Why this Series?

"History is the only science we know and recognize."
Marx

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In this series, in which we will deal with about 10 proletarian revolutions, we will use the evidence of the science of history, the actual history of the proletarian revolutions of the 20th century — these revolutions were created and lived by the proletariat on its own initiative and were allied with two main allies to abort them: The counter-revolution from outside the proletariat and the bureaucratic parties and unions from within — to demonstrate the validity and relevance of the central slogan of the workers' movement in the life of Marx: The emancipation of the working class is made by the working class itself (Communist Manifesto).

In this revolutionary era, in which Marx's specter reappears around ideology1 , the state and the party, refuting with his ever-living tongue the mountains of lies that the prevailing bureaucratic class has tried for half a century to bury him under forever, we thought it was time to present to the revolutionary Arab youth and to the conscious workers the only knowledge that is neither known nor recognized by the legitimate Marxists who have hatched a conspiracy of silence against the revolutionary history of the international proletariat that has lasted too long in the Arab world and that we must put an end to.

It is through the history of revolutions, and only through the history of revolutions, that we can clarify and resolve most of the theoretical-practical issues that are beginning to be raised and debated in the Arab world: The role of bureaucratic parties and unions in the creation of consciousness, the definition of revolutionary organization, its boundaries and mode of operation. The definition of revolutionary theory and the possibility of meeting the revolutionary theory of isolated theorists with the collective practice of the revolutionary proletariat. How does the proletariat root its consciousness, whether in the school of “parties” and “unions” or in the school of class struggle? What is the form and content of the next revolutionary society? .... etc.

If this debate continues in ignorance of the facts of actual history, it is bound to become mental speculation and tedious philosophical musings, within the framework of which abstract logic can prove something and its opposite at the same time! History, and the history of revolutions in particular, is a means of saving this debate from falling into the protectors of sophistry, and a means of knowing material history and invoking dialectical historical materialism as a tool for realizing reality, the reality of the class struggle, dialectically, as a weapon to criticize everything that exists independently of the will of the working people.

We want this series to remind the working people, the young Arab working class, of its internationalist historical memory — and revolution is in a way the recovery of the revolutionary memory of a people, the historical return of the historically repressed — we want to remind the proletariat of the East of what was radical in the revolutions of the proletariat of the West to resume it with a more radical and stubborn radicalism. We also want to remind them of what was the underdevelopment — or failure — of their consciousness to grasp the totality of their tasks and the means of realizing them in order to find again in their defeated revolutions that undefeated element in them: Their determination to liberate themselves without relying, as the anthem of internationalism recommends, on any savior above.

The new Arab revolutionaries whose consciousness has not been consumed by Stalinism can, by reading the history of proletarian revolutions with fresh eyes and a critical consciousness freed from the illusions of all the schools of charlatans and ideological corrupters of various schools and churches, be better able to formulate an accurate theoretical critique of the current society: A critique of the political economy and a critique of everyday life and its overt and covert forms of repression.

Since the defeat of the resistance movement, which together with the autonomy in Algeria in 1962 is the most radical event in modern Arab history2 , in the Black September massacre, we have been struck by the shortcomings of the masses in the battle for Amman, including, but not least, that in Amman, for example, they did not think of looting the central bank, while in Irbid the fighters guarded the capitalist banks to protect them from thieves! — In the project of introducing revolutionaries and conscious workers, the legitimate heirs of the most radical of the defeated resistance movement, to the modern proletarian revolutions unknown to us: The Paris Revolution of 1871, the revolutions of 1905, 1917 and 1921 in Russia, the revolutions of Germany 1918-19, the revolution of Spain 1936-39, the revolution of Hungary 1956, etc. In this perspective, we published our book two years ago: From the Paris Commune to the Amman Massacres.

Today, we are returning to the project with a stronger determination and a clearer vision, to present in this series, successively and at the same time, every two months, the facts and significance of these forgotten revolutions, thus putting an end to the conspiracy of silence on the revolutionary experiences made and lived by the international proletariat.

If in 1973 we launched this project with the Kronstadt Revolution3 and then launched this series with a pamphlet on the German Revolution, it is not because they are completely unknown to us, as they are equal to all other proletarian revolutions about which Arab readers know only a word here and a line there, but because of the historical significance of their defeat: The defeat of the Kronstadt Socialist Revolution opened the way for the emergence of Stalinist totalitarianism, which was the bane of the international labor movement. The defeat of the German Revolution of 1918-19 helped, by Lenin's own admission, to defeat the Russian Revolution, and the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in 1933 was only the culmination of the defeat of the proletariat in Germany 1918-19.

The publication of this series is not an intellectual whim, but a historical need that responds to an urgent desire expressed in words and deeds not only by Arab revolutionaries, but also by conscious workers. It is fortunate that we have already found the readers we desire. The day is not far off when our ideas will be everywhere and we will be nowhere.

The publication of this series is also a response to the promise of a new revolutionary era, a new revolutionary poetry, and a content that is no less new to the Arab revolution in terms of framework and internationalism in terms of content: Ending the exploitation of man by man and the domination of man by man.

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Cairo, July 23, 1973
Lafif Lakhdar

• 1 Marx-Engels' ideology is the false consciousness, the ideas and illusions employed in the service of the ruling classes. It is in this sense that bureaucrats call Marxist theory, the direct opposite of ideology, Marxist ideology!
• 2This is the refutation of all lies, the central line from which we have always proceeded in our critical evaluation published in “Freedom” or “Arab Studies” (1969-1972), the mass resistance movement that happened to it what happened to all revolutionary movements after its defeat, the dogs of intellectuals and leaders flocked to munch on its corpse by cleverly attacking it or by stupidly defending it.
• 3See : Arabic Studies, March 1973. It will be published with more facts and documents in the next installment of this series (September, 1973).