November 7, 2013, was the 96th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. We should all celebrate it. That day the working class seized state power and kept it for decades. The Bolsheviks re-established the Communist International, or Comintern, which led the fight for freedom from imperialism and colonialism all over the world.
Where it did not lead this fight, the Bolshevik Revolution inspired and aided those who did. It became the greatest force for liberation in world history.
Workers throughout the world fought for and won social welfare benefits because their own struggles were inspired by the successes of the Bolsheviks in taking and holding state power. Capitalists worldwide yielded reforms to try to prevent workers from leading revolutions to overthrow the profit system altogether!
The Comintern led the world in fighting racism and sexism. It inspired the greatest works of 20th century art. It opposed religious obscurantism (the deliberate withholding of knowledge). The communist movement led the fight against fascism everywhere. Fascism — the ideology of capitalism in crisis — killed tens, even hundreds of millions, but in the last analysis was no match for the communist movement. The Soviets destroyed Nazism virtually by themselves.
For tens of millions of working people, intellectuals, students and others, the title “communist” became the proudest badge of honor. No movement in world history is so rich with lessons, both positive and negative, for the international working class to study and learn from, in order to do it better next time.
The Comintern and world communist movement ultimately turned into their opposites. They reverted to capitalism. This happened because of internal weaknesses, contradictions and errors. It also happened because the Bolsheviks were the first! Their mistakes occurred because they were “blazing the trail,” trying to build communism when it had never been done before.
Major errors were inevitable. Errors are part of the process of learning how to build a new world. We can, must and will learn from them.
Ever since 1917, the capitalists have promoted a huge flood of lies about the communist movement. They lie particularly about Joseph Stalin, who led the Bolshevik Party from the late 1920s until his death in 1953. Leon Trotsky invented many of these falsehoods. Little that Trotsky wrote during the 1930s about the USSR was true. Most of it was conscious falsehoods; Trotsky knew he was lying. This was convenient for him and also for the capitalists.
We need to be “critically critical.” It is a huge error to simply believe horror stories about the communist movement, Stalin, the Comintern and the Bolshevik Party. The Bolsheviks did the main thing RIGHT! They dared to seize power from the capitalists and dared to fight hard and successfully to hold onto it.
We are, and should be, inspired by them. We stand on the shoulders of giants, the Bolsheviks, who led the first successful working-class communist revolution 96 years ago.
“Standing on the shoulders of giants” means that we can — or ought to be able to — see further than they could. That means learning from their errors, as well as from their successes. That’s our task. Let’s get to it!