The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE) in Sri Lanka will hold a public meeting in Colombo on March 15 to launch the Sinhala edition of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century by David North. Published by Kamkaru Mawatha (Workers Path), the SEP’s publication house, the Sinhala translation will be available for purchase at the meeting venue and from the SEP.

David North is the chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site and the Socialist Equality Party (US). His book is a collection of lectures and essays developed in opposition to the bourgeois triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union and in defense of historical truth against the outpouring of distortions and falsifications.

Against those who proclaimed the end of socialism, or in the case of Francis Fukuyama, the end of history, North argues “that the dissolution of the Soviet Union, while certainly an event of great importance, did not mark the traumatic end of socialism. History would continue. And, to the extent that the twentieth century is defined as an epoch of intense capitalist crisis, giving rise to wars and revolutions, it is most appropriately characterized as ‘unfinished’.”

Under conditions of a worsening global crisis of capitalism and intensifying danger of imperialist world war, North makes clear that the essential preparation of the revolutionary struggles ahead in an understanding of the key strategic experiences of the 20th century, particularly the Russian Revolution of 1917. The defense of historical truth is essential for a renaissance of socialist consciousness in the working class.

The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century contains a wealth of material, written in polemical form, on the Russian Revolution, the Stalinist degeneration of the Soviet Union, Leon Trotsky’s struggle against Stalinism, the Theory of Permanent Revolution, the rise of fascism, the origins of World War II and historical evolution of trade unions.

The Colombo event will be the first of a series of meetings on the book to be held by the SEP/IYSSE throughout the country. We urge workers, youth, intellectuals and WSWS readers to attend the meeting and participate in this important discussion.

Date and time: Tuesday, March 15, 4.00 p.m.
Venue: Public Library Auditorium, Colombo.