CLASS 3 - Lenin and the Path to Revolution

are we good now that's yes all right great okay and this this sound is also working David okay great thank you great all right so without further Ado Brian welcome back thank you everybody and uh thank you lean um by the way Sadie is back there in the booth stie come out and say hello because she has been critically important to to doing this class really super helpful this is of course like everything a collective effort and without any part of the collective we can't do it so um just thank you to her and to the entire tpf staff the people's Forum staff a unique space uh in New York and I'd say pretty much anywhere in the United States uh having these kind of activities uh I want to this is the last CL class where there's going to be an actual presentation next class the next session will be as lean said purely for Q&A and um David I wonder if I could go up a little bit louder Just a Touch testing all right is that better yeah okay good um next week will be a purely Q&A so people will have a chance to ask anything that you want to ask if you if you're hearing things that seem unfamiliar uh names that you're not familiar with issues or terms that you're not familiar with write them down and we'll talk about them next week uh a big reason for having a class like this is It's ve is it's very difficult for people in the United States in particular a 100 years after Lenin's death to actually be able to read and study Lenin and to understand the context of his teachings and I've been emphasizing in the first two classes that context is everything for Lenin everything that you have to be in Lenin's head a little bit to understand what he's talking about because in each and every instance he is fighting with somebody he's in an argument he's making a point and if you don't know what the argument's about and you don't know who he's fighting with with and you don't know the historical background it's very hard even for people who think that they're supporters of Lenin to accurately understand what it is that Lenin is trying to say and do and as a consequence there's great misunder understanding even by people who say that they are leninists or Marxist leninists whatever so a big part of what we're trying to do here today is not go over everything about Lenin but to provide background and context so that when you read Lenin or talk about Lenin you have more familiarity with the sort of the backstory uh in order to make it understandable David I think maybe down one notch on volume I think it's just just a little bit go I know it sounds very too Nuance but um I also was asked by somebody before the class since we're talking about Lenin as the the architect of revolution first the Russian Revolution and then as he helps form and it's his vision to form a new international the Communist International or the third international uh somebody asked me well you're talking about Revolution but um why do we need a revolution why revolution revolution is so you know like very rare in human history history that there are revolutions I mean you can you know count them pretty quickly there was the French Revolution the Haitian revolution uh of course the uh bolivarian Revolution where Latin America becomes independent from Spain and Portugal there was then the 1848 revolution in Europe the Paris commune of 1871 the Mexican Revolution which is a long and important revolutionary process uh in the latter part of the 19th century then of course in the 20th century revolutions start to happen more frequently there's the Russian Revolution the Chinese Revolution the Korean Revolution the Vietnamese Revolution the Cuban Revolution but generally speaking in history revolutions are pretty rare and generally speaking also people will do anything short of Revolution to effectuate the change that they need in their lives to make their lives better to make their lives possible in many cases people don't really want Revolution people want change and the only reason revolutions happen is that the existing ruling class in a particular country at a particular time in history doesn't do what the people think it could do has the power to do has the authority to do but fails to do because the ruling class is either dead set against the change or is so divided and paralyzed internally that it can't make the change so frequently revolutions happen not because they are inevitable but because the ruling classes have failed to make the change that people recognize is obvious and possible in a society so revolutions could be avoided voided for some period of time if ruling classes did the right thing but that's the issue ruling classes frequently don't do the right thing and in fact use all of their power especially their power of of repression the Army the police the courts the prisons the repressive apparatus the state in order to suppress those who want change it's the inflexibility of the ruling class that makes Revolution later inevitable but it didn't necessarily have to be inevitable at that particular moment for instance in 1917 when the Zar is finally overthrown if the provisional government the new government that took the place of the Zar which was made up of liberals Bourgeois liberals Petty bis liberals and some socialists if that government had said we're going to get get out of World War I we're going to end World War I we're leaving we're done fighting the October Revolution that Lenin was the leader of would not have happened why did they not leave World War I when it was the issue the the the Detonator that led to the overthrow of the Zar in the February Revolution because the ruling class in Russia the new liberal revolutionary rule uh new government government was associated with British French and American imperialism and they insisted that Russia stay in the war why did they want Russia to stay in World War I because if Russia stayed in the war then Germany and the Central Powers who are the adversaries of Britain France and the United States if they stayed in the war Germany would have to fight on the East and on the west and if Russia ended the war Germany could turn all of its attention to fight on the west against Britain and France so Britain France and the United States the imperialists said to the provisional government um you have to stay in this thing and because they were Bourgeois because they were not revolutionary people because they wanted to accommodate Bourgeois World public opinion because they wanted to maintain those alliances they stayed in the war and by staying in the war over the next eight months the bul of EX became the majority within the Soviets the workers councils because they were the party that insisted that the war end so it was a decision by the government not to do something it could do I want to make this point because when we're talking about Revolution we're not doing it simply because it's interesting or Lenin is interesting it's because we want to make change too and a lot of people will think well why do you have to make a revolution why can't there be like a peaceful non-revolutionary way to make to get the things Society needs and that's an excellent question for instance think about the what we consider to be the antithesis of the Republican Party the right-wing Trump Le Republican Party in the United States the antithesis according to Conventional logic conventional wisdom is the Democratic party so let's think back in 2008 in 2008 President Obama was elected president of the United States the H the Democrats took over the House of Representatives by a big margin they also had control of the senate in almost a veto proof number almost 60 Democrats in the Senate the Democrats could do whatever it was that they wanted to do anything they wanted now at that time the big issue was 50 million people didn't have health care and President Obama said we're going to provide a new Health Care system which became known as Obamacare and he immediately he immediately argued that o that full that Medicare for all A Single Payer Health Plan meaning Universal National Health Plan was off the table why did he do that they had control of the house the Senate and the White House they were very popular 77% of the American people wanted single-payer Health Care Medicare for all that meant that everybody could go to a doctor when they're sick that you weren't going to go bankrupt if you had to go to the doctor and we all have to go go to a doctor eventually why did he take it off the table when he could have had it he took it off the table because Obama and the Democratic party are wedded to the pharmaceutical companies they're wedded to the private insurance companies the capitalists who make healthc care equipment the hospitals that are run for private purposes meaning private profit he took it off the table not because it couldn't be done but because he wouldn't do it because his administration was connected to loyal to and the servant of the big capitalist uh uh Enterprises in the healthcare industry in the last 3 years 5.4 million families have been cut off from heat and electricity uh by the utility companies while those same utility companies have given billions of dollars to investors in profits because the utility companies are run for profit did those families have to lose heat and light no it was a choice it was a decision and what motivated this the the decision by the utility companies and the governments that oversee them the same thing that motivated Obama to say single-payer Health Plan is off the table that they are in it for profit ultimately the capitalist governments do things or are unwilling to do things to put it more precisely that could be achieved to remedy deep social problems deep political problems but they won't do it because they're tied to the capitalist system does that mean mass movements don't make a difference short of Revolution no they do I want to read something to you all from right now here it is today New York Times last two hours President Biden warned Israel's leaders on Tuesday that they were losing international support for their war in Gaza exposing a widening Rift between Biden and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Mr Biden delivered the blunt assessment of America's closest Ali in the Middle East during a fundraiser in Washington where he described Mr Netanyahu is the leader of the most conservative government and the most conservative government in Israel's history and quote he doesn't want a two-state solution Biden said right now and Biden did then went on to denounce Israel's indiscriminate bombing of civilians well that didn't start yesterday this has been going on for two whole months why did Biden change his tune what's changed the mass movement of people in the United States day in and day out has changed the political climate in the United States so that President Biden's current policy of a complete Embrace of Israeli genocide is not sustainable he will lose the election he is now backing up last night here at tpf there were 400 volunteers te at the meeting uh in support of the Palestinian people 400 the movement is getting stronger so my point is mass movements make a difference short of Revolution but at a certain point the ruling class makes concessions only so far and after the mass movement dies down they try to take those concessions back what happened to roie Wade and women's right to control their own bodies it wasn't because the Supreme Court changed that much it's because there was a dimunition a deescalation of the mass women's uh movement the women's Liberation movement that brought abortion rights in the first place back in 1972 it's really about the mass movement revolutions happen because Society at a certain