State and Revolution

Lenin's classic work with a new introduction by Alan Woods. “Democracy for an insignificant minority, democracy for the rich — that is the democracy of capitalist society.” The question of the state is not something that normally occupies the attention of most workers. This is no accident. The state would be of no use for the ruling class if people did not believe that it was something harmless, impartial and above the interests of classes or individuals. However, Marxism teaches us that the state is an instrument for the oppression of the exploited classes by the ruling class. The state cannot be neutral. Written in the summer of 1917, in the heat of the Russian Revolution, Lenin’s State and Revolution is a key work of Marxism. Here, Lenin explains that, stripped of all non-essentials, the state is in the final analysis “groups of armed men”: the army and the police, in defence of the ruling class. Today, after years of attacks, we see the working class and youth attempting