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Trade unions are today’s soviets
The reliance on political parties to bring about socialist change in Britain has proved a total failure says FAWZI IBRAHIM. Time for the true representatives of the working class, the trade unions, to take a direct role in asserting their will on the government of the day

IN 1917, the Bolsheviks made history by establishing the first workers’ state. The process by which this was accomplished became a blueprint for workers all over the world.

Lenin’s writings were elevated to the status of a revolutionary manual. In particular, Lenin on the role of trade unions and the need for a party of professional revolutionaries dominated the thinking of communist parties ever since.

But was this the right path for other countries where conditions are different and economic development more advanced than they were in tsarist Russia?

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