moment reaches a juncture whereby the ruling class has to make a choice and if they don't do that which society needs and that which society knows the ruling class can actually do that is what triggers revolutionary processes so that's why we study Revolution not because we love violence not because we support armed struggle as against the peaceful road to socialism it's because these are almost lawful events in the course of human history and that as people who want change if you take Revolution off the table that means ultimately you've decided not to make far-reaching radical and completely achievable change in society and none of us at least those of us who are organizing this class and certainly those of us who are in the PSL none of us believe believe in that we want real change we want to end the war machine we want to end a situation where a few billionaires control so much and more than half the country has food insecurity where people are fighting $500 away from being cast into utter bankruptcy where one half of all bankruptcies in the country are because people can't pay their doctor's bills if that's the reality Revolution will come not because we want it but because the ruling class makes other forms of change almost impossible anyway since my friend asked me the question why are you so focused on Revolution I wanted to just open with this that why was Lenin focused on the armed struggle and Revolution because the revolution that they were make that they were planning and I and I started this in the first class and emphasized it again in the second class unlike the German socialists and the other socialists of the of the second International the Socialist International there was no option in Russia other than armed struggle because there was no free speech rights there were no elections it wasn't legal to be in a union if you tried to organize against the Zar you faced Siberia Exile or execution when a government makes peaceful change impossible it makes armed struggle inevitable and all sectors in Russia not just the Bolsheviks also the menix the social revolutionaries even the Bourgeois liberal Cadets every everybody realized that this romanof dynasty was going to be toppled only by force because for 300 years they had ruled by force that's why Lenin's Fusion of a sort of an armed struggle orientation what was called narodism combined with social democracy or socialism that's what set the Bolsheviks apart from the German socialists and the other main parties of the second International they were were involved in and planning for armed struggle because they had no choice there were no other options you either won or you died it was that simple there was no room anywhere else now I want to raise a couple of the slides if we can I want to just before I get started in the last phase where we're going to talk about the third international and Lenin what lennin tries to do and the Bolsheviks try to do after the Russian Revolution succeeds I want to just remind people so we don't forget we we called Lenin in Lenin's leadership the fourth wave the fourth wave of socialism so let's go to the slide with the utopian socialists I can't remember the number there they are Robert Owens HRI St Simone Charles forier these were utopian socialists and I hope people remember why they were why marks and Engles called them utopian it's because they believed they could set up cities and towns that were based on communist principles and that the ruling class of society would see that by giving employment for everyone having food for everyone equal wages for everyone women's rights the end of jails and prisons that the ruling class in society would see this is a better way to live and Marx and Engel said that's utopian not because they're what they were trying to achieve was utopian but the idea that the ruling class would go along with it the ruling class will not give up its power and its privilege because they've been one over to a better idea so that's why they're utopians that's wave one wave two was marks and Engles slide two marks and Engles there they are they wrote The Communist Manifesto at age 27 and 28 young revolutionaries um it's always young people you never see pictures of them except when they're old and have these gigantic beards but they were younger at one time and had less facial hair uh that they wrote The Communist Manifesto on the eve of the 1848 revolution uh it outlined the prospects for revolution brilliant work everyone should read it especially the first two chapters and the preface the rest of it is not really relevant anymore except for historical interest the first two chapters if you read them you'll think oh that could have been written today so Communist Manifesto very short they talked about the party remember I said last week they were always talking about the party the party but they didn't have a party what they meant is the people who agreed with them and they were very few in number they formed the first International uh which was not Marxist Marx was the organizer of it he was such a brilliant he's not just a brilliant political scientist and a brilliant historian and really was the one who discovered covered and outlined the laws of capitalism he was also a brilliant activist Marx and Engles were activists Marx organized the first International in 1864 after having organized British textile workers to support the North in the US Civil War he wanted to have the British workers stand up and support the North in the Civil War because the textile industry in England was dependent on on Cotton picked in the South and so British textile firms were going out of business the bosses said we should support the South because without the South South the southern uh cotton which is boycotted by American ships uh our Factory is going to go out of business you're going to be unemployed you won't be able to feed your kids marks and Engles raced into that struggle they helped organize the British labor movement to to say even though they were going to be harmed by the boycott of Southern cotton to stand with the north because to to stand with the north meant to stand against the enslavement of human beings so Marx was an activist he was an organizer not just a thinker and writer in 1864 he brings this whole group of um you know labor people from all from all countries in Europe together in the first International and none of them are marxists matter of fact most of them are anarchists Bourgeois liberals or reformists but Marx organizes them and keeps them in he organizes it and unites them he doesn't demand that they all think his thoughts he's not some purist sectarian at all why because the goal of the first International was not to make Revolution the goal of the first International was to unite all of these desparate sections of a newly forming Urban proletariat in Europe European countries because every time the French workers went on strike the French bosses brought in German scabs when the when the British workers went on strike they bring in French scabs so then the workers would hate the French scabs instead of their British bosses the old trick of divide and conquer so Marx and Engles organized the first International that was not Marxist and not based on parties they had a part they called it a party no party the international not Marxist that's wave two wave three is the second International for which there are no slides but it was the formation uh 15 years later of mass socialist parties in Europe especially most noteworthy the one you're going to want to remember in your study is the German Socialist Party because they became the party once the German Workers won the vote that by 1910 they were the biggest party in Germany they were a Marxist party they were the biggest party in Germany Germany had the first women's rights Mo biggest women's rights movement it had the first gay rights movement the country was very Progressive it was had socialists dominating the parliament uh they were the third wave Lenin in the beginning of the formation of the Bolsheviks is looking to the German party do you have a slide of Carl kowsky that's laar that's not kowsky those are words we're getting there okay Carl kowsky who Lenin later writes these books you would think uh Lenin really hated kowsky he wrote the proletarian Revolution and the Renegade kowsky uh and most people who are leninists think ah kowsky was a terrible counterrevolutionary liberal Lenin in fact admired the German Socialist Party kowsky was the theoretical leader of it he only breaks with the German Socialist Party when at the time of the beginning of World War I where the Parliamentary domination that they have at the rich means nothing because they vote for the war right so this is when I sort of was laying out that this is when bolshevism really and I would say bolism becomes leninism as an international current because now Lenin is rejecting the second International parties why because they sold out at the beginning of the war because they voted for war credits after they had pledged all the Socialist parties had pledged not to vote for war credits to oppose the war should have come to take advantage of the war should have come to make Revolution instead they they became Patriots and frankly I think a lot of people on the US left would be very patriotic too too if um say Russia soldiers were invading the United States right it's pretty hard to be anti-war when your soldiers are killing each other I mean big parts of the United States liberal movement have a hard time opposing their government when it comes to their government just bombing the hell out of other people when there's no Americans dying when we had demonstrations for Libya against the war on Libya in 20 2011 most liberals uh didn't join us in the protest they said oh Gaddafi is evil Gaddafi is terrible well just think of Gaddafi was actually sending Libyan troops to fight against American uh soldiers or American civilians very hard to take an anti-war position but Lennon said the the War World War I will create the condition for revolution you have to stay strong at the beginning of the war because if you don't if if you capitulate if you surrender not only does the party become imbued with national chauvinism against the other workers of other countries in the case of West Europe they became more chauvinistic towards the people in the colonies because all of those European countries had colonies and the war was over what capitalist power in Europe was going to control different parts of Africa and Asia and Latin America in the Middle East so Lenin breaks from the Socialist International and creates the fourth wave the fourth wave of socialism here's World War I when the war started most of the uh belligerent armies thought the war would be over in a couple months it went on for four years 20 million people died I mean just think of what just think of how terrible it is in Gaza what we're seeing that's like 20,000 have been killed in two months 50 70 100,000 were be being killed each day in World War I in many of the battles it was that bad and that's when poison gas was used against the people in trenches The Trenches didn't move and finally in Russia the Bolsheviks win the allegiance of the masses who remember that the Bolsheviks had told them from the beginning we're this war is a rich man's War it's a Bourgeois War let's not fight it let's stand in solidarity and retain our principles and the Bolsheviks had been scattered exiled their leaders in the parliament were threatened with the death penalty all right so I'm just catching up so are we all caught up all right it's kind of important to do the catching up because it's very especially because the class isn't day by day it's a