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| Vic Ratsma |
The book "Ten Days that Shook the World" was the account of the legendary American journalist, John Reed, of events that took place in Russia in 1917, which culminated in the Great October Socialist Revolution. An eyewitness to many of the actions of that time, he was later buried outside the Kremlin Wall, an honor bestowed on him as a hero recognized by the new Soviet government.
We know what followed after that.
The Military intervention against Russia by many Western powers; the Civil War and then World War II; the Arms Race and, ultimately the collapse of the USSR.
During those 70-plus years of Soviet Government, most of the world was fed a steady diet of anti-socialist propaganda through government and corporate-controlled media. But inside the Soviet state, despite all of the outside pressures, enormous progress was made. The Soviet Union rose to become the only military power in the world capable to be a match for the USA, its economic strength grew by leaps and bounds, its collective social security system protected its whole population, its education system was free and accessible to all. These are but a few examples.
To be sure, this was not achieved without difficulties, or without cost or struggle. There was no prior example of a socialist state in the world to follow, thus the Soviet Union became a true pioneer of socialism.
Now, the capitalist world has declared socialism dead. A failed experiment! An aberration. Socialism, they declare, has been thrown on the great scrap-heap of history, never to rise again.
So, we may ask: " how much better has the world become since the demise of the Soviet Union. Say, in the last ten years?"
There
is no denying that, in the former USSR, some people have now become enormously
wealthy, some, it seems almost overnight. Curiously, many of them are former
officials of the Soviet government. A middle class is arising slowly as well.
But for most others life has become much worse, as unemployment, the collapse of
the ruble, the virtual disappearance of any form of social security and the
enormous growth of crime have taken its toll. Perhaps all of this was to be
expected, as one social system makes room for another, as collective security
makes way for individualism.
But what about the rest of the world? How did it fare in the last ten years? What have been the benefits of the promised "Peace Dividend" that was to accrue to the people of the world once socialism was defeated?
The answers are not hard to find. What we see today is the celebration of imperialist power over the people’s power!
Free Trade Agreements everywhere reduce government controls over its economy, its environment and its social policies. It thus undermines democracy.
Through the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF, the USA and a number of supportive governments in the West are pressuring less developed nations into trade agreements that really undermine their independence and make them subservient to imperialist powers with designs on their natural resources. Multinational corporations move in and the stage is set for future military intervention, should internal resistance reach the point of destabilizing a cooperating government. So far, the social impact of these policies is that inequities have doubled in the past ten years.
NATO, which should have been dismantled as one of the dividends of peace, now serves as the enforcer for world imperialism. US military presence, at earlier times held in check by the former Soviet Union, now stretches over all of Eastern Europe, the former southern republics of the USSR and right up to the Chinese border. A mighty imperialist empire, not unlike that envisaged by Adolph Hitler in earlier days, but now under the leadership of the USA, is growing right under our eyes. Private, corporate power is to replace people's control over all but a few unprofitable necessities of life. The poor will continue to get poorer. Those who cannot pay will die.
Do we need to hear anymore reasons why socialism must be resurrected?
Did you ever wonder what the Soviet Union might have looked like if the socialist revolution of 1917 would have been allowed to run its course without constantly being threatened by outside forces? Without the 1919 intervention and civil war, World War II, the Cold War and the Arms Race? Without constant diversion of the enormous funds for the defense of the Soviet Union? Without all of the war destruction? Without all the internal enemies who were always supported by Imperialism?
Oh, it still would have been an enormous challenge to build a society free of exploitation of man by man, where each person has equal opportunity for development and fulfillment of personal needs, where safety and security prevail and where democracy and people’s well-being instead of private profit would be the prime goal of its institutions. But it would have stood a chance.
The Ten Days that Shook the World in 1917 opened the door to a brighter future for mankind. Opposing forces took 70 years to destroy it. The ten years since then show that socialism must be resurrected.
In September 21-23 of 2001, in Toronto, Canada, a very important step was taken by delegates from around the world, including representatives from former Soviet Union and 17 other countries, when they established the International Council for Friendship and Solidarity with Soviet People. More than 100 organizations from 50 countries endorsed the new Council and the Statutes. It is a good start. Let’s assist the people of the former USSR to reclaim their country and stop the march of imperialism in the world!
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