Revolutions? of the future

[nomoba]

French Revolution: Brought to you by the urban class.


Russian Revolution: Brought to you by the working class.


If there will be any revolution in the 21st century soon, it will be done by those who became statistical figures of poverty, unemployment, inequality and social exclusion by this brutal system.


People with no hopes and dreams, no better future to seek, no class consciousness. People who have nothing to lose.


It will be bad, chaotic, unpredictable and rather doubtful that someone could call it "revolution" ...

[Blake's Baby]

Why?

The French Revolution was a revolution mostly of the urban poor, but for a bourgeois programme. 150 years after the revolution in Britain, the French bourgeoisie still did not have the same rights and the aristocracy and monarchy dominated the state. The bourgeoisie wanted a share too, and finding itself in a position to rely on a lot of popular outrage against the aristocracy and the court, it took everything.

The revolution in Russia was mostly a rising of the working class and some peasants, especially grouped in the Army. Unlike the French Revolution, which was for bourgeois management of the state, the revolution in Russia was for an end to the war, for an end to hunger, for the power of the workers' own organisations, the workers' councils. It was an expression of the class power of the workers.

Why will the next revolution be any different? The working class is still disavantaged and disenfranchised (politically, despite the fact that in many places it technically has the vote). Unlike the bourgeoisie in France, it never became the ruling class (and anyway, there is no other class for it to exploit as a new ruling class). It is still an exploited class in capitalism, and it still has due to its role in production both the new form of social organisation - associated labour implies associated power - and the capacity to disrupt the current social order - because it is the workers who produce all social wealth and allow society to function.

So, it's difficult to see how there could be a new revolutionary subject.

[Kingfish]

it will be done by those who became statistical figures of poverty, unemployment, inequality and social exclusion by this brutal system. People with no hopes and dreams, no better future to seek, no class consciousness. People who have nothing to lose. It will be bad, chaotic, unpredictable and rather doubtful that someone could call it "revolution"

Its funny people at those times were saying very similar things about the people involved in those revolutions you talked of.

Likewise you have to remember that for an event to be called and accepted as a revolution its participants have to be victorious. Do you really think people would call the American war of Independence or the Chinese Civil War a revolution had the British and Nationalists defeated them?

[jullia]

Do you think a revolution will take place in a close futur?