Module 3 Additional Resources
This course is a 3-part series of the life, and legacy of Lenin, the formation of Leninism, the revolutionary paths it generated across the world.
This class was taught by Brian Becker in December 2022. To access the recordings and class material, click here
This was a 6 week course on the Black Liberation struggle from Feb - May 2025. To access the recordings and class materials, register here
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Like the brilliant sun, the October Revolution shone over all five continents, awakening millions of oppressed and exploited people around the world. There has never existed such a revolution of such significance and scale in the history of humanity.' – Hồ Chí Minh
From Cuba to Vietnam, from China to South Africa, the October Revolution remains as an inspiration. After all, that Revolution proved that the working class and the peasantry could not only overthrow an autocratic government but that it could form its own government, in its image. It proved decisively that the working class and the peasantry could be allied. It proved as well the necessity of a vanguard party that was open to spontaneous currents of unrest, but which could guide a revolution to completion.
This book explains the power of the October Revolution for the Third World. It is not a comprehensive study, but a small book with a large hope – that a new generation will come to see the importance of this revolution for the working class and peasantry in that part of the world that suffered under the heel of colonial domination. -
In the mid-'70s, Rodney taught a course on the Russian Revolution at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. A Pan-Africanist and Marxist, Rodney sought to make sense of the reverberations of the October Revolution in a decolonising world marked by Third World revolutionary movements. He intended to publish a book based on his research and teaching. Now historians Jesse Benjamin, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Vijay Prashad have edited Rodney’s polished chapters and unfinished lecture notes, presenting the book that Rodney had hoped to publish in his lifetime.
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Alexandra Kollontai (31 March 1872–9 March 1952) was a communist revolutionary; the first woman in the world to form part of a government since the creation of modern states; an organizer of the Workers’ Opposition within the Bolshevik party; a theorist on love and sexual relations; and a diplomat.
And yet, Alexandra Kollontai has had a complex legacy. Her particular political career, combining committed activism and theoretical work, has until recently seen her excluded from the training programmes of almost all communist tendencies. Even today her name remains unknown to those feminist sectors not directly linked to Marxism. Yet her texts, especially those written during the early years of the Soviet revolution, provide vital keys to understanding the relationship between gender and class and open up horizons that remain accurate, advanced and radically revealing even today.
This volume, to commemorate the 150 years of Alexandra Kollontai, brings together four of her writings, as well as two introductory essays by Julia Cámara, Atiliana da Silva Vicente Brunetto and Ândrea Francine Batista that place her writings in historical perspective and assert their relevance in our times. -
The essential writings of Lenin, in a single volume, for the radical revolutionaries of today and tomorrow.
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In Volume I, E. H. Carr begins with an analysis of the events in Russian history from 1898 to 1917 that shaped the course of the Revolution. He examines the constitutional structure erected by the new government and then turns to the multifarious problems facing the Bolsheviks as they took possession of a rapidly disintegrating Russian empire.
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"There Is a River" by Vincent Harding is a masterful exploration of the enduring struggle for freedom and justice that has shaped the heart of the African American experience in the United States. Through a powerful narrative that weaves together personal stories, historical events, and profound cultural insights, Harding illuminates the countless ways African Americans have resisted oppression and carved out spaces of hope and dignity. This book is not merely a recounting of past struggles; it is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of a people who have continually fought against the currents of history to forge their own path. With scholarly depth and emotional resonance, "There Is a River" invites readers to delve into the rich tapestry of courage and resilience that marks the African American saga, offering an essential perspective on America's journey toward equality.
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Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, shipbuilders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide. Eric Williams advanced these powerful ideas in Capitalism and Slavery, published in 1944. Years ahead of its time, his profound critique became the foundation for studies of imperialism and economic development. Binding an economic view of history with strong moral argument, Williams's study of the role of slavery in financing the Industrial Revolution refuted traditional ideas of economic and moral progress and firmly established the centrality of the African slave trade in European economic development. He also showed that mature industrial capitalism in turn helped destroy the slave system. Establishing the exploitation of commercial capitalism and its link to racial attitudes, Williams employed a historicist vision that set the tone for future studies.
William A. Darity Jr.'s new foreword highlights Williams's insights for a new generation of readers, and Colin Palmer's introduction assesses the lasting impact of Williams's groundbreaking work and analyzes the heated scholarly debates it generated when it first appeared. -
This pioneering work was the first full-length study of the role black Americans played in the crucial period after the Civil War, when the slaves had been freed and the attempt was made to reconstruct American society. Hailed at the time, Black Reconstruction in America 1860–1880 has justly been called a classic.
Read here
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It is a celebratory dramatization of the 1917 October Revolution commissioned for the tenth anniversary of the event. Originally released in the Soviet Union as October, the film was re-edited and released internationally as Ten Days That Shook The World, after John Reed's popular 1919 book on the Revolution
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Strike with English subtitles is a 1925 silent drama film directed and edited by Sergei Eisenstein, and produced in the Soviet Union at Goskino. Arranged in six parts, the film depicts a strike in 1903 by the workers of a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia, and their subsequent suppression.
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