File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-01-25.033, message 60


Date: Fri, 24 Jan 1997 08:48:33 +0000
From: MA&NG Jones <majones-AT-netcomuk.co.uk>
Subject: Re: M-I: 1917 Pt III the world turned upside down!


Adolfo:

The whole piece is available as a ZIP file from the website below.


hariette spierings wrote:
> 
> >1917
> >YEAR OF TWO REVOLUTIONS
> >
> >[Part Three of Four]
> >
> 
> An extract of this excellent piece by Mark left me thinking about two things:
> 
> First, how a revolutionary situation, as it matures and approaches its
> climax, "seems to turn the logic of everyday life upside down", something
> which reminds me once again of Gerald Winstanley's observation: "The
> revolution is the man that would turn the world upside down".
> 
> And secondly, that the "calm before the storm" has then its own dialectical
> logic pregnant with the expectation and instinct of coming power - and
> therefore enormous self-sacrifice as well - for the collective mind of the
> working classes.
> 
> I would very dearly like to read Mark's other chapters of this article.
> 
> Adolfo
> 
> >- the workmen, common soldiers and poor peasants.
> >Winter approached. Petrograd's workers were in a race
> >against time; while the second revolution swept the
> >country, the factory-owners sought to grind them down by
> >unemployment, hunger and forced evacuations. But as
> >October neared the factories grew quiet. There were few
> >demands for wage rises, and almost no demonstrations. An
> >eerie calm settled on Petrograd, in stark contrast to the
> >vast upheaval in the rest of Russia. Many have commented
> >on this strange prelude to the second revolution. Trams
> >ran to schedule, factory shifts were normal, the crowds so
> >characteristic of February were by-and-large absent. But
> >this did not mean that the revolutionary wave had receded,
> >or that a Bolshevik rising would be a putsch organised by
> >a minority. As Russia capsized,so did the logic of everyday
> >life also seem inverted. In the midst of the first proletarian
> >revolution, the working class clung for dear life to the
> >routines of normal living and working. It was the
> >employers who sabotaged; the workers meant to inherit a
> >going concern.
> 
>      --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

-- 
Regards,
Mark Jones
majones-AT-netcomuk.co.uk
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~majones/index.htm




     --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---



   

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