Large turnout for New York City meeting on the contemporary significance of the Russian Revolution
By
our reporters
18 November 2017
David North, chairman of the International Editorial Board of the World Socialist Web Site, continued his series of lectures on the contemporary significance of the Russian Revolution Wednesday, November 15, in New York City.
The event, hosted by the International Youth and Students for Social Equality at New York University, attracted some 100 people. The high attendance follows successful meetings in California, Michigan and Illinois. The audience included workers from a variety of industries in the New York and New Jersey area as well as a number of professionals.
The audience was dominated, however, by students from colleges and universities and high schools in the New York City area, particularly NYU, Columbia University, the New School and LaGuardia Community College. The high turnout comes after a year-long campaign by the IYSSE for club status at NYU, which marked a milestone when the IYSSE won New Club in Development status at the university.
Marking the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, David North spoke on the international impact and historical origins of the revolution, followed by an examination of its growing relevance in the context of today’s social and political crisis.
North recounted how historians and political figures treated the Russian Revolution in earlier periods. In the first third of the 20th Century, for example, he noted how liberals, including American philosopher John Dewey, acknowledged the Russian Revolution as an immense world-historic event representing an existential challenge to capitalism.
The revolution, North said, influenced practically every aspect of…