Marxist theory
The labour aristocracy and working-class politics
By Jonathan Strauss
Contents
Dimensions of the composition of the labour aristocracy
Skilled workers in the labour aristocracy
The bureaucratisation of the labour apparatus and opportunism
The labour apparatus and the labour bureaucracy
The labour aristocracy and the labour bureaucracy
The labour aristocracy and the `lower strata' of the working class
Opportunism and preparation of the proletariat for revolution
Proletarian tactics under the domination of monopolising capitals
Joseph Stalin
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.
The 1905 revolution and its lessons
by Doug Lorimer
Doug Lorimer is a member of the National Executive of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in Australia. This is a talk presented to the DSP's January 2005 Marxism Summer School.
Contents
One hundred years ago this month, the first proletarian revolution in the new imperialist epoch of capitalism began. This revolution, the first Russian revolution, was born of mass discontent aggravated by a deeply unpopular war, the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. It began with a wave of strikes, riots and street demonstrations protesting the police shooting on a peaceful mass workers' demonstration in St Petersburg, the capital of the vast Russian Empire, on Sunday, January 22, 1905 (January 9 in the Julian calendar still in use in Russia at the time), killing 1000 and wounding 2000 of the 200,000 marchers.