief history of the world's first socialist working class uprising. The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National Guardsmen, seized the city and set about re-organising society in their own interests based on workers' councils. They could not hold out, however, when more troops retook the city and massacred 30,000 workers in bloody revenge.
The Paris Commune is often said to be the first example of working people taking power. For this reason it is a highly significant event, even though it is ignored in the French history curriculum.
1917-1918: The Brazilian anarchist uprising
A short history of the attempted revolution in Brazil of 1918. The uprising failed when it was infiltrated by security forces, and the army did not join the side of the workers.
In 1918 Rio de Janeiro city was shaken by a series of events that would culminate in one the most important episodes in the history of the Brazilian workers movement: an attempted insurrectionary strike designed to bring down oligarchic republican government and replace it with workers’ and soldiers' councils.
1833-1849: The Dorr Rebellion
Howard Zinn's history of a movement in the United States against a political system which permitted the vote only to landowners. Drafting their own “People’s Convention” the rebels were let down by some of their own ideas, such as racism, and were put down by force.
Taking the case to the Supreme Court, the precedent was then set that the Court should not meddle in politics.
Nepal: A Long March towards bourgeois democracy?
In-depth analysis of the situation in Nepal, including the anti-monarchist protest movement, the Maoist insurgency, the international economic background and the Nepalese working class.
Notes on Nepal - Spring 2006
Terrain and culture
Albania 1997: The Proletariat Confronts the Bourgeois State - ICG
From Communism #11
"The atmosphere in Gjirokaster is mad. Popular revolt transforms itself into total anarchy, there are no more police, no more State, no more rules. The city is exuding enthusiasm, blossoming, has become excited by rebellion."
(Le Monde - 11/3/1997)
1991: About Class Struggle in Iraq - ICG
We have published several articles describing the insurrections of March 1991 in Iraq, which were written as and when information was able to reach us. Shortly after the end of the Gulf War, we also published in French the text "Proletariat contre nationalisme" (Communisme No.36) in which, from a distance of just over a year, we tried to draw the lessons from these struggles.
