1775
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
From the infamous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech, which Patrick Henry delivered to the Virginia Convention in 1775. Based on the power of this speech, a resolution was passed to send Virginia’s troops to the Revolutionary War.
After the signing of the Treaty of Paris granted the United States independence, British soldiers evacuated and a victorious George Washington and his troops reclaimed New York.
Patriots punish loyalists by stringing them up from a Liberty Pole. The Sons of Liberty, a secret organization of patriots, erected Liberty Poles throughout the Thirteen Colonies as symbols of defiance to British rule.
1917
But meanwhile, the crowd in front of the Embassy grew ever denser, all the trams had stopped, the bridge was a seething mass of people, and several private motors that passed were held up by soldiers who turned out the occupants without any ceremony and themselves took possession of the cars, swarming into them like a lot of insects, five or six inside, two on either step, two or three on the box, two more lying along the mudguards. And presently two fully-armed regiments came marching across the bridge, carrying banners inscribed in flaring white letters with “Down with the Capitalist War! Down with the Upper Classes! Long live Anarchy! Bread, Peace, Freedom!”
Meriel Buchanan describes the Russian Revolution in her memoir Petrograd: The City of Trouble.
The Bolshevik party stormed Petrograd in the autumn of 1917 and succeeded in overthrowing the Russian Provisional Government. The October Revolution led to the Russian Civil War, which culminated in the defeat of Russia’s czarist autocracy and the creation of the Soviet Union.
Suddenly a noise arose somewhere and began to grow, spread and roll ever nearer. And in its multitude of sounds, fused into a single powerful wave, we immediately sensed something special, unlike the previous noises – something final and decisive. It suddenly became clear that the end was coming… The noise rose, swelled and rapidly swept toward us in a broad wave… And poured into our hearts unbearable anxiety, like a gust of poisoned air… It was clear: this is the onslaught, we are being taken by storm… Defense is useless – sacrifices will be in vain… The door burst open…
Former Minister of Justice of the Russian Provisional Government, Pavel Maliantovich, describes the storming of the Winter Palace in Witnesses to the Russian Revolution, edited by Roger Pethybridge.
From a report on the peasant movement in Hunan, penned by Chairman Mao Tse-tung in 1927.
1927
Because of the growth in government taxation, the rise in rent and interest demanded by the landlords and the daily spread of the disasters of war, famine and banditry are everywhere, and the peasant masses and the urban poor can hardly keep alive. Because the schools have no money, many students fear that their education may be interrupted; because production is backward, many graduates have no hope of employment. Once we understand all these contradictions, we shall see in what a desperate situation, in what a chaotic state, China finds herself. We shall also see that the high tide of revolution against the imperialists, the warlords and the landlords is inevitable, and will come very soon. All China is littered with dry twigs which will soon be aflame. The saying, ‘A single spark can start a prairie fire,’ is an apt description of how the current situation will develop. We need only look at the strikes by the workers, the uprisings by the peasants, the mutinies of soldiers and the strikes of students which are developing in many places to see that it cannot be long before a “spark” kindles “a prairie fire.”
From a 1930 letter Chairman Mao Tse-tung wrote to his comrades in the Communist Party of China.
1947
The dominant impulse under British rule was that of fear, pervasive, oppressing, strangling fear; fear of the army, the police, the widespread secret service, fear of the official class; fear of laws meant to suppress, and of prison; fear of the landlord’s agent; fear of the moneylender; fear of unemployment and starvation, which were always on the threshold. It was against this all-pervading fear that Gandhi’s quiet and determined voice was raised: Be not afraid.
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India.
Protesting the British Salt Tax, which made it illegal for Indians to sell or produce salt, Gandhi and a group of satyagrahis (nonviolent activists) embarked on a 240-mile Salt March. Gandhi was arrested after 23 days, but the march prompted a series of protests against British colonialism throughout the country.
