How to celebrate 100 years since the October Revolution

Dear WSWS readers,

Today, the World Socialist Web Site celebrates the centenary of the October Revolution, the greatest and most progressive event of the 20th Century. Help us fight to build the party of world socialist revolution today by contributing $100 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the revolution.

Please donate as much as you can. For this week, readers who donate $100 or more can receive a copy of Why Study the Russian Revolution: Volume 1 signed by WSWS International Editorial Board Chairman David North.

North writes in the perspective published today:

"The global impact of the October Revolution was incalculable. It was an event that ignited a worldwide movement of the working class and the oppressed masses against capitalist exploitation and imperialist oppression. It is all but impossible to think of a significant political or social conquest of the working class in the twentieth century, anywhere in the world, which did not owe some substantial portion of its realization to the October Revolution."

Those who struggled to make the Russian Revolution made untold sacrifices, including their lives, in the fight to end to war, poverty, and inequality. Their sacrifices changed the course of history, and the lessons from this great event have a profound impact on contemporary politics. The issues that motivated the revolutionary struggles of 1917--war, inequality, dictatorship--remain the central and burning issues facing the international working class today.

The ruling elite is terrified of the legacy of the revolution. Their columnists in the Washington Post and the New York Times warn that Bolshevism is a "bacillus" that must be "eradicated." Anne Applebaum warns that even smaller left-wing groups "cannot be counted out." "If the ruling order is corrupt enough and people are angry enough, extremists can suddenly step into the center, where no one expects them."

The specter of socialism is haunting the ruling class, now more than ever, as evidenced by Google's efforts to censor the WSWS. Their aim is to control the Internet, to prevent workers and youth from accessing a perspective to oppose all the horrors produced by the capitalist system.

We need financial support to break the censorship and reach workers around the world. The propagandists of the ruling class are counting on our lack of access to the banks and corporations to block us from delivering our revolutionary message to the working class.

Here's what you can do: Make as large a donation as you can. Become a monthly donor. Contact us to join the Socialist Equality Party or start a chapter of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) at your school. Visit our online bookstore, Mehring Books, and purchase Marxist literature. Make the decision to become a revolutionary and join the fight for socialism today!