Almost 75 years after the greatest step forward in human history, the Soviet Union collapsed as if termites had silently eaten its foundations. Twelve states in all fell to counter-revolution in the 1980s and early 1990s, from Albania to Yugoslavia, Poland to Mongolia. Part 1 of this webinar placed these defeats in the context of capitalist crisis, which escalated in the 1970s and exploded in the 1980s.
Part 2 draws insights from the survival of the Cuban state, comparing it with the Soviet Union in 1988, a year before the latter’s collapse. The presenter discusses the strength and weaknesses of the governments, communist parties, trade unions, and civil society institutions undergirding the Soviet Union and Cuba. Q&A follows.
Presenter: Wah’di Halabi
Image: Vladimir, Varfolomeev, Communist rally against pension reform. Creative Commons (BY-NC 2.0).
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The Communist Party USA is a revolutionary working-class political party founded in 1919 in Chicago, IL.
The Communist Party stands for the interests of the American working class and the American people. It stands for our interests in both the present and the future. Solidarity with workers of other countries is also part of our work. We work in coalition with the labor movement, the peace movement, the student movement, organizations fighting for equality and social justice, the environmental movement, immigrants rights groups and the health care for all campaign.
But to win a better life for working families, we believe that we must go further. We believe that the American people can replace capitalism with a system that puts people before profit — socialism.
We are rooted in our country's revolutionary history and its struggles for democracy. We call for "Bill of Rights" socialism, guaranteeing full individual freedoms.
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