cities and in the countryside wanted a fundamental change in the relations of production. Both the uprising of 1953 and the Revolution of 1956 in Hungary were revolutionary convulsions, revolutionary uprisings, which were unable to shake off the burden of the ruling class — which deformed the revolts themselves — and liberate themselves.

1953 and 1956 belong in the ranks of the revolts, uprisings and revolutions that all revolutionaries must carry in their memory in mourning for their failure and defeat and to use as indispensable material for their ability to learn. These events must always be kept out of the clutches of forgetfulness.

G.A.C.

10 June 2016

Translated from the German original of our comrades in the Gruppe Internationaler Socialistinnen.

For a further analysis see see leftcom.org

(1) junge Welt (Young World) wasfounded in 1947 as the youth paper of the East German Communist Party and became the most read paper in East Germany. Since 1994 it has continued its nostalgia for Stalinism (it is edited by a former member of the Stasi).

(2) These were the 12 points of the 1848 revolutionaries and initially accepted by the Habsburg Emperor.

“What the Hungarian nation wants.

Let there be peace, liberty, and concord.

We demand the freedom of the press, the abolition of censorship.

Independent Hungarian government in Buda-Pest.

Annual national assembly in Pest.

Civil and religious equality before the law.

National army.

burden sharing

Abolition of socage.

Juries and courts based on an equal legal representation.

A national bank.

The army must take an oath on the Constitution, send our soldiers home and take foreign soldiers away.

Setting free the political prisoners.

Union [with Transylvania].”

(3)