week's time and so much happens within a week if we don't kind of remember what we've covered it's very hard to really appreciate the new material but I do want to move into the new material there's two elements here that I want us to appreciate about Lenin one is Lenin's capacity Lenin's capacity to be bold and audacious and to see beyond what others were seeing in terms of the Revolutionary Poss possibilities and at the same time Lenin was extremely honest and practical so that if the party and the movement could not go forward if it had to retreat he's demanded that the party Retreat this is really important because a lot of people think and a lot of people online and social media Who start to read lenon think I like lennin because he's bold and audacious he made Revolution but Lenin also carried the movement the party the class through not only Retreats but actual surrenders the question wasn't only about the need to surrender but how to surrender and I want to talk about how these two elements of Lenin's political Persona his political personality his orientation again seeped in Marxism studied everything from Marxism a very revolutionary Force ready to go ready to make Revolution ready to die for the revolution ready to go to prison but also recognizing that when a retreat was necessary that they would undertake it when Lenin comes back in February 19 um April 1917 the as I as you might remember the revolution is in full swing the Zara is gone the masses are celebrating I mentioned that everybody was trying to get their hands on every available wine bottle they were breaking up the wineries Wine sellers they it was just a time of great celebration a 300-year monarchy was done and everybody was euphoric about the new government including many of the Bolsheviks the bolik said yes it's a bis government many of the Bolsheviks it's a bat government but it's a revolutionary government and people are so angry and everything is so political and the masses of people are so in the streets taking over the factories that the government will be compelled to do our bidding we just have to pressure the government we have to make it do the right thing so lennin arrives back in St Petersburg in April 1917 and he meets a group of Bolshevik and then he meets with a group of Bolsheviks and menik and he gives a speech and the speech is called the April thesis uh we didn't print it out we didn't send it out people should find it take a note the April thesis uh read it it's so short you can read it in five minutes but what he basically says is the revolution that started in February the BGE Democratic Revolution against zaris that phase has ended and now we're going to have a second phase and we're going to overthrow the provisional government the Revolutionary government and replace it with a government of poor poor peasants and workers and it's going to be what he called the Democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and peasantry now dictatorship by the way dictatorship has kind of got a bad name these days when when Marx and Lennon are using the term dictatorship they don't mean it the way it's understood in contemporary language dictatorship means today totalitarian regimes where there's no free expression no elections no democracy that's not what they mean by the dictatorship of the proletariat the dictatorship of the proletariat is within a Marxist framework the replacement of the dictatorship of the rich with with the dictatorship of the working class meaning the new Society will be based on the supremacy of the oppressed and exploited class rather than the oppressor and exploiting class so just sub when you hear the terms dictatorship of the proletariat it sounds like like an Embrace of evil because we think of dictatorship as evil what they mean is the supremacy of the proletariat the working class and the poor people in the in the country Countryside that they are going to be the supreme power in society so the dictatorship means the Army the police the courts the prisons are going to sustain a life where there's basically a guarantee of democracy for the majority and that forbids or prevents the exploitation of people by other people so it's not the emotive the emot emotive context for dictatorship is completely missing thear was a dictator by contemporary standards they never called the Zar the dictator dictatorship is used in a different uh context both in the 19th and the early part of the 20th century it's only later with the rise of fascism that dictatorship really assumes the contemporary meaning that we're all familiar with so Lenin comes back and says there's going to be a second revolution and there's going to be a second revolution because the this new government won't get out of the war and the masses need to get out of the war the war has to end we've lost 3 million people in Russia all poor people the rich are not doing the fighting it's poor people doing the fighting and they don't want to and their families can't eat the the soldiers are mainly illiterate peasants they want to go home and try to feed their families by you know planting and harvesting so Lenin has the April thesis where he's he comes back and everybody is like what we just had a revolution that overtop overthrew a 300-year monarchy and it was a month ago and now we're going to have a second revolution and Lennon's Lennon's argument is yes and he identifies the logic of the situation the imperative Logic for the second revolution based on his assessment that the government won't get out of the imperialist war and unless they do that they can't remedy the other social problems and another class will study 1917 because February April is a uh February is a period March April each month represents a different shift and change inside of Russia in that dramatic revolutionary year and the beginning the Liberals have the upper hand the Bolsheviks are a tiny minority when when Lenin arrives he's considered like basically a Madman they basically think the guy's been out of town too long he's living in Europe he doesn't know what's going on he's not in touch with us he's an outsider and let's face it he's an extremist eight months later he's the head of state the Bolsheviks go from being a tiny minority to being the dominant part of the Soviet when Lenin first comes back he says we're going to have a second revolution but we're not going to make the call the slogan be for revolution this is a very important about Lenin's tactics the April thesis does not insist that the that the bulvik call for revolution in fact he says don't call for revolution instead and the reason is the masses of people won't be able to hear us why won't they be able to hear us because they're loyal to the new government that replaced the Zar Lennon said the logic of the situation will reveal itself we have to remain consistent and we have to and this is his expression one that you can remember patiently and persistently explaining to the masses of people what the real situation is so what's the role of the vangard party in April 1917 Lennon says patiently and persistently explain why he said because we don't make Revolution the party doesn't make the revolution the people make the Revolution and the people right now don't believe in Revolution the people right now believe in the new government but over time over the next few months that's going to change and if we patiently and persistently explain to them what the situation is by sometime he didn't know when the tide would turn and so that's precisely what happens by September the Soviet has gotten is no longer infatuated with the Liberals they have lost they become cynical about the provisional government and Lenin who's in Exile because if the provisional government Capt captures him they will kill him because they know without Lenin the Bolsheviks as strong as they are won't succeed he's the one holding the party together it's his leadership there is there there are rare moments in history very rare when the role of an indiv individual is the decisive factor or a decisive Factor not the but a decisive Factor if lennin had been killed in April or May or June or July or August or September the October Revolution would not have happened Lenin built the party constructed the party had the Loyalty Of The Party The Party had many different political Trends and tendencies a lot of personalities fighting each other he was the glue that held it together and he also tactically as a tactical genius as a tactical genius who combined political insight and Analysis with a tactical Brilliance that was unmatched he knew how to go forward at every different stage of the Revolution and in September in Exile in Finland he's like you the central committee have to launch the revolution right now because if we let this moment pass where all the conditions are right for revolution the Bourgeois is paralyzed they don't know what to do we've gotten the upper hand the majority of people are with us the time will go you can't make Revolution anytime it's only at a very particular moment strike while the iron is hot and so all of his letters there you know all of the letters can the Bolsheviks retain state power the coming catastrophe and how to prevent it you can look through all of those writings of 1917 there the urgency of Lenin is like we got to do this right now he lays out even like how to fight and most of his ideas are rejected because they weren't actually that good uh other comrades knew better about how to use firearms and you know lennin wasn't really a you know like a a military force so the Central Committee is won over by Lenin's persistence his urgency and other comrades in the leadership actually staged the Insurrection and the Insurrection is bloodless I think six people died the whole government just collapses in St Petersburg then in Moscow St Petersburg was then the capital in Moscow the right-wing tries to fight back and they try to overturn the bloodless Revolution of October 25th in St Petersburg and there's a week of fighting before the right-wing loses hundreds of people died but that was about it it wasn't thousands or hundreds of thousands if the rightwing and the imperialist had left the Russian Revolution alone it would have been largely a bloodless Affair but that's not what happened so it's The Audacity Of Lenin to say comes back in April the April thesis this audacity this knowled knowled this tactical sagacity wisdom all right what happens right after the revolution they're all filled with optimism workers all over the world are like the Bolsheviks did it the first time in history that the the poor people took over it's a revolution of the poor the poor peasants the workers and they say right away decree on land the decree on land is all the all the peasants take the land the landed Estates they're yours now and all the peasants like who've never read Carl marks are thinking this is a good Revolution I like the Bolsheviks the the decree on peace the war is over they announc we we're demobilizing the Army we're not fighting anymore all the soldiers are sent home they were like great so even though the biks were still at tiny part of the population if you if we have the map of Russia the old Russian Empire map you can see that you can see what a Monumental achievement was I mean look at how big this is it goes all the way to Poland and the rest of the map's not there but it goes all the way to the Pacific but look at where let me not disconnect here look at where you have just a few cities Moscow St Petersburg which is the capital couple big cities couple smaller cities the whole rest of this vast area the largest land mass of any country in the world it's it's peasants and they don't know how to read or write they're illiterate 