We are quite obviously faced with a need to organize some small defenses to the more flagrant abuses of the system now … While we await the precise moment when all of capitalism’s victims will indignantly rise to destroy the system, we are being devoured … Some of us are going to have to take our courage in hand and build a hard revolutionary cadre for selective retaliatory violence. Jonathan P Jackson, Blood in My Eye p11-12
I have no doubt that the revolution will triumph. The people of the world will prevail, seize power, seize the means of production, wipe out racism, capitalism. Huey P Newton, Revolutionary Suicide p4
We believe that the most pressing political necessity is the consolidation of a United Front joining together all sections of the revolutionary, radical and democratic movements. Only a united front – led in the first place by the national liberation movements and the working people – can decisively counter, theoretically, ideologically and practically, the increasingly fascistic and genocidal posture of the present ruling clique. Angela Davis, If They Come in the Morning, 1971
In the heat of our pursuit for fundamental human rights, Black people have been continually cautioned to be patient. We are advised that as long as we remain faithful to the existing democratic order, the glorious moment will eventually arrive when we will come into our own as full-fledged human beings. But having been taught by bitter experience, we know that there is a glaring incongruity between democracy and the capitalist economy which is the source of our ills. Regardless of all rhetoric to the contrary, the people are not the ultimate matrix of the laws and the system which govern them – certainly not Black people and other nationally oppressed people, but not even the mass of whites. The people do not exercise decisive control over the determining factors of their lives. ibid.
Needless to say, the history of the United States has been marred from its inception by an enormous quantity of unjust laws, far too many expressly bolstering the oppression of Black people. Particularized reflections of existing social inequities, these laws have repeatedly borne witness to the exploitative and racist core of the society itself. For Blacks, Chicanos, for all nationally oppressed people, the problem of opposing unjust laws and the social conditions which nourish their growth, has always had immediate practical implications. Our very survival has frequently been a direct function of our skill in forging effective channels of resistance. In resisting, we have sometimes been compelled to openly violate those laws which directly or indirectly buttress our oppression. But even when containing our resistance within the orbit of legality, we have been labeled criminals and have been methodically persecuted by a racist legal apparatus. ibid.
Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime. Angela Davis: An Autobiography
The Russian Revolution changed the world for ever. Almost overnight, an entire society was destroyed, and replaced with one of the most radical social experiments ever seen. Poverty, crime, privilege and class division were to be eliminated. A new era of Socialism promised peace, prosperity and equality for all the peoples of the world. But the social experiment failed. Millions were killed. And within a generation almost one third of the world’s population was living in the shadow of Communism. The Russian Revolution, Top Documentaries 2006
It is a time of ideas and ideals. ibid.
It was the end of the provisional government. ibid.
On the 23rd of February women in the factories came out on to the streets to protest at the lack of bread. When rumour spread that the bread was being deliberately hoarded and held back from them their mood darkened. The men from the factories joined the women. Cries changed from demands for bread to the removal of Russia’s Emperor, The Tsar. By the end of the afternoon 100,000 workers were on strike. ibid.
Despite the killings the demonstrations continued. Back at the barracks the soldiers were becoming increasingly angry at what had happened, and when their officer tried to force them back on to the streets again, they let their feelings known. ibid.
The revolution appeared unstoppable. Tsarist symbols were torn down. And the country rushed enthusiastically into uncharted territory. ibid.
The Tsar’s regime had been replaced by a temporary provisional government. Its ministers were democrats, but many of them were landowners too. And they were committed to continuing the War with Germany. Exiled revolutionary leaders had different ideas. And they were on their way home. In a sealed train direct from Switzerland came one of the most important of the revolutionaries – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. His party name was Lenin. This is the man who would take over the Revolution. His arrival would change everything. ibid.
Lenin’s slogan was Peace, Bread and Land. ibid.
The cause was taken up with a bloody enthusiasm by the sailors of Kronstadt. ibid.
In October the Revolution was also taken up by Lenin’s Bolshevik Party, who with the help of the sailors forced their way to power.
Now the Bolsheviks feared their rivals. Determined to keep control, they had begun to build the apparatus of a police state. Slowly a gap is growing between the Party and the people. And the sailors from Kronstadt are caught in the middle. ibid.
After two years the last White general is defeated, and the allies leave Russia for good. ibid.
It’s been a century since the Russian revolution and formation of the world’s first communist state … But at the heart of the Russian revolution lay … the Royal family who were determined to retain autocratic rule. The Russian Revolution, Netflix 2017
The errors made by the Tsar would bring an empire to its knees. ibid.
From the day of his coronation he [Nicholas] was off to a dreadful start … Nicholas was struggling in his role of Tsar. ibid.
Crucially, the Russian armed forces remained loyal to the Crown. ibid.
Civil unrest was about to break out in Russia. ibid.
Lenin’s belief in the profound weakness of the provisional government would prove justified. Russia’s October revolution had begun. ibid.
We never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution – real girls’ talk. Nina Simone