Issue 28

By Renfrey Clarke

Renfrey Clarke is a longtime member of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in the Australian Socialist Alliance.

by Roberto Jorquera

Since late March, Roberto Jorquera has been the Green Left Weekly correspondent in Venezuela, where he has also travelled extensively to help organise the first solidarity brigade from Australia. This article was completed on May 19.

Contents

Revolutionary democracy

Debates within the Chávez forces

Political consciousness

By Armando Hart

Armando Hart is the former minister of culture of Cuba. Our translation largely relies on a CubaNews translation by Ana Portela.

These thoughts are intended as a tribute to all revolutionaries, without exception, who suffered the great historical drama of seeing the socialist ideas of October 1917 frustrated. We write this with admiration and respect for the Russian people, who were the protagonists of the first socialist revolution in history and who defeated fascism decades later under the leadership of Stalin. The same Russian people, 130 years before, defeated the military offensive of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Fundamentally, I have the experience of fifty years of working for socialist ideas in the beautiful trenches of the Fidel and Martí-inspired Cuban Revolution, that is to say, the first revolution of Marxist orientation that triumphed in what has become known as the West.

by Ariel Dacal Diaz

Ariel Dacal Diaz is chief editor in the politics section of Social Sciences Publishers, a leading Cuban publishing house. Our translation relies largely on a translation by Ana Portela for CubaNews.

Lessons of Russia's revolution Earlier this year, socialists marked the 100th anniversary of the first Russian revolution. For revolutionaries at the beginning of 1905, the historical "model" of previous proletarian revolution—from which to draw both positive and negative lessons—was the Paris Commune of 1871. The 1905 revolution greatly enriched Marxism's storehouse of revolutionary theory.