The Russian Revolution started in Petrograd in February 1917 with a mass nonviolent uprising of women protesting against the lack of break on International Women's Day (pictured), and continued through to the overthrow of the Provisional Government in October 1917 and the triumph of the Bolsheviks. The role of mass nonviolent action - in the streets, in the factories, on the railways, and in the barracks - in the making of the revolution has never been properly emphasised. For example, the attempted coup by General Kornilov in August was defeated not by gunfire but by nonviolent action. The evening will include a critique of Neil Faulkner's A People's History of the Russian Revolution, paying attention to the way that Lenin and the Bolsheviks diminished and then crushed the grassroots workers' revolution of soviets and factory committees.
Speaker: Milan Rai is an anarchist and radical activist, and the author of Chomsky's Politics (Verso, 1995) and War Plan Iraq (Verso, 2002) among other books. He is working on The Anarchist Reader for Verso.. Entry £3 redeemable against any purchase.
Entry £3, redeemable against any purchase