Italian communists led the anti-fascist resistance that overthrew Mussolini and helped end WW2. Today, Italy celebrates “Liberation Day” to commemorate the victory of the resistance.
We should remember that the most significant armed resistance group was the “Garibaldi Brigades,” led by the Communist Party of Italy. Liberals and social democrats were also part of the resistance but played a much smaller role.
However, the Communist Party did not always support a strategy of armed struggle against Mussolini, despite being urged by Lenin and Gramsci to do so.
theredstream
We should remember that the most significant armed resistance group was the “Garibaldi Brigades,” led by the Communist Party of Italy. Liberals and social democrats were also part of the resistance but played a much smaller role.
However, the Communist Party did not always support a strategy of armed struggle against Mussolini, despite being urged by Lenin and Gramsci to do so.
theredstream
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On this day, 25 April 1974, Portugal’s right-wing Estado Novo dictatorship was overthrown in a military coup by low-ranking officers who had formed the Armed Forces Movement (MFA). When pro-regime officers ordered troops to open fire, a mutiny by rank-and-file soldiers blocked a counter-revolution. The events became known as the Carnation Revolution, as few shots were fired and people decorated troops with red and white carnations, which were in season and widely sold on the streets.
The regime’s collapse was followed by a working-class uprising lasting over 18 months. Urban workers took over workplaces, while rural workers seized land to farm collectively.
A major reason for the regime’s unpopularity was the colonial war against independence movements in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Principe, ongoing since the early 1960s. After the revolution, these colonies soon gained independence.
Working Class History
The regime’s collapse was followed by a working-class uprising lasting over 18 months. Urban workers took over workplaces, while rural workers seized land to farm collectively.
A major reason for the regime’s unpopularity was the colonial war against independence movements in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Principe, ongoing since the early 1960s. After the revolution, these colonies soon gained independence.
Working Class History
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True enough, in the era of capitalism, when the masses of the workers are subjected to constant exploitation and cannot develop their human capacities, the most characteristic feature of working-class political parties is that they can involve only a minority of their class. A political party can comprise only a minority of a class, in the same way as the really class-conscious workers in any capitalist society constitute only a minority of all workers. We are therefore obliged to recognise that it is only this class-conscious minority that can direct and lead the broad masses of the workers. And if Comrade Tanner says that he is opposed to parties, but at the same time is in favour of a minority that represents the best organised and most revolutionary workers showing the way to the entire proletariat, then I say that there is really no difference between us. What is this organised minority? If this minority is really class-conscious, if it is able to lead the masses, if it is able to reply to every question that appears on the order of the day, then it is a party in reality. But if comrades like Tanner, to whom we pay special heed as representatives of a mass movement—which cannot, without a certain exaggeration, be said of the representatives of the British Socialist Party—if these comrades are in favour of there being a minority that will fight resolutely for the dictatorship of the proletariat and will educate the masses of the workers along these lines, then this minority is in reality nothing but a party.
V. I. Lenin
The Second Congress Of The Communist International
July 19-August 7, 1920
V. I. Lenin
The Second Congress Of The Communist International
July 19-August 7, 1920
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The Russian social-chauvinists (headed by Plekhanov), refer to Marx’s tactics in the war of 1870; the German (of the type of Lensch, David and Co.) to Engels’ statement in 1891 that in the event of war against Russia and France together, it would be the duty of the German Socialists to defend their fatherland; and lastly, the social-chauvinists of the Kautsky type, who want to reconcile and legitimatise international chauvinism, refer to the fact that Marx and Engels, while condemning war, nevertheless, constantly, from to 1870-1871 and 1876-1877, took the side of one or another belligerent state once war had broken out.
All these references are outrageous distortions of the views of Marx and Engels in the interest of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists, in just the same way as the writings of the Anarchists Guillaume and Co. distort the views of Marx and Engels in justification of anarchism. The war of 1870-1871 was a historically progressive war on the part of Germany until Napoleon III was defeated; for the latter, together with the tsar, had oppressed Germany for many years, keeping her in a state of feudal disintegration. But as soon as the war developed into the plunder of France (the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine), Marx and Engels emphatically condemned the Germans. And even at the beginning of that war Marx and Engels approved of the refusal of Bebel and Liebknecht to vote for credits and advised the Social-Democrats not to merge with the bourgeoisie, but to uphold the independent class interests of the proletariat. To apply the appraisal of this bourgeois-progressive and national-liberating war to the present imperialist war means mocking at truth. The same applies with still greater force to the war of 1854-1855, and to all the wars of the nineteenth century, when there was no modern imperialism, no ripe objective conditions for Socialism, and no mass Socialist parties in any of the belligerent countries, i.e., none of the conditions from which the Basle Manifesto deduced the tactics of “proletarian revolution” in connection with a war between the great powers.
Whoever refers today to Marx’s attitude towards the wars of the epoch of the progressive bourgeoisie and forgets Man’s statement that “the workers have no fatherland,” a statement that applies precisely to the epoch of the reactionary, obsolete bourgeoisie, to the epoch of the socialist revolution, shamelessly distorts Marx and substitutes the bourgeois for the socialist point of view.
V. I. Lenin
Socialism and War
All these references are outrageous distortions of the views of Marx and Engels in the interest of the bourgeoisie and the opportunists, in just the same way as the writings of the Anarchists Guillaume and Co. distort the views of Marx and Engels in justification of anarchism. The war of 1870-1871 was a historically progressive war on the part of Germany until Napoleon III was defeated; for the latter, together with the tsar, had oppressed Germany for many years, keeping her in a state of feudal disintegration. But as soon as the war developed into the plunder of France (the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine), Marx and Engels emphatically condemned the Germans. And even at the beginning of that war Marx and Engels approved of the refusal of Bebel and Liebknecht to vote for credits and advised the Social-Democrats not to merge with the bourgeoisie, but to uphold the independent class interests of the proletariat. To apply the appraisal of this bourgeois-progressive and national-liberating war to the present imperialist war means mocking at truth. The same applies with still greater force to the war of 1854-1855, and to all the wars of the nineteenth century, when there was no modern imperialism, no ripe objective conditions for Socialism, and no mass Socialist parties in any of the belligerent countries, i.e., none of the conditions from which the Basle Manifesto deduced the tactics of “proletarian revolution” in connection with a war between the great powers.
Whoever refers today to Marx’s attitude towards the wars of the epoch of the progressive bourgeoisie and forgets Man’s statement that “the workers have no fatherland,” a statement that applies precisely to the epoch of the reactionary, obsolete bourgeoisie, to the epoch of the socialist revolution, shamelessly distorts Marx and substitutes the bourgeois for the socialist point of view.
V. I. Lenin
Socialism and War
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The Democratic Republic of Congo — the richest yet most exploited country on Earth — is inching toward a peace deal between its military and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. But many in Congo view the US-supported negotiations with deep skepticism, having seen similar efforts collapse time and again.
How did it come to this — a country overflowing with natural resources, trapped in endless conflict? In an interview with red. media, a Congolese activist, speaking under conditions of anonymity for security reasons, explains how foreign powers continue to drive violence and exploitation in the region.
theredstream
How did it come to this — a country overflowing with natural resources, trapped in endless conflict? In an interview with red. media, a Congolese activist, speaking under conditions of anonymity for security reasons, explains how foreign powers continue to drive violence and exploitation in the region.
theredstream
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