90% or more of the peasantry is completely illiterate because of the holding back of society by the zar but the Bolsheviks having seized power in St Petersburg and Moscow start issuing the decrees the decree on land the decree on peace they also issue a decree announcing that they are for the self-determination of the non-russian nationalities that have been oppressed by thear who are those nationalities look at this Poland is part of Russia laia Li lania Estonia part of Russia Armenia azerbajan Georgia this is the Caucasus the Ukraine part of the Russian Empire bellarus and then down in the South there's do we have another map okay this is a Soviet map which weirdly the countries are not identified but numerically listed based on an alphabetical order so Russia is 11 that's one that one's easy but when you get into these smaller areas but these are this is the this is called the baltics this is laia Lithuania Estonia bellarus Ukraine malova Georgia Armenia azerbajan hope I'm going to succeed here Turkmenistan usbekistan kyrgistan tajik istan did I say Kazakhstan okay so there the there you have it these are these are all non-russian nationalities except number 11 and even in number 11 huge numbers of people are not Russians there's like a 100 plus languages spoken this in this Empire the Zar and the zaris bureaucracy just kept conquering Nations and incorporating them lennin called the Russian Empire the prison House of Nations and Lenin argued that all of the non-russian Nations should have the right of self-determination and what does self-determination mean uh woodro Wilson also had a position about self-determination the 14 points uh which is a fraud but he's competing with Lenin and competing with the Communists who say we're for self-determination Lenin said if you're a not if you're a nation and you're not Russian and you're part of the old Russian Empire you should have the right of selfdetermination which means the right to secede it's a very simple definition of what self-determination means secede what does that mean it means you have the right to be independent you have the right to divorce from Russia but lennin also argued that just because you have the right to divorce doesn't mean you should get divorced he's making the argument that the unity of the socialist government in Russia with the non-russian nationalities had to be based on a different formula than that of thear thear wasn't a a relationship of conquest of domination of inequality and Lennon said if if we're going to really be uh you know Comm ads you the non-russians have to voluntarily agree to be in a relationship with socialist Russia not because we compel you not because we're bigger not because our arm is stronger but because you want it and why do you want it because the majority of your population are also workers and peasants and if we Russia are creating a socialist government why would the polls for instance want to be independent and away from Russia and be under the leadership of Polish landlords and the landed aristocracy why wouldn't the Polish working class prefer to be with their comrade workers in a socialist Federation or a Union of Soviet Socialist republics which is what eventually is created by Lenin in 1922 shortly before he dies and the whole concept is that this new relationship between big Nations powerful Nations and former Imperial Nations and the oppressed Nations changes based on the right of self-determination so leninism and bolism enshrine embolden the idea of self-determination which is nothing other than a democratic right to get divorced so that if Poland wants to be independent they can and then Lennon's basic argument was okay let's say Poland becomes independent but it's led by by Communists who cares whether they are formally and technically part of the of Russia because we're all comrades we we're not going to we're going to we have the basis for Unity so this is the land the decree on land makes the peasants want to be with the Bolsheviks the decree on peace makes the bul makes the biks very popular with all the soldiers and the decree on nationalities makes the bolik very popular with the non-russian nationalities then what happens now it's December they've just issued the decree of peace they say we're done fighting no indemnifications no annexations we don't want anything from anybody nobody can take anything from us we're done fighting the ger they enter in the Central Powers that's Germany and the Ottoman Empire in particular and the and the Austrian Hungarian Empire the hapsburg dynasty they accept the Russ Lenin's decree on peace they said good let's have peace because that means they don't have to fight on the Eastern Front they can fight Britain and France Britain and France and the United States denounced the decree on peace and then there's an armus signed in December 1917 now the Russian the Lenin and the Bolsheviks are still pretty optimistic they've had a bloodless Revolution and what happens next is the Germans meet with them and say yeah let's have an armist agreement let's meet in this in the town of breast lovk in in what's now bellarus just north of Ukraine and we'll have a peace deal and the Germans outline what the peace deal is and the deal is you give us Ukraine you give us Poland you give us all of these territories and if you don't we're going to start a war against you and you no longer have an army because you Lenin demobilize the Army and this creates a major split in the Bolsheviks and the reason I want to I want to remind you where I'm going with this April 1917 The Audacity Of Lenin to see the possibility for an offensive for revolution now confronted with the German imperialists at a time when the Russian army is gone demobilized Lenin says we have to sign the treaty and the other comrades say what we just had a revolution and now we're going to give German imperialism Poland Ukraine bellarus Finland lvia Lithuania Estonia that's what the Germans were demanding and lennin says yes we're going to sign the treaty because if we don't sign the treaty we're going to face a German offensive and we don't have an army and we're going to lose everything is it humiliating yes is it terrible yes should we sign it yes why because we don't have a choice so remember I said Lenin also had the capacity to surrender it was a question of how to surrender there are moments when you have to surrender and he's demanding from the Bolsheviks that they surrender to German imperialism because they can't fight and if they try to fight in a quote revolutionary they're going to be defeated and lose everything and it splits the party apart and Lenin is a tiny minority Lenin Lenin has almost no support and the and the Bolsheviks refus to sign the treaty and trosky is sent and try's trosky had a Centrist position in this there was the the left wi led by bukharan and others who said we have to start a revolutionary war against Germany and lennin said you're just issuing revolutionary phrases how do you start a revolutionary war without a revolution without an army and then trosky took this kind of rhetorical position he he went to Brasov and he said we're done fighting but we're not going to sign the peace deal goodbye thank you and the Germans are like what what just happened like the most unusual diplomatic encounter and try's line was the German Revolution is about to happen the German work just like the Russian workers are so fed up with this war if we sort of stall the negotiations and show that we're not belligerent we don't want we no longer will fight Germany it will incentivize the German Revolution and then we'll have two socialist countries and one of them will be a modern industrial Powerhouse Germany so the negotiations stretch out for almost seven weeks and then the Germans say to hell with you we're done with all of this talk they launch the offensive they sweep over all of these territories within 3 days they're 100 miles from St Petersburg Lenin and the bulvik have to vacate the capital because it's about to be overrun because the Bolsheviks procrastinated in signing a deal that was so loathsome so awful so humiliating and they were so filled with revolutionary pride and anger an urgency and Lenin couldn't win the argument and he was Lenin but he could not convince his comrades it took the German military to sweep and take almost everything then everybody said oh yeah let's sign the treaty here were the terms of the treaty now the treaty the terms got much worse because they had procrastinated under the treaty's new terms Russia lost complete control of Ukraine Poland bellarus Lithuania lvia Estonia parts of the caucuses and significant areas in southern Russia the territory of the Russian government lost under the new terms get these numbers I know it's hard to hear the stat the stats but just this is short the territory the Russian government lost under the new terms the harsher terms of breos included onethird of the entire population one-third of the people were now going to be under the control of German capitalists and landlords onethird more than 50% of the factories in Russia were now given to Germany under the new terms 50% 89% of Russia's coal Fields were surrendered to Germany under the new terms and 26% of the railways and the bulvik signed the agreement that they would pay reparations to Germany for having fought them in the first place and lennin was like this is the right thing to do so the that started the Civil War in Russia the Socialist revolutionaries the left-wing partners of the Bolsheviks they then staged an armed Uprising against the Bolsheviks they began the armed struggle it was leftists it wasn't right-wingers right- Wingers also started the arm struggle at the same time exus officers Wrangle denikin and others and as I mentioned last time 14 imperialist armies invaded 14 imperialist armies invaded and supported all of these armed uprisings against the Bolsheviks so for the next three years 1918 1919 in about half of 1920 two and a half years every comrade went to the front if you were like left-wing people like the people in this room you would be the first to go to the front by 1920 90% of the people were dead who had gone to the front all the Communists who made the revolution who led the revolution who were the stalwart supporters of the Bolsheviks they died other parts of the country were so so devastated that one to two million people starved to death because they could not get food and water cannibalism reappeared in the Russian Countryside and during this entire time Lenin was insistent that this was the right thing and he was obviously correct he was obviously correct because if they had not signed the treaty they would have been destroyed right then by the end of the Civil War somehow they Prevail 14 imperialist armies are defeated or or or withdraw the right-wing office a zarus officers they're they're defeated a lot of the territory that was lost when the German Revolution happens in November 1918 the lenon immediately announces well the bre lov's treaty is no longer uh is no longer relevant the Red Army moves in back into Ukraine the Red Army moves into Georgia moves into Belarus moves into the Balkans there's a socialist revolution in Finland which the Germans had also taken so Finland becomes the second socialist government so this battle this epic battle that went on for three years and during that entire time Lenin having agreed to the humiliating treaty is now involved in the militant defense and using every available tactic to defeat the counterrevolution wow I mean that's a lot to handle right you have a famine you have invasion of 14 armies you have counterrevolution I mean just think what they were dealing with and he's Now by this time by the by 