Indian supporters of the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) are holding a public meeting entitled “World War and the Russian Revolution” in Chennai on March 5. The event is part of the ICFI’s commemoration of the centenary of the October 1917 Revolution, including the forthcoming online lecture series.

Under the Trump administration, US imperialism is stepping up its war preparations against China, posing the danger of a catastrophic war between nuclear-armed powers.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, having already transformed the country into a frontline state against China, are intensifying India’s military-strategic alliance with the US. These moves are part of India’s great power ambitions. Last August, New Delhi signed an agreement giving the US military access to Indian bases. The country has become a major service and repair hub for the US Seventh Fleet, the naval armada at the centre of US war preparations against China.

These developments pose the danger of drawing all of South Asia into a military conflagration between the US and China, with deadly consequences for the working class and oppressed masses in the region and internationally.

The Chennai meeting will discuss the deepening crisis of US and world capitalism, as well as the drive toward a third world war and dictatorial forms of rule by the imperialist powers. Speakers will explain that the only way to prevent such a disaster is the mobilisation of Indian workers as a part of an international anti-war movement of the working class to put an end to the outmoded capitalist system, the source of imperialist war.

Herein lies the contemporary relevance of the Russian Revolution in October 1917, the first shot of the world revolution, which arose out of the immense devastation of World War I. Workers today need to draw the political lessons of the struggle by Lenin, Trotsky and Bolsheviks, who organised and led the Russian working class to seize power.

We call upon workers, students, youth and intellectuals to attend the Chennai meeting, which will discuss the revolutionary tasks now facing the working class and the oppressed masses.

Date and Time:
Sunday March 5, 10.00 a.m.

Venue:
ICSA Center, Opposite Connemara Library, Egmore, Chennai–8