1968
In May 1968, the Situationist-inspired Paris riots set off “a chain reaction of refusal” against consumer capitalism. Art students demanded the realization of art; music students called for “wild and ephemeral music;” footballers kicked out managers with the slogan “football to the football players; ”gravediggers occupied cemeteries; doctors, nurses and the interns at a psychiatric hospital organized in solidarity with the inmates. For a few weeks, millions of people who had worked their whole lives in offices and factories broke from their daily routines and… lived.
Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam
16, 2009
10:43 am
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In order for America to have a revolution today, Americans need to realize that THEY THEMSELVES are the problem. In past revolutions someone else has always been the enemy. We are our own enemy. One of the hardest things for people to do is to truly look deeply inside themselves and realize that their everyday routine is fueling a social, environmental, and economic problem. Everyone needs to think beyond themselves, educate themselves, and realize what is actually going on outside the safe borders of their comfort zone. But for me, I'll have a Kit-Kat bar.
— Anonymous Pessimist03, 2009
07:15 pm
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You forgot Hitler - probably the most successful populist, socialist revolutionary.
— McAnonymous03, 2009
09:03 am
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THE ONLY REVOLUTION THAT WORKS IS THE ONE INSIDE YOUR HEAD...
— Anonymous29, 2009
10:32 am
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A revolution of the mind allows a new perception of our world and our existence, and this, in many cases, leads to Green/Social Anarchist, Anarcho-Syndicalist/Communist, Individualist, and Insurrectionist minds..
We must start a revolution, not from attacking the problem, we must drop out completely, and start anew. In that sense, a revolution outside the mind is possible.
- philanonymous
— Philanonymous27, 2009
07:05 pm
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You forgot January 1, 1994 - the first day of the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas, Mexico. Here ya go:
1994
These people were born dignified and rebellious, brothers and sisters to the rest of Mexico's exploited people. They are not just the product of the Annexation Act of 1824, but of a long chain of ignominious acts and rebellions. From the time when cassock and armor conquered this land, dignity and defiance have lived and spread under these rains.
Collective work, democratic thinking, and subjection to the decisions of the majority are more than just traditions in Indigenous zones. They have been the only means of survival, resistance, dignity, and defiance. These "evil ideas," as they are seen by landholders and businessmen, go against the capitalist precept of "a lot in the hands of a few." [...]
How will this new voice make itself heard in these lands and across the country? How will this hidden wind blow, this wind which now blows only in the mountains and canyons without yet descending to the valleys where money rules and lies govern? This wind will come from the mountains. It is already being born under the trees and is conspiring for a new world, so new that it is barely an intuition in the collective heart that inspires it...
— VivaEZLN— Subcommandante Marcos, January 27, 1994
18, 2009
02:28 pm
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Maybe if I comment here, post it to Twitter, and then update my Facebook status message, change will come!
One sec, my frozen pizza just dinged and I ran out of Diet Pepsi.
— Anonymous14, 2009
12:29 pm
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"if revolution had a movie, i'll be theme music..."
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5ymx5jij5za/songsofmemoria.mp3
— che christ09, 2009
02:13 pm
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excuse me, make that a revolution is also not a magazine.
— Anonymous09, 2009
02:12 pm
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A magazine is also not a revolution.
However, I liked the article.
— Anonymous09, 2009
10:10 am
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Well, one things for sure, I don't want to happen what happened in China during that time. The people that were ordered to build bridges were highly uneducated, the people starved because the government tried to hide the fact that their control of agriculture was causing inflation, so the government ordered slave labor for those working the fields. Then the government banned private farms. This led to people starving, which led to cannibalism. I could keep telling horror stories, but I think you get the point. Mao sucks.
