The Great October Revolution of 1917 defeated absolute monarchy, ensured the victory of the Bolsheviks, established the USSR, and inspired socialist revolutions across the world. It not only defeated Tsarist feudalism and its exploitative authoritarian regime but also established “a just and democratic peace” to achieve the goals of socialism, based on the revolutionary Bolshevik programmes and slogans—“Peace, Bread, and Land”—shaped by Vladimir Lenin and his “April Thesis.” The October Revolution not only changed the nature of Russia and other neighbouring states and societies but also changed the nature of economy and politics in the region controlled by the Tsarist aristocracy by establishing the USSR: a collective celebration of the triumph of the working people over capitalists and their authoritarian apparatus.
The October Revolution not only inspired but also shaped anti-colonial liberation struggles across the world and helped to establish democratic and welfare regimes to uphold the interests of the people. It also helped to shape social, political, economic, and cultural reforms for the empowerment of the people with the support of the state and government led by the people. The idea that people can govern themselves by establishing the collective foundations of democratic decision-making is the biggest contribution of the October Revolution to shaping and deepening democracy and citizenship rights. Therefore, the October Revolution of 1917 is a celebration of people’s power to emancipate themselves based on collective leadership and their collective and democratic will and ethos, and a beacon of hope to defeat all fascist, Nazi, and other authoritarian regimes.
More than a century after the Great October Revolution of 1917, the world is witnessing another October in 2026, when European and American leaders are imposing war and crisis on working people in the name of an imagined enemy shaped by Russophobia. Russophobia is a hiding ground for the failure of market-led bourgeois democracies and their leaderships, and their politics—shaped by racialised capitalism—has ruined the path of prosperity, peace, and welfare-state government in pursuit of profit for corporate capitalism.
In October 2026, most European governments, along with the governments of the UK and USA, are asking their citizens and households to prepare for emergencies by putting together emergency supplies. The UK government’s “Be Ready” campaign marks the beginning of a three-year drive to boost household emergency preparedness in case of war, cyberattacks, and other emergencies, including natural calamities. The European and American media are amplifying the voice of the ruling classes and spreading panic among the working masses without asking difficult questions about the nature and kind of emergencies and the justifications behind them.
The war and emergency campaign is a great way to hide and divert public attention and scrutiny about the failures of European and American racialised capitalism and its bourgeois democracies. The emergency campaign, based on an imagined war with Russia, has not only created a foundation for war but also created conditions to domesticate people and curtail their democratic rights to question capitalism and its ruling elites. The entire project is designed to manufacture and further deepen the existing crisis to undermine people, their livelihoods, and their lives, to ensure the dominance of capitalism as the only governing ideology.
European and American governments are asking their citizens to collect and store water, food, medical supplies, baby formula, pet food, toiletries, and emergency lights and batteries. Amazon and many other digital market platforms have started selling “survival kits.” Sales of tinned food, medicine, batteries, wind-up radios, and torches have all spiked since American and European governments announced their emergency protocols and survival guidance. Prices of essential goods and services have also spiked due to this emergency campaign. This is a burden on people who are already suffering from the cost-of-living crisis. It is another way of selling unnecessary goods and services that are completely avoidable.
However, crises due to war or natural calamities are completely avoidable, but governments are reinforcing this manufactured crisis on people while corporations are already making a profit. Is there any alternative to this impending crisis manufactured by the ruling classes? Yes, there is one alternative.
The alternative is to fight and defeat ruling-class strategies on the streets. The power of protest and mass non-cooperation with the governments will decide the future of people and the planet, which is being destroyed by American and European governing elites. They plan to survive in their well-ventilated bunkers while sending the masses to the butcher house of war. Refuse to pay taxes, refuse to join the war, refuse to cooperate with the governments until peace and democracy are established with the help of open diplomacy and negotiations to end the war, war mongering propaganda and all conditions leading to war, to establish perpetual peace. Defeat racialised patriarchal capitalism and its governing classes with radical street protests to send a clear message that people want peace, democracy, and prosperity.
The Great Socialist October Revolution of 1917 continues to inspire and give hope that the authoritarian capitalist regimes in Europe and America can be defeated, and that the warmongering propaganda of the governing elites—who are creating a doomsday scenario in October 2026—can be rewritten and defeated. People can only establish peace by saying no to war. The struggle for peace is a struggle against all forms of capitalism and imperialism. Mass mobilisation against war is an immediate task before working people for the survival of planet.
