The French Revolution of May 1968

May 1968 was the greatest revolutionary general strike in history. This mighty movement took place at the height of the post-war economic upswing in capitalism. Then, as now, the bourgeois and their apologists were congratulating themselves that revolutions and class struggle were things of the past. Then came the French events of 1968, which seemed to drop like a thunderbolt from a clear blue sky. They took most of the Left completely by surprise, because, they had all written off the European working class as a revolutionary force.

In defence of ‘Permanent Revolution’

Trotsky’s fundamental work Results and Prospects, was written in 1906 after the failed Russian Revolution. The theory he laid out in this work came to be known as the Permanent Revolution. Despite being written a decade prior, it explains the course which the 1917 Revolution would take. The Permanent Revolution offers many lessons to revolutionaries today. 

Why we study the Russian Revolution

Monday marked the 105th anniversary of the October Revolution. These 10 days shook the world and spurred on proletarian movements in countries far and wide. Over a century later and the Russian Revolution one of the most distorted events in history. The international bourgeois work actively to confuse and lie about the Russian Revolution. As Marxists, we must take a more serious approach. What is the real history of the revolution and how can we replicate it today? 

Dual power in France – A Militant leaflet, May 1968

Supporters of the Marxist Tendency, then gathered around the Militant journal in Britain, intervened in the French events of May 1968. Here we provide the text of a leaflet that was distributed to the British workers and youth. In it they warned that with the way the French CP and trade union leaders were behaving the French bourgeois could regain control of the situation.

Not a nut or bolt turns in hundreds of occupied factories: not a wheel moves in public transport. The reactionary newspapers’ lies are “censored” by the printers and so are those of the radio and television. The French working class in its millions cocks its little finger, and the vast complex of French capitalism grinds to a halt.

What a mighty demonstration of the invincible power of the working class, when it begins to move! How crushing a refutation this is of all those cynics and sceptics who have written off the working class as “bought off”, “apathetic” etc! How clear it should be to even the most politically uneducated worker that their French brothers would now be firmly in power, but for the craven, cowardly policies of the French Labour and Trade Union leaders. This is the essence of the events which have shaken the French ruling class and terrified the exploiters of the world!

Revolutionary days – May 1968, a personal memoir

Alan Woods went to Paris in May 1968 seeking contact with revolutionary workers and youth. He describes here what he encountered, the mood, and the discussions with workers and students. He explains how the workers were looking for leadership but never found it, neither in the ultra-left groups, nor in the Stalinist leadership that betrayed them.

Lenin’s Last Struggle

Today marks 98 years since Lenin’s death. To mark the occasion, we are republishing this article which was originally written to commemorate the Lenin centenary in 1970. The early symptoms of bureaucratic degeneration in Russia were already noted by Lenin in the last two years of his politically active life. Read more…

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