Photograph by Nathaniel St. Clair
Where are the armies! Where are the armies and military might of the fourteen foreign states that pushed their way into Russia during the 1917 Russian Revolution with guns ablazing, swords athrusting, tanks arumbling, c-class naval cruisers destroying, backed by over 247,000 boots on the ground to smash, destroy and overthrow the first workers state in the world? As in 1917 Russia, today in 2025, the global ruling class will not hesitate to join forces to destroy any seed, any germ, any speck or threat of socialism, communism or workers’ control.
The Russian revolution of 1917 caused the global ruling class to freak out. The raging civil war between exploited peasants and workers against the brutality of feudalism and expanding imperialism exploded into insurrection on November 7, 1917. Having learned lessons and new tactics from their failed January 1905 uprising, where workers were fired upon by Imperial Guard soldiers, Russian workers built a movement. Massive strikes became the mobilizing force that spread across the industrial landscape. Fed up with state corruption, rising prices, oppression and exploitation, first the women flocked into the streets crying out for bread then thousands of industrial workers flooded the streets. And, as they continued to fight and demonstrate and protest, hundreds of disaffected Petrograd soldiers deserted and joined the protestors and women in the bread lines.
Violent armed clashes between protestors and the police and gendarmes were dutifully noticed by the wannabe capitalists around the world, piercing the hearts of the global ruling class with terror. But, by then, in the thousands, Russian factory workers, mill workers, longshore workers, tinkers and tailers, soldiers and charwomen raced to join the Bolshevik Party, a small socialist workers’ party, created in 1903 with the goal of seizing power and establishing workers control of the means of production.
On March 8, 1917, panicked by the power of the people in the streets and the spectre of workers control and communism, the monarchy of Czar Nicolas ordered troops onto the streets of Petrograd, Russia’s largest industrial city, to “restore order”. The order came too late to save his ass; he abdicated his throne, which wisely his brother refused to take, and was whisked off to Siberia. By July 17, 1918 the Czar was dead, murdered along with his family.
The next government, The Directorate, succumbed in under a month. Disgusted by the reactionary transitional body, the Bolshevik Party seized power.
There was no ethnic cleansing in 1917 Russia. There was no genocide. There was no Instagram or tick toc or twitter to rally workers to the cause. Yet workers rose up. Russia was not a threat to fourteen foreign countries – yet, the spectre of communism, the threat of workers taking power from corrupt imperialists was enough to mobilize the global ruling class in 1917.
Fourteen foreign armies invaded from the north, south, east, west, by sea and air and land; they sent their navies, their armies, their dogs, and after a vicious five years of hell, foreign allies were successful – they destroyed the first worker-controlled state in history. The leader, Lenin, was (my conspiracy here) murdered, and the leader of the workers Red Army, Trotsky, fled the country and was murdered in Mexico by Stalin, a grifter who co-opted the Bolshevik Party then intentionally, manipulatively, called it communist (Russia was then and remains even now, State Capitalist not communist even though capitalists continue to gaslight saying Russia is a communist country just to frighten people.)
On the cusp of the 80th UN general assembly (UNGA) this month, September 2025, where 147 of 193 member states of the United Nations (UN) already recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, the ‘issue’ of Palestine is high on the agenda. (Ironically, Palestine representatives can’t attend in person, as the USA/Israel Homeland Security took the petty action of denying them Visas. {Fear can do that.}) Two of the Russian invaders, Canada and Australia, claim they will recognize Palestine as a sovereign state during the UNGA. Two more of the invaders, France and the UK say they will also recognize the sovereignty of Palestine. Belgium is another country that indicates it will recognize the sovereignty of Palestine – but, with conditions. With conditions? What were the conditions from 1917 onwards, when foreign capitalist leaders frantically discussed sending troops and military might into Russia to interfere in or smash a sovereign state’s civil war? Of the fourteen foreign states that in less than a heart-beat sent in their armies to eradicate a peril to their privilege, power and control, not one has sent even one soldier into Gaza or the West Bank.
So, I will ask once again…
Where are the foreign armies now ready to rush in without hesitate to liberate starving, injured and terrorized Palestinians? From 1917-22 they were capable of organizing an international invading imperialist force without Internet, WiFi, E-mail, WhatsApp, or private group chats. Their concerted plans then were precise and effective. So, why are they now capable only of organizing meetings where they hide behind locked doors spouting words of support for a humane cause – then do nothing to back up their words which fly out of their mouths only to be lost in the winds of time.
History will remember with respect and admiration, not the names of imperialist generals and their cult leaders or followers, but of the brave resistance fighters in Palestine and abroad.
Palestine will be free.
The post UN General Assembly: Where Are Your Armies Now? appeared first on CounterPunch.org.
This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Gloria Bergen.
Gloria Bergen | Radio Free (2025-09-09T05:54:51+00:00) UN General Assembly: Where Are Your Armies Now?. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2025/09/09/un-general-assembly-where-are-your-armies-now/
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