Of all the arguments that socialists make, the insistence on the need for revolution is perhaps the most controversial. Not, in many cases, because the idea of revolution seems bad, but mostly because it seems so unrealistic. And yet a brief look at the recent history of capitalism shows not only that revolutions happen, but that they keep happening again and again, sometimes despite seemingly overwhelming odds.
This pamphlet documents just some of the working class revolutions of the last century.
By necessity though, it does more than that. If the 20th century can definitively tell us that revolutions are inevitable, it can equally tell us that there is no guarantee that revolutions will succeed, however heroic and determined those millions who made them were.
By looking at this history, we try to point a way forward for those fighting back today. We do so both in the knowledge that there will be new revolutionary struggles in this new century, and in the hope that if we learn the lessons of those who have come before us, next time we can not only fight, but win.