LENIN lies in a tomb in Moscow, yet his teachings are still reviled by “mainstream” politics 100 years since his death. But in today’s world, riven by inequality, climate catastrophe and war, is it worth returning to his radical understanding of democracy, his demands of “peace, land and bread” and the fundamental analysis behind them?

To look at this question, on Wednesday November 6, activists from across the left will meet in London’s historic Marx Memorial Library in a discussion, led by Paul Le Blanc, entitled The Logic of Lenin versus the Logic of Trump.

An activist and acclaimed US historian teaching at La Roche University, Pennsylvania, Le Blanc is the author of a multitude of books and articles, most recently Lenin: Responding to Catastrophe, Forging Revolution (2023, Pluto).

In this seminal work, Le Blanc takes us through Lenin’s dynamic revolutionary thought, how he worked as part of a larger collective and how he centred the labour movement in Russia and beyond, uncovering a powerful form of democracy that can help us to transform our activism today.

As Jodi Dean has said, this work: “Brings out the practical activism, principled politics and revolutionary patience crucial to organising the oppressed on a rapidly overheating planet.”

The world is watching as the US presidential election approaches on November 5. The result hangs in the balance between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump — a choice between an Establishment Democrat serving as vice-president in an administration refusing to prevent a genocide in Gaza, even as hundreds of thousands march in protest, and a far-right demagogue and former president representing the worst of climate-crashing rentier capital, racism, and misogyny.

While the global financial crisis rumbles on, we rush towards climate catastrophe, and the nuclear doomsday clock ticks ever closer to midnight, never in recent history has “mainstream” politics felt so inadequate to the tasks set before it.

And yet, although the crises today have taken new forms, there is much to learn from the past.

Lenin famously wrote that “freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: freedom for slave owners,” and he, too, acted in a time of war and profound social disintegration as the far right — led by Kornilov in the summer of 1917 — marched on Petrograd against a vacillating government, too weak to resolve the crises in its class favour and yet not yet removed by the spontaneous uprising of workers alone.

It was perhaps Lenin, more than any other, who theorised the tumult and chaos of the era and — most importantly — linked that perspective to a programme for action and the demands for “peace, land and bread.”

There are lessons, then, in how the logic of Lenin won through, sweeping aside the cadaverous politics of the Establishment and defeating an ascendant far right, both of which sought in their different ways to preserve the old class privileges.

Against the odds, by the end of 1917, Lenin’s Bolshevik party succeeded in rejecting both the corrupt and decaying Romanov dynasty and the capitalist economic system which had started to take root in Russia.

Lenin was then wrestling with the question of “What is to be done?” when facing the catastrophes of his own time — and today, this is the question so many of us on the left here in Britain, and indeed internationally, are grappling with again today.

As part of the “Lenin 100” series marking the centenary since the death of this revolutionary thinker and organiser, Le Blanc will draw out the logic of his approach and what it means for activists today in the fight against “Trumpism” and engaged in the international struggle for a socialist future.

What better time than the day after the US election to join the discussion and think through the continued relevance and legacy of one of the most influential figures on the global left? We hope to see you there.

The Logic of Lenin v the Logic of Trump, with US socialist Paul Le Blanc, takes place at the Marx Memorial Library, 6.30pm Wednesday  November 6. Register at Bit.ly/logicofleninvslogicoftrump.