By David North
Hundreds of World Socialist Web Site readers from over thirty countries listened to a live online interview with David North, chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board and author of The Russian Revolution and the Unfinished Twentieth Century, on Saturday, December 13.

North spoke with WSWS reporters Andre Damon and Andrea Peters about the major themes of his recently released book and how it came into existence. The discussion dealt with a wide range of issues, including the role of consciousness in history, the relationship between historical falsification and postmodernism, the international significance of the Russian Revolution, and the necessity for an understanding of the major experiences of the international working class in the 20th Century in order to comprehend current political developments. Throughout the interview, North connected the great historical issues dealt with in his book with the mounting crisis of world capitalism today and the essential question of developing socialist consciousness in the working class.

He addressed a number of questions from audience members, including the Socialist Equality Party's assessment of the trade unions and the relationship between the SEP and other political organizations. Listeners from every continent besides Antarctica participated. A recording of the event is available below.
One hundred years after the outbreak of World War I and the Russian Revolution, none of the problems of the twentieth century—devastating wars, economic crises, social inequality, and the threat of dictatorship---have been solved. In fact, they are posed even more sharply today.

David North argues against contemporary historians who maintain that the dissolution of the USSR signaled the “end of history” (Fukuyama}, or the “short twentieth century”(Hobsbawm).
Disputing postmodernism’s view that all history is merely subjective “narrative,” North insists that a thorough materialist knowledge of history is vital for humanity’s survival in the twenty-first century.