1920 he's about to he turns 50 in April he was 46 at the time of the Revolution he dies two years later you know the exhaustion The Strain the stress the entire process uh you know where lennin basically lived in the the servant headquar the servant quarters in the in the old Kremlin and and never left essentially just worked and worked and worked managing all of that and during the middle and I'm going to end on this point in the middle of the Civil War and in the middle of famine that took one to two million lives lennin says we have to build a new socialist International this is another task of the bulvik so we have three tasks one task is to defend the country against counterrevolution that took 3 million lives to bring food to the staring masses the 1 to two million had starved to death but now let's reorganize the Socialist movement I mean just think of the the magnitude of the task that you're going to use the headquarters in Moscow to reorganize the Socialist movement based on new principles based on new principles and so that's what happened so these are the three big tasks of the uh of the Russian project basically at that time I want to go to a I what time is it I've been SC for about an hour which is I apologize for the length but there was a lot of ground to cover I wanted I want to do four quick slides and then open it up for Q&A go to slide number two and I'll try to do this in five minutes no no no I'm sorry Slide the second point of the terms of conditions okay so the common turn is organized on a new basis again remember I said last week that abroad the Bolsheviks were very popular because they had succeeded in the Russian Revolution so everybody was like yeah let's Join the Revolution Let's be with the new international the Socialist International had officially collapsed in 1916 so the the door was open but Lennon said Having learned the lesson of what it took cook why did the second International collapse it was because of the capitulation on World War I because of the domination of a party of a whole class remember we talked about that where the center and the right were dominating over the right at a time of great crisis so there's 21 conditions to join the new international and this splits the Socialist movement in half but lenon is insisting that these are some of the principal conditions um any organization that wishes to join the Communist International must consistently and S systematically dismiss reformists and centrists from positions of any responsibility in the workingclass movement parliamentary groups the unions Etc okay so the people who were capitulating on the war they can't be in the party unless they self criticize themselves let's go to slide number four persistent and systematic propaganda and agitation must be conducted in the armed forces now this is important during the Vietnam war there was a very big part of the anti-war movement was among usgi because leftists and progressives went into the army went into the Navy went into the Marines and organized against the imperialist war from within the military some parts of the left say oh the military they're all war criminals Lennon says no the work the AR the the rank and file Soldier is nothing other than a worker in uniform and so you go to the class organize the class break the class away from the Bourgeois in the case of the Armed Forces the officer Corp is the Bourgeois in uniform the soldier the rank and file is the worker in uniform so not Point number four is you have to go inside the military and try to recruit the workers this is critical because you can't really have a revolution against an imperialist army if it's United the Russian Revolution which we didn't talk you know the 19 year of 197 the soldiers defected the side of the workers and peasants the so the officers say shoot those peasants and the the workers the soldiers say no I'm not going to shoot them they're my sisters I'm not going to do it they're my brothers I'm not going to do it and then the officer comes up and shoots the first soldier who was insubordinate and then the other soldiers who have been listening to all of this socialist agitation turn and shoot the officer and then the soldiers are now on the side of the Revolution that's how it happened but this is a period of preparation within the military to show the class nature that the that the imperialist military is a microcosm of class Society the Ranken file Soldier is a worker in uniform next next slide is point number eight okay this is this is the kind of the one I'm going to sort of end on I wanted to do more but I'll pick it up in the Q&A parties in countries whose Bourgeois possess colonies and oppress other nations must pursue a well-defined and clear-cut policy in respect of colonies and oppressed Nations any party wishing to join the third international must ruthlessly expose the colonial imaginations of the imperialist of its quote own country must support indeed not merely in words every Colonial Liberation movement demand the expulsion of the Patriot imperialist etc etc so makes the principle of anti-colonialism anti-racism anti-imperialism and internationalism and then the fourth Slide the last slide which is number 15 it is the duty of any party wishing to join the Communist International selflessly to help any Soviet Republic in its struggle against counterrevolutionary forces and then the Communist parties everywhere have to promote peace and good relations instead of war with the Socialist republics they're not talking here about just Russia they were envisioning that the Union of Soviet Socialist republics would keep expanding and include all the countries of the world so the union was going to be the New World Order basically not simply a r a new Russian iteration of the Russian Empire but with socialist or communist coloration um the I didn't have time because we've run out of time to talk about the impact of the third international but as I said last time the impact of the Russian Revolution the position in support of armed struggle the position of the right of Nations to self-determination uh the support that the Soviets gave to colonized and semic colonized people that moves Marxism and socialism to the East and the South socialism was a European phenomena until now now it becomes an African phenomena an Asian phenomena a middle eastern phenomena a Latin American phenomena let's I want to just bring up the slides of the I mean it went to China and right away the Chinese Communist party was formed because the third international was forming communist parties in China hoi Min the Vietnam same kiml sang in North Korea uh Madam bin the leader of the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam uh George habash the leader of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine Marxist leninist Fidel obviously Marxist leninist Chay of course uh Celia Sanchez another major primary leader of the Cuban Revolution same with Vilma Espen Chris Han assassinated South African Communist Party member who was assassinated at the time of right around the time that apartheid was about to end or ending and finally Kwame and kruma the leader of Ghana not really from a Communist party but part of if you read his book class struggles in Africa obviously part of the impact of the third international so socialism and communism and Marxism are are no longer predominantly European they're really merged originally it was merging the Socialist movement with the workers movement now it's merging socialism with the movements of National Liberation against imperialism and that's really how in a way Lenin creat Crees the fifth wave of socialism the international creates the fifth wave which is this phenomena uh again I'll stop right there thank you everybody and there's still time for [Applause] Q&A all right thank you so much Brian uh for that riveting session and we're getting to our favorite part question and answer so I would like to if you're online if you can submit your questions into the chat and Sidi and David will send them to me if in the room could you raise your hands and we'll take a couple at a time take a few all right so let's start here let's do the two here and then we'll move to this side firstly thank you for this course I wanted to ask getting into the common turn um looking at two people from well within Harlem who went to the comment turn Otto von hawood and and Claude McCay right and I wanted to ask about the kind of Multiplicity you know different struggles being represented there but under a similar Banner of the commentary and how do we see that kind of diversity play with that um that you know role of uh unity in a common term the second hand yeah similarly thank you um uh I was actually wondering so you know I think it's probably pretty probable that the United States is moving towards the conditions for violent revolution when I think about kind of like the particular contingencies of our moment could you speak up just a little I'm sorry oh yeah sorry is that better that's yeah so the particularly contingencies of like our contemporary moment seem to be kind of rapidly expanding technology um and so I guess I'm kind of wondering what role do you think technology will play in kind of creating the conditions for Revolution and I think relatedly um do you think we're kind of in a particularly novel historical moment or is it kind of pres presentist bias to believe that our particular conditions are um harder to overcome than they have been in the past should I go with those two okay so yeah um Communists like Claude McCay and other s from the United States from New York City um were um figures in the third international the third international was amazing because it brought in the in the first five years especially the congresses uh they brought together all of these revolutionary forces who you know Moscow was in a way a safe space um and people could come there they could debate they could discuss and ultimately the common turn the comment turn saw itself as a world party this is something really important the Socialist International the second International was a an aggregate of different parties who had conferences together and they shared resolutions the Comon turn had an executive committee it was based on Democratic centralism and once a decision was taken that decision applied to all the member groups all the member parties within the international so if you were a German party a US party French party what the common turn as a part as a entity decided had a binding impact on your policy so in the case of the cpusa the the comment turn intervened frequently on a number of issues not the Communist Party USA communist the attempt to form a Communist Party one was on how in the beginning of the process it was mainly European immigrants who were not actually native English speakers who were the dominant Force so trying to broaden the ranks of the party to other sectors secondly the Comon turn felt that the that the US party was downplaying the struggle uh for black freedom and downplaying the struggle uh for self-determination for black people in America and actually in the Comon turn decision in 1928 the Comon turn and this was part of the debates that Claude Mckay and others were involved in the Comon turn made the decision that black people in the south in the black belt where black people constituted a majority of the population constituted an oppressed Nation within the United States and as such had the same right of self-determination to secede from the United States and create a black nation and that this became the demand of the Communist Party in 1928 that was um a very militant shift and it also propelled the Communist party which was basically a northern party to send