Is the ruling class too strong to defeat?

No. 1 in our Tactics & Strategies discussion series—

How can a revolution succeed when our rulers have well-armed and well-manned militaries at their command?

January 20, 2012

THOSE WHO rule will not give up their power peacefully.

The question of whether the state is all-powerful is based on a misconception of what revolutions are and the conditions that give rise to them. Revolutions succeed not because those who are rebelling have superior arms.

The British Marxist Tony Cliff described the process in the 1975 Portuguese revolution:

The officer understood and, taking the company with him, left the estate.

First published in the April 28, 2000, issue of Socialist Worker.

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Paul D'Amato

International Socialist Review [2] and author of The Meaning of Marxism [3], a lively and accessible introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx and the tradition he founded. Paul can be contacted at pdamato@isreview.org [4].

Material on this Web site is licensed by SocialistWorker.org, under a Creative Commons (by-nc-nd 3.0) [5] license, except for articles that are republished with permission. Readers are welcome to share and use material belonging to this site for non-commercial purposes, as long as they are attributed to the author and SocialistWorker.org.

  1. [1] http://socialistworker.org/department/History-and-Traditions/Paul-D%27Amato
  2. [2] http://www.isreview.org
  3. [3] http://www.haymarketbooks.org/product_info.php?products_id=1604
  4. [4] mailto:pdamato@isreview.org
  5. [5] http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0

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