We have passed the fiftieth anniversary of the Chilean coup – an event that shocked worker activists the world over. The Junta surrounded mines and factories with tanks. Sickening descriptions were given by eye-witnesses of sadistic beatings and tortures. Tens of thousands were executed: summarily shot, bludgeoned, mutilated and tortured to death, or hurled into the sea from helicopters. Witnesses … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE LESSONS OF CHILE
by Roger Silverman - 11th September 2023. It is the fiftieth anniversary of the Chilean coup – an event that shocked worker activists the world over. The Junta surrounded mines and factories with tanks. Sickening descriptions were given by eye-witnesses of sadistic beatings and tortures. Tens of thousands were executed: summarily shot, bludgeoned, mutilated and tortured to death, or hurled … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE
by Roger Silverman. First, I can at last reveal the true identity of Shakespeare: the plays of Shakespeare were written by a man called William Shakespeare. It is sheer reactionary snobbery to suggest that his poetry and plays could only have been written by an aristocrat. On the contrary: an aristocrat of that time would have written from a very different perspective. He was the son of a … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – RUSSIA: LITERATURE AND REVOLUTION
by Roger Silverman. In Russia, literature and revolution are inextricably intertwined. There is a proud and unbroken Russian tradition of defiance of successive autocratic regimes by artists and writers. It happened under the Tsars; it happened under the tyranny of Stalin and his successors; and it happens still today under the Putin dictatorship. There is no country with a richer … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE BOLSHEVIKS AND PARLIAMENT
by Roger Silverman. We revolutionaries are often misrepresented as enemies of democracy. Didn’t the Bolsheviks ban opposition parties, shut down the Constituent Assembly, impose war communism, create a one-party police state…? On the contrary. For instance, far from imposing a one-party state, the first Soviet government was not even a one-party government: it was a coalition with the left … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – WHAT WAS STALINISM?
by Roger Silverman. Socialists today still find themselves under the dark shadow that Stalinism has cast over the history of the twentieth century. It is more than ten years since the collapse of the Stalinist regimes of Russia and Eastern Europe – overthrown in many cases by workers’ uprisings. These were hideous, corrupt, vicious regimes, and workers rightly celebrated their downfall as … [Read more...]
WIN ARCHIVE LIBRARY – THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION – 100 YEARS ON
by Roger Silverman - 7th November 2017. We revolutionaries are often misrepresented as enemies of democracy. Didn’t the Bolsheviks ban opposition parties, shut down the Constituent Assembly, impose war communism, create a one-party police state…? On the contrary. For instance, far from imposing a one-party state, the first Soviet government was not even a one-party government: it was a … [Read more...]
The Bolsheviks and Parliament
by ROGER SILVERMAN We revolutionaries are often misrepresented as enemies of democracy. Didn’t the Bolsheviks ban opposition parties, shut down the Constituent Assembly, impose war communism, create a one-party police state…? On the contrary. For instance, far from imposing a one-party state, the first Soviet government was not even a one-party government: it was a coalition with the left … [Read more...]
Palestine/Israel: What can Socialists do now?
by Roger Silverman We are living through a period of existential crisis. The sudden outbreak of war in Israel/Palestine is only the latest in a series of convulsive shocks. The word genocide is one that should be used only with caution; but Israel’s blockade of Gaza, cutting off water, food and electricity while relentlessly bombing its helpless population, is virtually proclaimed by its … [Read more...]
Counter Revolution in Chile
By Roger Silverman Image - Library of the Chilean National Congress - Attribution 3.0 Chile (CC BY 3.0 CL) Fifty years ago this month, on September 11, 1973, a military coup took place in Chile, putting a committee (‘junta’) of generals in power, led by General Pinochet. The coup resulted in the bombing of the presidential palace and the subsequent murder of the president, Salvador … [Read more...]