Join us in welcoming Richard Becker and Candice Yanez, co-authors of the new book "Storming the Gates: How the Russian Revolution Changed the World." 

Becker is a Founding member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and author of the books “Palestine: Israel and the U.S. Empire” and “The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks.” 

Yanez is an organizer with the Albuquerque Party for Socialism and Liberation, and a journalist with Liberation News. Becker and Yanez will be in person to discuss the Bolshevik Revolution and its lessons for today.

The Russian Revolution ‘shook the world’ in 1917. It was the first time workers took and held power, seizing private property and society’s productive capacity. The Bolshevik Revolution inspired and supported anti-colonial revolutions and national liberation movements around the world. As it emerged to be the second-largest economy in the world, the first to put a human in space, it became a valid counterweight to claims of capitalism’s superiority.

Recounting the vast accomplishments, global impact, loyal followers, challenges and shortcomings, "Storming the Gates" remembers ‘the Soviet Union not as the end of communism but as its first grand, real-life experiment.’ Looking to the future, the book examines what role a Bolshevik-type party can have in the 21st Century, and how it can once again shape history.