This article by Alan Woods was originally written in 1989 to commemorate 200 years of the Great French Revolution, with a new introduction by the author. Alan Woods explains the internal dynamics of the revolution and above all the role played by the masses.

In this in depth article Alan Woods looks at the specific historical role of Napoleon Bonaparte. He looks into the characteristics of this man that fitted the needs of the reactionary bourgeoisie as it attempted to consolidate its grip on French society and sweep to one side the most revolutionary elements who had played a key role in guaranteeing the victory of the revolution.

This article by Alan Woods looks at how the French Revolution affected British poets. It struck Britain like a thunderbolt affecting all layers of society and this was reflected in its artists and writers.

Mozart’s opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ caused a storm when it was first performed in 1786. In this article, Alan Woods explains the subversive nature of the opera, and how it revolutionised the art form. Importantly, he shows how it gave expression to the growing ferment in society, which culminated in the French Revolution only a few years later.

From 1-4 May, over 600 communists gathered in London for the third congress of the Revolutionary Communist Party, the British section of the RCI. The weekend opened with a discussion on world perspectives, introduced by Alan Woods, leader and theoretician of the RCI.

Today marks the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin against British imperialist rule. The outstanding leader of that movement was James Connolly. We republish here an article by Ted Grant and Alan Woods from 2001, in which they show that Connolly – often portrayed simply as an Irish nationalist – was, first and foremost, a militant workers’ leader and a Marxist.

In the morning of Saturday 28 February, Tehran was shaken by a series of loud explosions as US and Israeli missiles struck the capital of Iran. Clouds of smoke were also seen rising from Tehran, Qom and other Iranian cities, announcing the commencement of war.

The arrival of the year 2026 was greeted not by the popping of champagne bottles, but by the merry sound of high explosives and bright lights that lit up the sleeping streets of the Venezuelan capital that provided its lucky inhabitants with a spectacular, and absolutely free, fireworks display in the dead of night.

“This intellectual decline has reached its lowest level in the persons of the political leaders in Europe. They have led this once mighty continent straight into a morass of economic, cultural and military decline, reducing it to a state of complete impotence.

“Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.” (Lenin, What is to be Done?)

The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin once remarked that, in world history, there are decades where nothing happens, and weeks where decades happen. This is one of those decades.

108 years ago today, the Bolshevik Party, led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky seized power at the head of the Russian proletariat and peasantry. This was the first time in history that working people won power over their own destinies, and held it.

“When the leaders speak of peace, the common people know that war is coming.” (Berthold Brecht)

“He who laughs has not yet heard the bad news.” – Berthold Brecht

The news from Alaska caused shockwaves in every capital city of Europe. I refer, of course, not to ordinary citizens, but to that special elite of wise men and women who like to call themselves our leaders.