Today is the 107th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution through which the working class transformed from a passive object of capitalist exploitation into an active protagonist of politics, taking control of its own destiny and by expansion, that of society, becoming for the first time in history the ruling and dominant class.
Under the leadership of Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, the working class raised its struggle from the economic to the political level in its most advanced form. No longer just “bread and job,” but “all power to the Soviets” was the slogan that strongly expresses this qualitative leap of the proletariat who claimed for power, for all power, absolute and undivided, being the true ruling class of a country led into disaster by the autocracy and the capitalist bourgeoisie. The seizure of absolute power, the establishment of the proletarian dictatorship is the prerequisite for the abolition of private property and the socialization of the means of production. This measure distinguishes the October Revolution from all previous revolutions that had only transformed private property, without abolishing it to completion. Faced with the imperialist war, Lenin and the Bolsheviks rejected both the social-chauvinist theses of the interventionists and the opportunist ones – such as “neither participate nor sabotage.” They adopted a “revolutionary defeatist” position, an active commitment towards the defeat of their own bourgeoisie, and therefore, implemented the transformation of the imperialist war into a revolutionary civil war. This exemplary position marked the definitive split of the communists from the Second International and social democracy at that time, and today, it is more relevant than ever. With the seisure of power, the Peace Decree was the preliminary political and legal act of the newborn Soviet power. Peace among the oppressed and war against the oppressors have always been central concepts in the political practice of the Bolsheviks.
The Great October Socialist Revolution ruptured the continuity of world imperialist domination at its most politically assailable weakpoint thanks to the correct understanding by Lenin and the Bolsheviks of the exact historical moment and of the nature and laws of development of imperialism. This clearly demonstrated the validity of Lenin’s thesis on the possibility of building socialism within a single country as a consequence of the unequal nature of the economic and political development in different states. The collapse of the autocracy and the victory of the socialist revolution in Russia marked the beginning of the end of the world colonial system and the start of a wave of national liberation struggles. The revolutionary transformation, therefore, did not only concern the internal structure of the Russian Empire, but that of the entire world during that period.
Red October opened the process of building the first workers’ and socialist state in the world. Under the leadership of Lenin, Stalin, and the Bolshevik Communist Party, the peoples of the former Russian Empire formed the Soviet Union. They were able to achieve unprecedented economic and social progression that led the Soviet country to defeat Nazi-fascism becoming in a relatively short time the second economic power in the world: a bulwark of both the struggles for liberation from the colonial yoke and for the emancipation of the world proletariat.
Gender equality, the right to free education and healthcare, the right to housing, the right to work, to a decent salary and pension, to holidays, rest and leisure, set forth by the Soviet Constitution, are just some examples of the rights that Red October has allowed to be achieved – demonstrating how for the communists, there is no separation between social and civil, collective and individual rights.
Red October opened a new era in the history of humankind: the era of proletarian and socialist revolutions in which we are living today. Therefore, November 7th is not at all a nostalgic anniversary, but a shining example of the path to follow to overthrow the dictatorship of capital, to put an end to exploitation and imperialist wars forever, and to build a socialist society prosperous, just and free in our country as well.
LONG LIVE THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM!
Rome, November 6, 2024
COMMUNIST FRONT OF ITALY
The Political Bureau of the Central Committee
