The Workers Party of Ireland conveys its thanks to the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) for hosting this important meeting and for last night’s magnificent political and cultural event. Our Party also extends fraternal greetings to all the parties present today.

The Workers Party of Ireland, together with our comrades across the world, celebrates the 108th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution led by Lenin and the Bolshevik Party, on 25 October (7 November) 1917. The October Revolution remains a seismic moment in the history of the world. For the first time in human history, workers proved their ability to overthrow the capitalist order and establish a workers’ state.

By establishing the world’s first socialist state, the Bolsheviks set the stage for the creation of the Soviet Union, an event that would profoundly shape the future and lay the basis for the political, social and economic liberation of humankind by creating a new social system which abolished private ownership of the means of production, rejected the barbarism of capital and created the conditions for the establishment of a new type of civilization where the working class were masters of their own destiny.

The Great October Socialist Revolution transferred power to the working class, broke down the machinery of the bourgeois state and established the world’s first workers’ state. The object of the October Revolution was to abolish all forms of exploitation and oppression and to construct a new society based on socialist ideas. The Bolshevik Revolution was at the core of a political phenomenon the impact of which was felt across the world. It was indeed “ten days that shook the world”.

The October Revolution took place because the Bolsheviks were armed with two indispensable weapons (which remain relevant today) – first, a dynamic revolutionary theory and secondly, a disciplined revolutionary party committed to leading the working class to power. As Lenin stated: “Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement”. (What is to be Done?) In the period preceding the October Revolution the Bolshevik Party won to its cause the majority of the workers and poor peasants. Throughout 1917 Lenin set out the political structures of the new workers’ state, most comprehensively in the “State and Revolution” .

Uniquely among all the parties in Russia only the Bolsheviks recognised and trusted the instincts and impatience of the working class. Lenin recognised that the objective conditions for revolution existed. He also recognised that it was necessary to develop and maintain mass support in any revolutionary action against the provisional government.

The October Revolution provided inspiration to the workers and oppressed of the world. It had a massive impact throughout Europe. In Ireland, in February 1918, some 10,000 people attended a rally in Dublin to greet the success of the October Revolution. The first Congress of the Peoples of the East convened in Baku in September 1920 was attended by almost two thousand delegates who represented around 40 nations. The October Revolution introduced an era of revolutionary change both within Russia and beyond.

It is impossible to commemorate the Great October Socialist Revolution without also acknowledging and applauding the many achievements of the first workers’ state. The industrialization of the economy, the expansion of medical and health services, the development of educational provision and training, the measures taken to provide for culture, literature and sport, the development of agriculture, scientific and technological progress and the improvement in the material conditions of working people were among the many accomplishments of the revolution.

The October Revolution was a decisive and transformative break with the old world order and laid the basis for the political, social and economic liberation of humankind. It brought about a new social system which abolished private ownership of the means of production, rejected the barbarism of capital and created the conditions for the establishment of a new type of civilization throughout the world.

For the first time in history the revolutionary ideas of Marx and Engels were translated into practice vindicating the principles of Marxism-Leninism through the establishment of a workers’ state. It commenced a new stage in international solidarity and encouraged and inspired the international revolutionary movement. The October Revolution invested the workers’ movement with a revolutionary consciousness and objective, the function of educating, organising and mobilising the mass of the working people in the struggle against capital and the task of building a new society. 

The October Revolution demonstrated the vital importance of a revolutionary vanguard party and a politically conscious working class. The development of class consciousness remains a central task of the ideological and political work of the Communist and Workers’ parties. In every struggle it is the task of our parties to proclaim that the only possible economic foundation for a genuine democracy is the social ownership of the means of production.

Notwithstanding setbacks and reversals, the experiences of the Great October Socialist Revolution remain valid. We have learned to expose the betrayals of the social democrats and opportunists; to vigorously take up every struggle against capitalism; to remain steadfast in our commitment to socialist principles and to remain committed to the struggle for socialist revolution.

Today, as over a century ago, Europe is confronted by many of the same questions, conflicts and problems: how to understand and respond to capitalist exploitation and imperialist war and the battle against reformism, opportunism and national chauvinism.

At the time of the first World War, the focus for Lenin was the possibility for revolutionary change. From the outset he urged workers to take up arms, not against their fellow workers of other nations, but against the reactionary and bourgeois governments of their own countries and the world.