30 August
'As it happens, the attempt to kill Lenin has made him much more popular than he was.'
‘One hears a great many people who are far from having any sympathy with the Bolsheviks, saying that it would be an absolute disaster if Lenin had succumbed to his wounds, as it was first thought he would. And they are quite right, for in the midst of all this chaos and confusion he is the backbone of the new body politic, the main support on which everything rests.’ Leonid Krasin
After speaking to factory workers in Moscow on this day in 1918, Vladimir Lenin was shot twice by Fanya Kaplan, a member of the Social Revolutionary party. With Lenin seriously wounded, the attack sparked a series of reprisals known as the ‘Red Terror’ with thousands tortured, flogged, buried alive, shot, drowned or hacked to death in retaliation.
Red Pepper in print
Get the latest issue of the magazine
Battles for survival: climate crisis and far right rising ● Europe’s creeping fascism ● The far right in Britain ● New anti-racist movements ● The climate uprising ● Green New Deal debate ● Lowkey interview ● Anti-fascist music ● Book reviews ● and much more
And you choose how much to pay for your subscription...
The radical potential of the Corbyn project
Even worse than failing to win office would be winning it while unprepared for the realities of government. Christine Berry considers what Labour needs to do to avoid the fate of Syriza in Greece
The crisis of Conservatism
The Conservative Party is in a process of ideological decline or even disintegration, argue James Butler and Richard Seymour.
Why we’ve joined the global climate strike
Landry Ninteretse and Ian Rivera share perspectives from Kenya and the Philippines and call for universal energy systems that are clean and renewable, public and decentralised
The World Transformed, FYI
Red Pepper’s picks of The World Transformed festival, in Brighton from 21-24 September
Take part in building a people’s manifesto for the movement
Winning elections is not enough. To transform society we need to involve the people in policy making, argue Kerem Dikerdem and Annie Quick
This is how we build a National Education Service in the UK
Chloe Tomlinson lays out the battle lines for a more egalitarian, democratic and holistic education system. Essential reading ahead of The World Transformed education sessions
Nurses say: Patients’ rights have no borders
As a US-friendly no-deal Brexit inches closer, Bonnie Castillo of National Nurses United explains why US nurses have joined the fight against NHS privatisation. Recommended reading ahead of The World Transformed health sessions
