By Revolutionary Communist Youth League (Bolshevik) – Komsomol (b)
Leningrad (“St. Petersburg”), Russia
Today, in the city on the Neva River, communists held two events dedicated to the 98th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution. The first of these, the procession of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF) from the Academic Lebedev street to the waterfront, where the cruiser Aurora once stood, was attended by about 3,000 people (according to organizers). It so happened that this year’s commemoration coincided with a day off – very fortunate, because for those who celebrate it as a holiday in the “old-fashioned way,” nothing prevented them from taking part in the ritual of the “official Communists.”
But to parade a couple of times a year (and for the most part that’s exactly what the thousands supporting the KPRF do) is not the way to fight for a brighter future, even within the existing system…
At 17:00 a rally began on the square, organized by the Russian United Labor Front (Rot Front), Russian Communist Workers’ Party (RKRP) and United Communist Party (OKP). The representatives of leftist and trade union organizations on the rostrum have accumulated a lot of experience of confrontation with greedy bosses and lawless measures harmful to workers.
On behalf of the Revolutionary Komsomol (RKSM), Aleksey Stubbs briefly and clearly outlined the current state of affairs – how youth live from crisis to crisis, not in a “time of opportunity” as the official propaganda assures us. There is worsening social inequality, impoverishment of the working class, and “crackdown” in public life. Therefore, today we have only one way out: to strengthen our labor front by the efforts of each of us. Only then will there be a real alternative to the existing system of exploitation and alienation.
The event attracted about 300 people. It ended with fireworks to the sound of “The Internationale.”
98 years separate us from the day when the historic shot from the Aurora rang out in the city on the Neva, giving the signal for the storming of the Winter Palace. But today, as then, we have no one to deliver us from the power of the exploiters but ourselves. Today once again reminds us of how much (very much!) we still have to do to repeat the feat of those who 98 years ago began to build a just future for all mankind in our country.
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