Le Blanc, a long term revolutionary Marxist, author and a Professor of History at LaRoche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, spoke at the book launch for October 1917: Workers in Power (London: Merlin, Resistance Books, and IIRE).
Le Blanc stressed the need to reclaim the Russian revolution and of the need to understand the past to inform the present while creating the future. Le Blanc raised 3 important issues to address the complexity of forces that created the Russian Revolution: understanding the occupational complexity of class and the multiple facets of consciousness and underlying social reality involved in the 'workers' revolution against industrial capitalism and the social order, the interplay of ethnic/national oppression, gender oppression and class in the social reality of Russia in 1917 and how the Bolsheviks differently understood these intersections and how they played out or failed to play out.
A further opportunity to explore the issues discussed by those at the launch will take place on March 12
Russian Revolution Centenary Celebration
1.30-6pm, Sunday 12 March
Karibu Centre, 7 Gresham Road, Brixton, London SW9 7PH
Tickets: £5 wage, £2 unwaged. Available at eventbrite.co.uk
An afternoon of participatory discussion and culture including:
image no longer in the archivePanel session What Happened?
Music Robb Johnson. Poetry reading Jennie Stoller. Art presentation Hugh Tisdale of Philosophy Football. New short play Richard Bradbury.
Panel session What Relevance?
Panellists include: Mary Davis, Neil Faulkner, Phil Hearse, Kate Hudson, Brendan McGeever, Tansy Hoskin and Simon Pirani.
Plus bookstalls.
Black bread, borscht, and tea will be served.
Supported by: Haymarket Books, Housmans Bookshop, Left Book Club, Left Unity, Morning Star, Philosophy Football, Pluto Press, Resistance Books.
