49...1776...1789... 1917...

~

he Great Divides’
human history

| LESLIE MORRIS

No one person made as great a contribution to the

success of the Russian Revolution as did V. |. Lenin.

For a long period before the revolution he was forced

to live in exile but in April, 1917, shortly after the

| overthrow of the tsar, he returned home. He was given
a tremendous welcome by the workers and soldiers
at the Finland Station in Petrograd. That moment is
captured on a huge painting by the Soviet artist Sedov,
part of which is reproduced on the right.

LUMAN history there are
fs Watersheds, great div-
Ai,’ Which cover the flow of

Kee these was the year
Wj," the English yeomen
€rs under Cromwell
Bed and defeated the an-
Vine rights of kings.

= =>
ats

vig the people of the 13
ish » , COlonies overthrew
lhe ® and by so doing es-
n _ Republic and set
Tat; tain principles of de-
nd 80vernment' which,
bly they are, still have to
to the Negro people
00 years later.

7
89 the people of France

]

0

aed the feudal system
os holding back pro-

doy braced science and de-

Hom helped to free Eu-

‘om, the shackles of land-

]

KY the people of tsarist
ae the midst of a ter-

the? Overthrew the tsar,

tye land from the rich

dec} Occupied the facto-

ro red the eight-hour
Claimed peace among

H
A tet Gnd dignity for those who labor, the benefits
*Nce to the people rather than fer individual

all peoples, and under Lenin’s
leadership began to build the
first stages of the communist
society where each man shall
receive according to his need,
and give according to his abil-

ity.

The 1917 Revolution was the
deepest and~* most far-reaching
because it was carried through
and led by workers. and -far-
mers, who sought to establish
the social ownership of land and
factories and put an end to the
rule of the capitalists and land-
lords.

The 1917 Revolution, whose
47th anniversary is now being
celebrated, was the first one to
be of, by and for the workers
and farmers. All the preceding
ones, great as they were, were
led by members of the rising
merchant capitalist class, and
maintained class rule and class
struggle.

Actually, one great funda-
mental social change, which we
call revolution, was the child

of the preceding one, and the
father of the coming one.

Social change, ripening to the
point of radical social transfor-
mation, is the law of develop-
ment of human society.

The more we understand this,
the easier and more peaceful
and Jess costly will the social
changes be.

Now, since 1917, and under
its impact, how many changes
have taken place!

Central Europe is building so-
cialism. ,

China had been liberated from
its past, and’ goes towards so-
cialism.

The colonial world of the for-
mer bankers and investors is no
more. Although the latter try,
through various means. and
people like Tshombe to hold on

to their former financial and
political power by a “new”
colonialism which gives “self-

government,” these efforts are
doomed.

The great countries of Asia
and Africa will build their econ-
omies, by-passing capitalism,

profit, equality for all regardless of race, color or
creed, opportunity for the young and security for the

and constructing socialism in

their own way, according to
their conditions and traditions.

We in the Western capitalist
countries, where capitalism is
so strong and the socialist idea
is as yet so weak, should re-
member a few things at this
time.

Socialism is inevitable here,
despite the seeming strength of
Capitalism. The contradiction
which capitalism cannot solve,
try as it may, is between the
increasing socializing of the
production process (a million to
make a pin!) and the fact that
this enormous product is in
private capitalist hands, with all
the consequent anarchy, disor-
ganization, waste and disrup-
tion.

Automation will reveal this
truth to millions of people and
the scales will fall from their
eyes.

The Russian Revolution of
1917 has shown that working
men and women can run their
country without benefit of capi-

talists, that cooks can govern
and working men and women
can pioneer the cosmos.

It has shown that unemploy-
ment is NOT a necessary result
of automation.

It has shown that national
hatreds and wars can cease,
that men will live in brother-
hood together, each contribut-
ing and each sharing.

It has shown that capitalist
human nature ~ (“dog-eat-dog”
and “what’s in it for me?”) can
give way to socialist human
nature (‘what can I best con-
tribute to the common weal?”).

November 7, 1917, was less
than half a century ago, yet its
impact on the world and on the
life cf every human is such that
we can lift up our hearts and
know that all human problems
can be solved by humans, and
that peace and friendship be-
tween all peoples is a new force
which will conquer the ancien:
and condemned forces of ex-
ploitation of man by man, ig-
norance, fear and war.

old—these are some of the fruits of socialism the
October Revolution of 1917 has given the Soviet people.

November 6, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7