— WickUdNoreastaH09, 2009
09:07 am
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"If we let ourselves drift along the stream of history, without knowing it, we shall have chosen the power of suicide, which is at the heart of the world... in order to preserve the world, it is actually necessary that a genuine revolution should take place." - Jacques Ellul
— Anonymous06, 2009
12:56 pm
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Mr. Lasn,
you seem to be implying that we should be heading to the mattresses...I was looking for some light reading while there; do you have any copies of the anarchist's cookbook for sale? It would look so cool next to my copy of Das Kapital and The Society of the Spectacle.
— d schwartz08, 2009
10:30 am
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And next to my copy of "My Stuggle".....
— Lloyd Pitcher06, 2009
07:51 am
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Putting real revolutionary moments in a perspective time scale like that is fanastically inspiring! Thank you!
Ideas are pathways to action.
— AnonymousThe path seems much longer when you don't know how far you have to go, but
A journey with a friend is always shorter than a journey alone.
So let's keep walking.
05, 2009
03:54 pm
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The bridge of your flowers.
A cold wind
calls to mind
the love for
a tender decoy,
while my delicate
dream invents
in the candle
a reflection of
love.
Francesco Sinibaldi
— Francesco Sinibaldi04, 2009
12:10 pm
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This country does need a revolution. Unfortunately you can never have a revolution of the 'intelligent' alone, because (by design) they are too small a percentage of the population.
In order to reach critical mass you must employ the stupid in your revolution as well, and that is when things get out of control and unintended consequences arise.
The only kind of revolution that I think might work is consumer revolution. One where we simply stop buying products produced by slave labor, and stop working for the companies that enslave us.
— Anonymous19, 2009
09:24 pm
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by resorting to a consumer revolution we are letting capitalism and the corporations define us via our opposition to them. the only revolution that be of any service of humanity will destroy false labels such as consumer, citizen, worker, etc.
— Anonymous10, 2009
05:55 am
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You and your cohorts here will always be definedby your opposition - that's all you have. That's your only idea in your empty, self-loathing trendy philosophy. History in its wisdom of intellectual darwinism has already forgotten you.
— Anonymous21, 2009
01:18 pm
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We are all consumers on one level or another, it is not a "label", its a statement of fact.
— Anonymous04, 2009
11:29 am
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Mr. Lasn, I agree, we need an internal revolution...but what kind? I am hoping for one seen in 1923! The best (and one of the only) middle-class revolution ever. If only the rest of the world had known what this revolution truly stood for...not the propaganda that was foisted on us afterwards by the victors.
— Lloyd Pitcher04, 2009
10:19 am
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inclusion of the Velvet Revolution would've made for interesting contrast.
— smrk04, 2009
01:52 am
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That is true but all that mass amount of technology gives people is the attention span of about a minute.
— AnonymousEverybody is passionless.
03, 2009
01:14 pm
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The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor are the minds of the oppressed (Steve Biko).
— Self-Evolving03, 2009
12:08 pm
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Insurrection is interesting and all...
— Anonymous...but how about them hipsters?
03, 2009
11:43 am
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Thanks to twitter and social media, information could spread everywhere!
— AnonymousInterwetten
04, 2009
11:34 am
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It could be shut down overnight. Have you seen Obama's latest bill on controlling the internet? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html
— Lloyd Pitcher15, 2009
11:27 am
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woh. scary.
— nicko [rt]02, 2009
07:00 pm
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REALLY Adbusters? Chairman Mao!? Oh, by the way, you forgot Hitler, Pol pot, Mousilini... etc. Go read some actual history of the cultural revolution. If I was reading the endgame strategies issue, I would have hunted for a lighter and some gasoline real quick to roast marshmallows on this dictator-apologist vile. That being said, I'm still gonna buy the latest issue of thought control in economics.
— WickUdNoreastaH03, 2009
12:38 pm
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A revolution is not a dinner party.
— mikezephyr03, 2009
06:40 am
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If anything, citing mao reinforces the point: Revolutions are dangerous, bad things happen, and sometimes we make mistakes. I don't think even mao intended the CR to get as far out of hand as it did. So we have to be careful.
— NicholasPost new comment