The validity and Current Relevance of the October Revolution of 1917 for the 21st century
Brussels, 4-6 May 2007
www.icsbrussels.org , ics[at]icsbrussels.org
The validity and current relevance of the October Revolution
By Birgit Unnerup,
Communist Party of Denmark
We can’t be the Great October Revolution grateful enough.
We can’t overestimate the Importance of the Great October Revolution
And we can’t overestimate the Negative Results of its disappearance.
The hole of the 20th century was dominated of the October Revolution, and if it hasn’t been for it, it would not have been called the era of revolution, the era of transition from capitalism to socialism. Even in capitalist Denmark, the 20th century is called the people’s century – which is about the same.
The positive results in short: The liberation of Russia and the other republics in the Soviet Union; the building of the Soviet Union as a industrialized country with social welfare in the decennium with big crisis in capitalism; the defeat of Nazism; the building of the socialist bloc with eastern Europe and China; support for the process of decolonizing and the opportunity for the liberated countries to choose their own way; support for the new socialist countries as Cuba, Vietnam and others. And the building in many western countries in Europe of an welfare state – especially in the Nordic countries – as an result of the example – or threat – from the Soviet Union. Not to mention "peace in our time" in Europe.
All this we have to be eternally grateful for. And this should not be forgotten.
The proof, that this is not merely words, we were so unfortunate to witness, when the October Revolution were defeated during the European Counterrevolution. After a good fifteen years a lot of the results won due to the October Revolution have gone in Europe and in most of the world. Capitalism is back in the former soviet countries and in Eastern Europe. The remaining socialist countries have had a very hard time, and socialism in those countries has been and probably still is threatened. The European welfare states, who were in Eastern Europe the result of revolution and in Western Europe of the good situation for the fight of the working class, have been swept away in Eastern Europe, and are in Western Europe under heavy and systematic attack from a united front of capitalists, right wing politicians, social democrats and a general popular confusion. It is all monitored through the EU, and nobody seems to know what to do about it. Even the so called socialist left, which used to blame the Soviet Union for their difficulties to obtain parliamentary success and build an ideal socialism, experienced a severe set back, and they still haven’t found there own legs as we put it in Danish.
I forgot to mention, that in many countries the communist movement almost disappeared and even today we have great difficulties in our work.
Like Eastern Europe was colonized – maybe even recolonized – after the European counter revolution, the same thing happened in many 3rd world countries. The politics towards those countries is now open exploitation and the so called ‘developing help’ is tied up with all sorts of demands of neoliberalism.
So far, so bad.
Luckily the situation has changed, and interesting enough, it started in the aftermath of ‘nine eleven’. On the surface, this event seemed to join the whole world behind the US. But at exactly the same time our party started to get new members, and the paralyzed Danish population started to wake up. The war on Afghanistan was another push, but the main factor was and is the war on Iraq – and especially the fact, that the Iraqi people started to fight back. No one I have met in the peace movement or elsewhere had expected this. It seemed that nothing could be done against the US military. But first the Iraqi army was fighting back and then the people. It is not that long, since Denmark was under occupation, and most Danes can identify to fight occupation. And by fighting I mean fighting – not protests in the occupants parliament.
In the shadow of the war on Iraq, the US has not been able to control Latin America, which has made it possible for political and social changes to take place. Our Cuban friends have told us, that the Republicans still want to focus on Iraq and the Middle East – and now also Africa -, while the Democrats try to get the Congress to spent much more money on ‘democracy in Latin America’. So right now the hard core Republicans are Latin Americas best friends. At the same time China has started to play a very positive role in relation to Cuba and Africa. China does the same thing as the Soviet Union: they provide some African countries with the possibility to choose the political way, they want.
As a conclusion I should say, that all our work was and is determined on the existence or non existence of the October Revolution and the Soviet Union. Now we have the task to find our way without it and learn from it.
Comrades: In our party we have answered the question "What happened with the Soviet Union?" And our answer is – as mentioned earlier -: A counter revolution happened. And since it took place in the Soviet Union and the socialist countries in Eastern Europe, we call it "the European counter revolution".
What we haven’t yet answered is the other question: "Why did it happen?" The answer to this question is of essential importance in relation to our possibility to conduct our own or new revolutions here in Europe as well as in relation to prevent further counter revolutions.
When I was here two years ago, I bought the book "The collapse of the Soviet Union – causes and lessons", and I started to read it, but as usual the daily work prevented me from finish it. And now I have moved to a new flat, and I can’t find it. So I want to apologize in advance, if the following is common knowledge to this audience. It is not in Denmark. There it is highly controversial.
As mentioned, we have not – as a party – answered the question of why. But we have had some discussions, and I have done some thinking. I presented the result of this thinking for the polit bureau before I left and I got permission to present those thoughts here.
In short my conclusion is this: The Soviet Union and the socialist countries in Eastern Europe did not manage to solve the question of what to do with the developed society. How to conduct a developed socialist country. Which challenges to put forward to the people. Having solved very successful the task of building up a backward society to a modern society by creating the materiel and social condition they did not managed to change focus. They continued to build up the material and social conditions. And we in the west don’t have any reason to gloat since we are making the same mistake. What are the capitalist developed societies offering us? Consume and entertainment. In Denmark we are rich as never before – and at the same time people are feeling as bad as never before. Stress, depression and aggressiveness are blooming. More and more people live single. We can’t even manage a small family. And if the modern society has nothing more than consume and entertainment to offer, then capitalism will prevail.
We are left with the fundamental question: What is the purpose of the socialist society – or even the communist society? Is there a life after building good materiel and social conditions? That is – another life than consume? Luckily yes – we have just forgotten this in the appropriate and necessary struggle for good living conditions. But the real purpose of socialism and communism is a life without repression and exploitation, which is the only possible condition for equal and satisfying relations with other people, which is the real purpose of life – when the material conditions for life are secured. So the task of the communists today in developed societies is to create a concept and a policy that shows the way out of today’s problems and to present this vision for the peoples of the developed societies – before we are thrown all the way back to poverty and underdevelopment. In our little party we are in the middle of that process in rewriting our party programme. It is hard, because we will not settle for a programme similar to the one we wrote some 30 years ago with small formal adjustments. We aim to create a programme that will present an answer to the problems, which most of the Danes are confronting today – like stress in the workplaces. Low wages or bad physical working conditions are still or again problems for some people in Denmark, but only a small minority. And you can’t build a programme of revolution on a small minority. You have to present a programme that the vast majority can relate to.
I am sure, that also economic factors contributed to the European counter revolution, but I am first and most a politician, and therefore I have focused on the political factors. Comrades with more economic insight will have to found out and describe the economical side.
Thank you.