CAD rais to the South where they organized essentially what were armed struggle organizations because sharecroppers unions which were essentially black Le but they recruited some of the whites as well matter of fact they recruited thousands of poor white people uh they could not exist except as armed struggle organizations because there was the dictatorship of the rich very much so in the South such that if you tried to protest or even just be you would be killed and this was largely the intervention of the com turn when the com turn did that that's when the case of the Scottsboro brothers and the other big uh defense campaign started for Black America with the CP and the CP became the most important multi-racial organization in the United States and again it upheld Lennon's Theory when you think about it like by advocating the right of self-determination it wasn't done to create separation but to build Unity but the unity is based on equality the equality means I have the right to get divorced I have the right to leave you if you the racist United States conduct yourself the way you've been condu conducting yourself why should I stay with you I can exercise my right of self-determination we can create a black Republic and the and the fact that the a multi-racial party was advocating that was very attractive to a significant sector of young black activists who joined the party so it was a really interesting sort of reflection of how the right of self-determination isn't simply to separate it's also to build Unity but to build Unity on a principled basis of genuine equality it's a unifier anyway there was so much diversity in the international and just think you had you could go and learn from all these other comrades from around the world and um anyway I'll leave it there that was one long answer in terms of technology and where we are you never know where you are in the historical Continuum until after the fact and you know I've made this point numerous times when Rosa Parks gave up her didn't give up her seat in 1955 she had no idea that the next day that would trigger what became like the Civil Rights Revolution you don't know you don't know when the thing that you do is the spark usually what we do is like knocking our heads against the wall and people get frustrated they were like the meeting still still still too small but Rosa Parks was in Small meetings for years in the basement of churches and then that one time it's snapped and when they called the boycott the next day everybody adhered to it and the leaders said okay let's call it off because one day is a success we can't do it two days and the masses said no let's go two days and they ended up not taking a bus or public transportation for 11 months and that was the beginning of really the the Civil Rights Movement the Contemporary Civil Rights Movement you never know where you are that's my point you only know after the fact so you keep doing whatever it is that we're doing we keep doing it because we don't know if what we're doing is the thing that Sparks this new moment what about technology I think technology is tremendously liberating from the point of view of our ability to reach masses of people uh when we organized the Iraq anti-war movement in the be before the war even started and got hundreds of thousands of people every month it was the first time the movement could use the internet to communicate in the past you know we were like printing leaflets or using mograph stencils and you know doing that run by hand and then taking them taking the 100 out and distributing the idea that we can instantly reach masses of people has made a huge difference and that doesn't mean we can rely on the internet uh and the bisi still controls the internet and and as we can see it it will shut things down but you know what happened in terer square in in 20 thou in uh 2011 when the Mubarak government shut down Facebook everybody who had been following the events in the Square from a distance said oh now I have to actually go to the square because they shut down the Facebook shut down Facebook and so the numbers of people who came to be participate exponentially grew so I think it's in our favor generally even though you know it's still under the control of the billionaires but very important I don't know if that gets to what you're asking uh all right so I'm going to take this hand here and then in the back Sidi if you can bring the mic hey so first of all thank you so much for all these weeks um my question uh I wondered if you wanted to comment on Israel Palestine and um I'm not an expert on Bolshevik history but my understanding is that when Herzel and the early zionists uh proposed Zionism um initially the bulvik party was very much opposed to it um then during the of uh World War II uh Russia winds up supporting uh the move of Jews to Palestine and then of course Palestinians uh are inspired by the common turn uh yeah okay yeah I can definitely talk about that thank you thank you um hi thank you um I have a question about what you were saying about like the rank and file soldiers um and I'm wondering this is another question kind of about about our like particular context today do you think we in the 21st century under like American in under the American Imperial context still have Rank and file soldiers in the same way like particularly given the hyper militarization and advanced technology in our military and like the way that we fight like Wars like as proxy wars through using like soldiers of other nations yeah good question really good in terms of Palestine and the Soviet Union and the common turn the common turn is uh born right after the Soviet Union it's dissolved in 19 1943 so the state of Israel is formed in 1948 um the Comon turn was formed as an instrument of World Revolution that's what it was for why was it dissolved because in 1943 uh the Soviet Union then under the leadership of St was in a in a a military alliance with British the British and US Government so the British government British imperialism us imperialism and the Soviet Union were in a military alliance against Nazi Germany and against in and Russia Al Soviet Union also declared war on Japan in August 1945 I think Stalin's considerations in 1943 were that uh there wasn't going to be a revolution in the west that the idea of promoting Revolution uh was only going to be used by British and US imperialism as a reason to break up the alliance Britain and the United States as imperialist Powers um they needed the Soviet Union because they needed somebody to fight Germany on the Eastern Front which the Soviet unions did Germany Soviets what 80% of the German division that's why the Soviets lost 27 million people us only lost 400,000 Soviets lost 27 million and they did the bulk of the fighting they were the ones who defeated German fascism so it was very convenient militarily for the United States to have an alliance but Stalin I think believed that it was going to be very hard to sustain the the alliance once the war ended and clearly the dropping of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and then nagas were designed to really start the anti-soviet Cold War and that was the breakup really of the alliance the US didn't need to drop the atomic bomb it was signaling Stalin and the Soviet Union which had just liberated Europe look we have a weapon of such magnitude such destructive capacity we can kill an entire city with one bomb and we're using it we did use it we showed we're using it and we're going to use it against civilians Hiroshima and Nagasaki were entirely civilian cities they had no military infrastructure at all they were picked because the US was sending a message not only to Japan but to the Soviet Union and to the new world order that was going to take the postor war order so after World War II ended the British government and Britain British colonialism had sponsored Zionism in Palestine it was British colonialism the B for declaration but the US was now the new emerging superpower because British imperialism was basically weakened by the outcome of the war America was the new uh heiman the new leader of the world the Soviet Union was at almost immediately at war with Britain and the United States the US broke up the alliance and I think the Stalin government felt that because the Soviet Red Army had liberated Eastern and Central Europe from fascism had liberated the people from the death camps that it had such goodwi among European jewelry that if this thing was going to get sponsored Anyway by British and American imperialism by the Soviets co-sponsoring the resolution uh creating the state of Israel that Israel would be basically a liberal Social Democratic kind of pro Soviet uh government because of the Soviet role in eliminating fascism just before uh and that was a big setback for the communist movement in the Middle East that the Soviets did that it took a long time for the communist movement to gain strength because the Soviet Union was conflated with Communism and commun and the Soviet government had supported the state of Israel so I would say it was uh an opportunist move on the part of the Soviet government understandable because they were afraid of World War III and they had just lost 27 million people and they wanted peace they did many other things like not provide arms to the Greek Communists at the time that they were fighting for their life against a British dominated regime because they didn't want to provoke imperialism the Soviet government said to the Italian and French Communists who could have seized power after World War II it was the French and Italian Communists who were the resistance they could have taken the power but the Soviet calculation in 19 1945 46 47 and 48 was that if there was any revolution in the west or if the Soviet Union looked like it was a belligerent against the US that it would provoke World War III and they were too weak having just lost 27 million people so they made these decisions which I said they're opportunist but in a way if you're in the Soviet if you're in the shoes of the Soviet leadership you're like we just lost 27 million people we can't stand Another War we need a period of peace here are these opportunist moves that we're going to make towards imperialism hoping that it you know sort of appeases the Beast and that's what they were doing uh but eventually the Palestinian left and the Arab left still looked very much to the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union in spite of the Diplomatic missteps I would say provided a lot of support uh to Arab revolutionary and pan Arab movements so it wasn't all one-sided um and then about the rank and file Soldier um when it was a conscripted Army like in Vietnam it was we could organize like crazy you know I I think I said I don't know if I said it but you know I was I was got a draft notice in the in the beginning I wanted to go in the army because uh I wanted to organize against the Army because all of these conscripted draes didn't want to be there so they were very ripe for anti-war organizing and I was affiliated with a group called The American serviceman's Union which had I don't know like 20,000 active duty soldiers who were members many of them in Vietnam and they were staging rebellions and they were mainly led by black and Latino Soldiers by the way who were the most who were really the Vanguard of the GI movement that's why the US got rid of the draft after the Vietnam War they realized the Army could turn against them the rank and file Soldier could be become a revolutionary in big part in big anti-war movements in 1970 71 uh 72 the biggest contingents and the most militant were GIS who had just come back from Vietnam they wanted to tear it down