Hey everyone! It's my first post in a long time. How is everyone? I hope you're all doing well.
So recently I finished listening to Mike Duncan's podcast series on the Russian revolution, part of a larger podcast series covering 10 revolutions.
The Russian series is the tenth and by far the longest, weighing in at 103 episodes. In episode 10.102, Mike Duncan says that a key decisive factor in winning a revolution is "overwhelming pressure brought to bear on pressure points."
This can enable victory not just in a revolution, but also in social movements for reform, or small instances of class struggle in a particular workplace or neighborhood.
It would be great if this lesson about applying pressure to pressure points could become more widely understood. And although I think I generally grasp the concept, recognizing those vulnerable pressure points in the real world is something I don't think I'm adept at.
The point is discussed by Mike only briefly, from 11:57 to 13:35 of the episode. There are a couple things he says that I'm not sure if I understand, so I'm hoping that people in this forum will help me.
Mike says:
World War I did double overnight the size of the Russian working classes and crammed them tightly into the centers of political power.
In what way did this cram the Russian working class into the centers of political power? What does he mean by this?
My guess is that because the industrial base of Russia was still small, but was a very important part of the economy overall, that this gave the workers in that industrial base a disproportionately large amount of power, because by striking they could shut down the entire industrial apparatus of Russia.
Is that correct? Or am I missing something?
It’s not actually that hard to grasp why the Russian proletariat was able to exercise such a disproportionate influence on events. I mean seriously, how many times have we seen a couple thousand bakers randomly throw up barricades in Paris and overthrow entire regimes, quote unquote French revolutions that most of the French population didn’t even find out about until like a week later?
I haven't yet listened to the French revolution series so I'm a bit confused here. Why is it that bakers were able to have such a disproportionate amount of power that they could win a revolution on their own?
Is it because they were the main food supply for the city?
Overwhelming pressure brought to bear on pressure points is what matters in a revolution.
The above are my main questions. But for those in the mood for a more general discussion, I'd also love to hear people's comments on this point about "pressure points", how applying this (or failing to apply it) has enabled the success (or failure) of particular revolutions or instances of non-revolutionary class struggle. And also, what are some of the key pressure points where pressure could be applied today, whether for revolutionary or reformist goals.
By the way, in the final…
By the way, in the final minute of the final episode, the podcast host, Mike Duncan, finishes off with the quote from Bakunin: "Liberty without socialism is privilege and injustice, but socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality."
Very cool that he did this, but.... he accidentally attributed the quote to Bukharin, one of the prominent members of the Bolshevik Party. 😣
On point 1, I'd guess that…
On point 1, I'd guess that WWI maybe increased the size of the working class by bringing peasants from the countryside into industrial centers to work in industries vital to the war effort?
On point 2, yeah I'd guess food supply as well, could also be making a point about the centrality of Paris to the French state, so that movements there, whether led by bakers or not, could overthrow the government without the rest of France being involved?
As for the more general discussion about pressure points, I think there's been some interesting stuff on libcom about looking at logistics in that sense. It's something the Angry Workers are very interested in: https://www.angryworkers.org/
I remember Empire Logistics as being one project trying to map out these pressure points: https://www.empirelogistics.org/about/the-project/
In terms of contemporary examples, I don't know how closely you've been following UK news, but we're in the middle of strikes by railway workers, there's a national strike by post workers coming soon, there was a coordinated wildcat on Wednesday that mostly hit oil refineries and power plants, and for perhaps the most extreme example a strike has just been announced at the UK's largest port. According to that press release, there's 1,900 workers who'll be striking, and the docks handle 48% of containers that are brought into the UK. So that seems like it might cause a fair bit of disruption.
Also it can be things you really wouldn't expect: earlier this year there was a very long strike at a company called Chep, which most people have never heard of, but makes and repairs pallets. That doesn't sound very important, but then if you think about the fact that everything loaded and unloaded in warehouses and supermarkets uses pallets, and Chep apparently controls a huge share of the market, then you can see how powerful a potential pressure point it is - the workers eventually settled for a nine percent pay rise, three extra days of annual leave, and a £1,000 lump sum. (They also used the slogan "your pay offer is unpalletable", which is great imo.)
On point 1, I'd guess that…
Yes definitely. Now I feel a bit silly for forgetting to consider WWI, which means that a few strikes could seriously obstruct Russia's ability to fight the war. A much more urgent matter than normal economic disruption.
True! Paris itself is the pressure point. Though the bloody and tragic end of the Paris Commune shows that gaining hold of Paris wasn't enough.
Wow, that's incredibly important research! So glad it's being documented. I wish awareness of this was more widespread.
So I've been hearing! But I didn't know about all of these. It's a bit of light/hope in bleak times.
Fuck yeah! Every strike needs a good pun for a slogan. :D