Germany 1918-1933: Socialism or Barbarism
Germany 1918-1933: Socialism or Barbarism

Author: Rob Sewell

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published: 2018-11-12

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 1900007983

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Germany 1918-33 was one of the most tumultuous periods in history. Following the revolution in Russia, the German workers and soldiers attempted to seize power in November 1918. Unfortunately, the revolution was betrayed by the Social Democratic leaders. Further revolutionary convulsions rocked Germany from 1919 to 1923. By this time, a mass Communist Party had been formed, but following advice from Zinoviev and Stalin, a classical revolutionary opportunity in 1923 was missed. This was a blow, not only in Germany, but internationally. The German defeats served to strengthen the grip of the Stalinist bureaucracy in Russia. This resulted in zig-zags of policy between opportunism and ultra-leftism, which paved the way for the ‘Third Period’ with the Social Democrats regarded as the main enemy. With the rise of fascism, Leon Trotsky described Germany in 1931 as “the key to the international situation”. “On the direction in which the solution of the German crisis develops will depend not only the fate of Germany herself (and that is already a great deal), but also the fate of Europe, the destiny of the entire world, for many years to come,” he explained. Trotsky called for a United Front against fascism, but this was rejected by the Stalinists. This paved the way for the victory of the Nazis, leading to the Holocaust and the Second World War with its 55 million dead. In this book, Rob Sewell argues that all this was not inevitable, and analyses those events, drawing out the lessons for today.

Chartist Revolution
Chartist Revolution

Author: Rob Sewell

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published:

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13:

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Chartism was the first time ever that British workers fixed their eyes on the seizure of political power: in 1839, 1842 and again in 1848. In this struggle, they conducted a class war that at different times involved general strikes, battles with the state, mass demonstrations and even armed insurrection. They forged weapons, illegally drilled their forces, and armed themselves in preparation for seizing the reins of government. Such were the early revolutionary traditions of the British working class, deliberately buried beneath a mountain of falsehoods and distortions. This book sees Chartism as an essential part of our history from which we must draw the key lessons for today.

The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg
The Revolutionary Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg

Author: Marie Frederiksen

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published: 2022-04-02

Total Pages: 396

ISBN-13:

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This book sets out to examine Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas, not from the distorted myths about her political ideas, or solely about personal questions such as her love life, but from Luxemburg’s very own writings. It is an attempt to provide an insight into the treasure trove of ideas and revolutionary theory that Luxemburg’s works constitute. The book shows that the real Rosa Luxemburg is often very far from the myths and rumours that surround her: Rosa Luxemburg was, is and remains a revolutionary.

The History of Philosophy
The History of Philosophy

Author: Alan Woods

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published:

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13:

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Alan Woods outlines the development of philosophy from the ancient Greeks, all the way through to Marx and Engels who brought together the best of previous thinking to produce the Marxist philosophical outlook, which looks at the real material world, not as a static immovable reality, but one that is constantly changing and moving according to laws that can be discovered. It is this method which allows Marxists to look at how things were, how they have become and how they are most likely going to be in the future, in a long process which started with the early primitive humans in their struggles for survival, through to the emergence of class societies, all as part of a process towards greater and greater knowledge of the world we live in. This long historical process eventually created the material conditions which allow for an end to class divisions and the flowering of a new society where humans will achieve true freedom, where no human will exploit another, no human will oppress another. Here we see how philosophy becomes an indispensable tool in the struggle for the revolutionary transformation of society.

Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933
Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933

Author: Norman Laporte

Publisher: Studies in Twentieth Century C

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781910448984

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25 years after the archives were opened in Berlin and Moscow, the German Communist Party is the subject of new studies. This book makes this scholarship available in English for the first time.

Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg

Author: Dana Mills

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2020-09-03

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1789143284

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“You will meet the real Rosa here, and it’s a pleasure.”—Norman Lebrecht, Wall Street Journal As an economist and political theorist, Rosa Luxemburg created a body of work that still resonates powerfully today. Born in Poland in 1871, she became a revolutionary leader in Berlin, publishing works including Reform or Revolution and The Accumulation of Capital. In this account of Luxemburg’s short yet extraordinary life, Dana Mills examines Luxemburg’s writings, including her own correspondence, to reveal a woman who was fierce in professional battles and loving in personal relationships. What is her legacy today, a hundred years after her assassination in Berlin in 1919 at the age of forty-seven? Luxemburg’s emphasis on humanity and equality and her insistence on revolution give coherence, as this compelling biography illustrates, to a fraught life story and to her colossal economic and political legacy.

Women, Family and the Russian Revolution
Women, Family and the Russian Revolution

Author: John Peter Roberts

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published:

Total Pages: 589

ISBN-13:

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The Bolsheviks came to power in a workers’ and peasants’ revolution supported by the great majority of Russian women. Abortion was legalized immediately and made available to women without charge. For the first time wives were empowered to divorce their husbands, and many took the opportunity. In a society in which few homes had any basic amenities, it was envisaged that women would be freed from household drudgery by child-care centres, communal dining halls, and public laundries; and the predictions of Engels that mutual affection and respect would underpin relations between the sexes would be realised. Under socialism the bourgeois family would wither away, releasing women from kitchen slavery and bringing them equality with men. But the betrayal by Social Democracy of the revolutionary upsurge following WW1, and the pressure of imperialism on an isolated, backward, semi-feudal country meant a reactionary bureaucracy usurped political power, imposed a totalitarian regime, and enacted legislation to strengthen the conservative elements within Soviet society, restricting women’s rights to divorce, abolishing the right to abortion, and strengthening the family. This book ends by noting the social and economic degradation imposed on Russian women by capitalist restoration, concluding that only a socialist, proletarian-led revolution can finally achieve women’s emancipation.

The Black Book of Communism
The Black Book of Communism

Author: Stéphane Courtois

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 920

ISBN-13: 9780674076082

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This international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the accomplishments of communism around the world. The book is the first attempt to catalogue and analyse the crimes of communism over 70 years.

‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder
‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder

Author: V.I. Lenin

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published: 2024-04-26

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13:

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The Bolsheviks led the workers to power in the October Revolution of 1917. To ensure its survival, they grappled with the task of spreading the revolution beyond Russia. ‘Left-Wing’ Communism: An Infantile Disorder was written in 1920 to educate the newly-formed communist parties of the Third International, and to correct the ultra-left, sectarian trends that infected many of them. Inspired by the Revolution and repelled by the betrayals of social democracy, these communists had not absorbed the real lessons of Bolshevism. The majority of workers still looked to reformist parties, and needed to be won away from the influence of reformist leaders in these. The task was to win them over to the banner of revolutionary communism. In this text, Lenin explains the methods and skilful tactics of the Bolshevik Party, which enabled them to win over a majority of the workers to their programme. Without this strategic brilliance, there would have been no October Revolution. Any serious revolutionary communist today must study, absorb and apply Lenin’s methods on these vital questions of revolutionary strategy and tactics.

In Defence of Lenin
In Defence of Lenin

Author: Rob Sewell

Publisher: Wellred Books

Published: 2024-01-11

Total Pages: 771

ISBN-13:

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John Reed, the author of Ten Days that Shook the World, once said that Lenin was the most loved and the most hated person alive. He was loved by tens of millions who wanted to change society, but hated by the ruling class and their apologists. As the leader of the Russian Revolution, Lenin was a man who changed the world. A convinced Marxist, he created the Bolshevik Party, the most revolutionary party in history. Lenin translated the ideas of Marxism into reality. It is now one hundred years since his death. The bourgeois historians continue to slander him and his ideas. The task of this book is to explain his real life and ideas, and to draw out the significance of Lenin. Given the ongoing capitalist crisis, his ideas are gaining an increasingly wide echo. In so many ways, Lenin is more relevant today than ever before. Over two volumes, this book traces Lenin’s life and explains his ideas, drawing on the colossal heritage of what he actually wrote and did. This book also features an appendix of Krupskaya’s writings on Lenin, a chronology and over 250 images.