they wanted to burn it down I mean the anger uh about the racism and the imperialism the mistreatment and the just the nature of the war so all these soldiers became radical so the US went to a volunteer army to make it harder for radical IAL IDE as the seep into the rank and file Soldier or sailor or marine and it is harder but during the Iraq War answerer Coalition created a unit a task force for active duty soldiers sellers Marines and then we organized an independent group that we sustained for a couple years called March forward and it was anti-war it was Iraq and Afghan anti-ar folks who became Anti-Imperialist and they we went into military bases we organized on the bases was which is way different than organizing somewhere else let me tell you uh but you know shockingly surprisingly a lot of people and a lot of the soldiers families were all with us the soldiers were terribly mistreated they were committing suicide they came back with terrible life-changing injuries if they came back at all the government didn't really support them they were just Canon fodder and a lot of people were pissed off so even a volunteer army you can make inroads that's why the US uses proxy forces now the US is using ukrainians to fight Russia using israelies to fight the Palestinians using other PE that wanting to use the Taiwanese to fight China because if the US soldiers go there will be a giant anti-war movement even with a volunteer army it will seep into the ranks of the military and most of those people are are workers and they will turn against the war machine that's why the US uses drones uh and proxies so all the bleeding and suffering is somewhere else because if the US soldiers and their families are experiencing the bleeding they will they will rise up all right so I'm going to let me see the hands okay let's take here in the back and then here in the front there were two back there I think two back there let me see again the guy with a cap and then the woman right behind Okay so let's do three in this round those two and then uh right here yeah thank you very much uh this uh great great sessions and very important ones in my opinion uh I appreciate the uh Focus or emphasis you placed on context for Lenin and how everything he thought and advocated was based on context or that was my understanding so for me what that means is that we need to understand both what he thought and how he thought and that uh we need that going forward in that uh so in that vain uh in terms of uh position on the right of Nations to self-determination I'm assuming that that means that uh contextual thinking means that his position for example on the right of Ukraine to form its own independent nation at his time might be different today and I'd just like you to expand on that or reply to that thank you where is it second hand is there a second hand back here did you have your hand up no um yeah I um I'm really struck with I think you know what I've sort of gathered from these classes is that lennin was a tremendous Visionary and he was capable of taking the unpopular position um and taking the position that no one could foresee being the correct one um even um at the risk of like tremendous censure from his own comrades and I'm you know wondering how how how does someone develop that sort of leadership like how do you actually develop that instinct within yourself to have that sort of vision of being one of the first people to see that communism could move to the South and the East you know how do you develop that in your comrads as well um yeah that's a really tough question how what what makes Lenin Lenin or Fidel Fidel or Rosa Luxembourg Rosa Luxembourg I mean I think that history has a tendency at critical moments and at moments of rupture to sort of throw forward the individuals who are compatible with the moment someone or some small group of individuals have these extraordinary capacity to be the ones to lead at a particular moment and you see it throughout history that um at a given moment there are forces who are there if you look at the French Revolution it was dantan and rubs Pierre and then babou and you know the when you go through history there's there's these amazing people and they can't survive without the collective that's the amazing thing about Lennon Lennon Lenin's whole I lennin was the most modest leader ever matter of fact when he got shot uh a leftist shot him in 1918 during that period after the breast l TOS treaty and he was shot in the neck and he almost died and he was kind of unconscious and he he read the newspaper reports about him when he was not conscious and they were like Lennon is a genius Lennon the son of the Russian working class and all of these wonderful superlative statements and he was so disgusted that the party would talk about him as a great figure he was and he would never have called himself a leninist there was no Len leninism really doesn't isn't born as a thing until Lenin dies it's it's a requirement actually because Lenin would have never permitted people to call themselves leninists except maybe in internal squabbles where he would say the people who were stuck with him like in that sort of way but not as a as a new branch of Marxism so a very modest person very I I mentioned when he fought with people he was very impersonal Maxim gorki Who Loved Lennon also was constantly annoyed with Lennon by his the impersonal nature of his Outlook and Churchill talks about this too uh and Churchill wanted to strangle the bulvik baby while it was still in the crib which is why that his formulation about why they sent the British Army in right after the revolution but Lennon when lennin fought with people he had huge fights with these people he he called them all kinds of names and soon as they came over to his position he was like yeah we're comrades no grudge there was nothing there was nothing he was very impersonal in that sense he was like the single all he lived for breathed for the party and making the revolution this rare and that like lunacharsky one of the other leaders of the Russian Revolution talks about that in a book called the Silhouettes about how the sort of biographical about the different leaders that everybody was very obviously committed and dedicated and ready to make the ultimate sacrifice but Lennon had this kind of single-mindedness and purpose he was the organizer so he's a theoretician he's a historian he's a strategist he's a tactician but Above All Else Lenin is the organizer and all of the comrades know that so people in a organization really respect the organizer you know the person who is taking care of everything you know making sure that everything is working and I don't know I mean you you saw it though in other places like China with with Ma and other people so it's a fascinating topic the role of the individual in history uh I'm really interested in it it's contradictory anyway that's my answer in terms of the other question about Ukraine I want to talk about Putin Putin's position on Lenin for a second because on February 21st 2022 three days before Russia moves into Ukraine the B the Biden Administration knew they were going to invade because remember blinkin kept saying Yeah the Russians are going to invade uh Campbell all of the all of the state department people saide Russia's going to invade but they weren't alarmed about it because they actually wanted Russia to invade they thought this was going to be sort of the end of Russia they would sanction Russia because they could have easily negotiated the end of the war before it started all Russia wanted to do was a promise that Ukraine wouldn't come into NATO that Ukraine which is obviously a big part of Russia for centuries and only became independent as a not independent but have its own Republic in 1922 during the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist republics that's the first time it became a legal entity outside of Russia but it was still part of the same country because they were part of the Soviet Union the us could have easily solved that problem they didn't want to solve it they wanted to provoke Russia to make the move because then they could unite all of Europe and say look NATO is worthwhile we we have an enemy there's the enemy how do we know it's the enemy uh Russia violated the UN Charter they went into R into Ukraine territory and Putin made the argument like we're going into an area that has historically been part of Russia for hundreds of years Kiev was at one time the the capital of Russia um that that that you are going to turn Ukraine into a NATO military base right on our border and threaten us with missiles that have a a flight time of five or 6 minutes and we'll never be able to defend against them and we're not going to let you do it just like you would not let us set up Soviet conventional nuclear missiles at the US Canadian border or the US Mexican border that targeted American cities we're not going to let us you do it and just like you wouldn't let us do it so the US knew that this was all coming right they they knew it the outcome is not what they expected because Russia hasn't been defeated the russan economy uh and big parts of the global South the so-called third world don't want to live under American domination so they're kind of using this as a space to kind of be independent but Putin in his explanation of why they were historically justified in going into Ukraine attacks Lenin he attacked Lenin I want to read a little bit to you from Putin's speech it's not I it's a long speech I'm not going to read the speech I'm going to read a couple sentences my address concerns the events in Ukraine this is 3 days before The Invasion my address my address concerns the events in Ukraine and why this is so important for us for Russia of course my message is also addressed to our compatriots in Ukraine they had many compatriots in Ukraine they were all arrested by zalinski by the way zalinski created a police state and the Ukrainian parties and political forces that were wanted to be with Russia are in jail right now or killed the matter is very serious and needs to be discussed in depth Putin says and then he explains so I will start with the fact that modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia or to be more precise by the Bolsheviks by communist Russia this process started practically right after the 197 Revolution and Lenin and his associates did it in a way that was extremely har on Russia so Putin is blaming Lenin for being harsh on Russia by separating severing what is historically Russian land nobody asked the millions of people living there what they thought then he talks about World War II and then he says I remind you that after the 1917 October Revolution and the subsequent Civil War the bulovic set about creating a new statehood they had rather serious disagreements among themselves in 1922 Stalin occupied the position of both the General Secretary of the Russian Communist party bolic and the people's commissar for ethnic Affairs he suggested building the country on the principles of this is a hard word but an important one autonomization Stalin was saying we're going to build a new country based on autonomization that is giving the republics the future administ ative and territorial entities broad Powers upon joining a unified state so in other words if Ukraine join the Russian socialist Federation it would have an autonomous Republic meaning there would be some things that ukrainians could take care of by themselves but they were still part of Russia here's Putin Lenin criticized the plan and suggested making concession to the nationalists whom he called Independence at the time Lenin's ideas of what amounted in essence to a confederative state Arrangement and a