ON October 15, 2017, the Venezuelan people went to the polls to elect their regional governors. Tensions swept through not only Venezuela, but across Latin America. Would the attrition of the Bolivarian project in Venezuela now be complete? Would this presage the defeat of the government of Nicolas Maduro in the presidential elections to be held in October 2018? US President Donald Trump waded into the Venezuelan elections, calling for the defeat of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), the party led by Maduro. He failed.

“NEO-liberal capitalism” is the term used to describe the phase of capitalism where restrictions on the global flows of commodities and capital, including capital in the form of finance, have been substantially removed.

LENIN, who was in exile, kept pace with the developments in Russia which were moving with ‘hurricane like velocity’. Along with directing Bolshevik activities from exile, he was immersed in another important task of finishing his monumental work, ‘State and Revolution’, which he started writing in August. He used his experiences from the Russian revolution to explain the theoretical propositions of Karl Marx and Engels.The Kornilov revolt and its defeat had accelerated the Russian revolution tremendously.

JULY was welcomed with massive demonstrations in Russia. Workers and soldiers came out onto the streets spontaneously on July 1st, protesting against the provincial government’s decision to restart the war and its failure to meet any of their demands. On July 2nd, the Cadets had threatened to resign from the ministry. This made the Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs) to further capitulate to the demands of the bourgeoisie and surrender the power of the Soviets.

THERE were many incidents and mass protests that were happening in the months of April and May 1917, which had accentuated the crisis of power in Russia. Minister Guchkov, head of the Octoberists was forced to resign. The growing discontent among the people increasingly made it clear that ‘dual power’ was no longer tenable. The capitalists wanted to capture State power, all for themselves, depriving the Soviets of any ‘control’. On the other hand, there were Mensheviks and Narodniks, who wanted to join the provincial government and get some ministerial portfolios.