- Capitalism and Alternatives -

References for Barry....

At the time of the October Revolution, the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies represented all that was alive and
dynamic in Russian society. The working class voted for the Bolsheviks in the soviets, which were much more democratic that
any parliament. At the same time, the soldiers, of whom a big majority were peasants also voted overwhelmingly for the
Bolsheviks:

Party (VotesJune;VotesSeptember;%June;%Sept).

Social Revolutionaries (974,885;54,375;58;14).
Mensheviks (76,407;15,887;12;4).
Kadets (168,781;101,106;17;26).
Bolsheviks (75,409;198,230;12;51).

(Source, Anweiler, p. 188.)
http://www.marxist.com/russiabook/part1.html

I assume non party-men are ignored here...certainly they grew later...

and...

No socialist," remarked the Doctor, smiling, "need predict that there will be a bloody revolution in Russia, Germany, Austria,
and possibly Italy if the Italians keep on in the policy they are now pursuing. The deeds of the French Revolution may be
enacted again in those countries. That is apparent to any political student. But those revolutions will be made by the majority.
No revolution can be made by a party, But By a Nation"
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/bio/media/marx/79_01_05.htm

Sorry I couldn't get them properly before, time and resources were against me...
Might I further add to my points on revolutionary violence by making two further:

As I said, marxian thought is about relations, and we must examine the *relationships* thrown up by a rise of revolutionary violence, specifically since teh form and content of a revolution are identical - if you use violence to build a regime, that regime will be a violent regime and will depend upon violence - the first duty of any reguime, is to stay in power, everything is secondary to that - hence Krondstadt and teh slaughter of the heroes of the revolution. If you have a regime based on minority violence against the majority (and this point can be exemplified by Chritopher Hill's 'Milton and teh English Revolutoion' where in teh context of that revolution,. he discusses teh quandry of those who would use the unconscious masses to achieve their ends, when those masses turn against democracy and back to reaction - he was of course talking about russia refracted through Cromwell and his crowd...).

Second, the modern state would slaughter us, no questions asked - we need only look to the excellent, and more appropriate than russia, example of German, where a revolt happened where the state was still in tact - the state massacred the rebels - in russia the state had collapsed, and as Eric Hobsbawm has it in his 'Age of Extremes',the bolsheviks were the only ones in a position to take power, 198,000 supporters on the soviets, out of a country of two million....

Follow Ups:

None.