slogan about the right of Nations to self-determination up to secession were laid in the foundation of Soviet statehood initially they were confirmed in the Declaration on the formation of the USSR in 1922 and then in the Soviet constitution in 24 after Lenin died this immediate and I'm going to finish with this paragraph This immediately raises many questions the first is the first is really the main one why was it necessary to appease the nationalists to satisfy the ceaselessly growing nationalist aspirations on the outskirts of the former Empire what was the point of transferring to the newly often arbitrarily formed administrative units that is the union republics those are the 15 republics I mentioned vast territories that had nothing to do with them let me repeat that these territories were transfer along with the population who lived there of what was historically Russia so Lenin Putin is blaming Lenin for the creation of a of an independent or semi-independent socialist republic of Ukraine and Lenard's and and Putin's argument is that if Ukraine would had always been part of Russia and did not have the right to secede meaning the right to become independent it wouldn't have been independent and thus NATO couldn't be taking advantage of it and that this situation is Lenin's fault that's Putin's position now again you heard what I said about who we blame for the war in Ukraine we don't blame Russia principally for The Invasion we blame us imperialism which deliberately provocatively calculatingly created a situation that was untenable for Russia and Russia took military action that was essentially a defensive operation to prevent NATO from using NATO as Ukraine as a stag ground but that said this is why it's important to be a leninist meaning to you can t take that position against imperialism but retain your political Independence who's right is Putin right or is Lenin right and we would say certainly in the PSL we would say that Lenin is right that the form that the right of oppressed non-russian nationalities who were indeed not Russian and had been oppressed by the zaris bisi the zaris ruling class by providing people the right of self-determination the right to get divorced does not create division but provides the basis for communist Unity meaning the unity based on equality and Lenin is a diard opponent of great Russian chauvinism great Russian chauvinism is in a way like white supremacy in America think of it that way different of course not exactly the same but when this one nation the great Russian the old Russian Empire could dominate over all the other non-russian nationalities lennin says this is the prison House of Nations he's disgusted by it it's racism it's the most vile kind of racism the non-russian people are treated badly they're treated with racist caricaturing and stereotyping and he said but we can build Unity B based on workers Unity if we have a socialist republic meaning everybody has a right to a job right to affordable housing right to free education all these rights and the right to separate meaning if you if we the great Russian Nation the bully Nation treat you badly you can say okay we're going to separate from you and we're going to divorce and we'll have our own Republic on the basis of this formula of the right of self-determination was there a war between Russia and Ukraine between 1922 and 1991 when the Soviet Union the structure that Lenin created was there a conflict were there Wars between Armenians and azerb Janis were there Wars between uh different parts of Georgia no were there tensions of course there would be tensions between different peoples we're not utopians we're not looking at the world like there's like some idealistic way but there was no fighting if the oil came out of the Caspian Sea in the mostly Muslim Republic of azerbajan it could be shipped to the Christian Orthodox Ukraine basically at cost so Ukrainian workers benefited Ukrainian peasants benefited and so did the azerb Janis because they got Ukrainian wheat almost for free it was an integrated coordinated socialist planned economy that brought people together but Lenin's position of the right of self-determination wasn't the Genesis of division it was the Genesis of unity so in the Soviet system there was the so the Supreme Soviet and the Soviet of nationalities for any law to become a law in the Soviet Union it had to be adopted by both chambers that would be like if you had a u the Supreme Soviet think of that as the US Congress say there was another body a legislative body made up of black latino Asian-American native arab-american meaning people who are oppressed either oppressed Nations within the United States or oppressed National minorities that have been victimized by white supremacy and racism and for any law to become a law it would have to be adopted by the Congress and by the Congress of nationalities just think of what that would mean in terms of structure that would be a profoundly important democratic reform that's what the Soviet system was that uh Lenin helped create that there was even if it was legal even if it appeared to be formal nonetheless the fact that all of the op formerly oppressed non-russian nationalities had the had veto power basically over Soviet legislation showed that there was great measures for equality in 1917 literacy in usbekistan was 2% by 1970 literacy in usbekistan well college graduates in usbekistan outnumbered college graduates in France talk about affirmative action whole Lennon's whole policy was affirmative action he says it in the documents that we circulated about the national and Colonial question he said in fact in order to have equality there has to be some degree of inequality to make up for the centuries of inequality that have been imposed on the oppressed nationalities and opposed uh oppressed ethnicities and uh racial minorities so for Lenin this is primary and the Communist International embodied that that's why China India Indonesia Palestine Cuba uh Ghana that's why the world became communist was these principles were a rejection of eurocentric Western imperialist white supremacist orientation that had been so dominant and this is a Hallmark of Lenin so we understand why the Russians invaded Ukraine and we think that the United States provoke the war on the other hand we don't have to agree with Putin's explanations which are essentially anti-communist and anti- leninist in order to sustain a principled Anti-Imperialist position on the Ukraine that's how we View leninism and the the qualities you talked about how to be unpopular how to be that leader how to be that party how to take an unpopular position that means you st you have the capacity to stand up take an unpopular position at the moment it's unpopular maybe it becomes popular later but also there are principles that are Bedrock principles uh the right of nations of self-determination The Fight Against Racism fight against colonialism as being primary and Central not secondary to the class struggle primary to the class struggle these are the principles of Le ISM and that's why I think leninism keeps sort of even though it goes through sort of periods of retreat it comes back uh as the clear wave of contemporary Marxism thank you Brian um we have a lot of also good questions on the chat that we I don't know that we're going to have time to get to but I'm just want to put it out here maybe we need to do another course on this topic um and next week and next week will be please register for the class if you haven't registered already so that you get the link for the virtual Q&A section session there's a lot of questions now about how to understand the relationship of the Chinese Revolution to the uh Bolshevik Revolution both in history and today um so that might be something that we want to take up I had prepared ma m tongue and Joe and Li's comments about the dissolution of the third international in 1943 but we didn't get to it so we'll maybe we'll take that up in the Q&A so next week we'll have a Q&A session and I can also throw in some things that I didn't get time before but that's one of them very important so we want to see you here next week Brian I don't know if you want to close out with any final thoughts now no well yes I'll just say real quickly uh it's been really great to be able to take the time as I said last class I really I like adult education a lot more than hi um adult education more than any other uh you know education where people are compelled to go to school because we're here because we want to learn we want to study and also the best way to study Lenin and to study Marxism is to study it as part of a collective what I'm trying to do is provide some basic sort of historical context so that when people keep reading and keep studying together it's some of the things start to make a little bit more sense because if we had been alive a 100 years ago we would know all these things you wouldn't need a big class about it we it would be contemporary but we're here a hundred years later in a different country so keep studying Lenin keep studying socialism do it as a collective and again thank you to the people's Forum in the society in particular for uh providing all that support we couldn't do it without you thank thank you Brian that's a perfect way to end thank you everyone for joining again this is we study Lenin for re to make Revolution so we hope to see you back here with your friends with your comrades studying letting us know where you're reaching in your studies and your questions and your investigations and then importantly on how it's affecting the way you participate in struggle so on that note I want to just make a couple of announcements um we have volunteer organizer meetings every mon Monday night usually the people's forum is closed on Mondays but we're open in the evenings for volunteer meetings for Palestine Brian talked about it in the beginning of the class um where people are getting together and they're organizing uh actions to take across the city across the week um so for example this week There's I think over 20 uh speak outs or uh open air teachings that are happening across the city that have been organized at this meeting there's many other things we actually can't even keep track of all the different actions that are happening um but it's a really good place to get to meet people to join up in coalitions in your neighborhoods uh around shared themes um and to keep building the organized character of The Struggle which is what's going to carry us through both the good times and the bad um so hope to see you there Monday evenings at 6:30 um and then this Saturday we're all going to be descending on the uh the commercial District of Manhattan uh the Herold Square we're going to have a big March where we're going to be focusing our messaging on holding those who have blood on their hands for this genocide happening against the Palestinian people to account which include the political class at a state and federal level and raising up that uh the fact that we are not going to accept the tens of thousands of Martyrs that have been uh murdered in because of their interests so join us will'll be at 2m at Herold square if you want to help do Outreach for this come talk to me afterwards um um and we will see you next week to continue our study of revolutionary Theory there's no revolutionary movement without revolutionary Theory so it's so important that you're all here and participating in this with us thanks again everybody and we will see you all very soon

Channel: The People's Forum NYC

Views: 10,680

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Id: _No2_-oRtQo

Length: 115min 8sec (6908 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 13 2023