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We would like to personally welcome each of you to the Institute for Black Atlantic Research (IBAR) at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston for ‘The Red and the Black: The Russian Revolution and the Black Atlantic’ conference to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution. The Russian Revolution of 1917 was not only one of the most critical events of the twentieth century in its own right but an inspirational event across the ‘black Atlantic’ as a blow against racism and imperialism. For colonial subjects of European empires internationally as well as black Americans, the Russian Revolution promised the hope of a world without oppression and exploitation. As the black Trinidadian revolutionary Marxist C.L.R. James wrote in November 1939 in a piece to mark the 22nd anniversary of what he called ‘the greatest event in history’, By this uprising, the workers and peasants of Russia shattered the capitalist system on one-sixth of the world’s surface … On November 8, 1917, the night after the seizure of power, Lenin rose to address the Soviet congress. Gripping the rails before him he spoke the memorable words, “We shall now begin the construction of the socialist order”. On that same night and from that same platform, was sounded the call for the world revolution, uttered many times before, but now, because it came from the leaders of the first workers’ state in history, reverberating across the oceans and mountains from continent to continent. It was heard in Central Europe and in Central Asia, by millions of Indians and Chinese, heard too by the most oppressed people in the world, the Negroes in Africa, in the West Indies, and in the United States of America… The Russian Revolution in 1917 razed to the ground one great fortress of world imperialism … In the years that followed 1917, the Communist International carried the great message of the world revolution and the example of Russia to the millions of Negroes throughout the world… Let those Negroes who talk so superficially about “Reds” explain why the British government, when Anthony Eden visited Moscow in 1935, demanded as the first condition of British friendship with Russia the discontinuation of revolutionary propaganda in India, in the West Indies, and in Africa. No Southern capitalist or plantation owner celebrates the anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Should a Negro in the South walk down a public street carrying a banner marked “Long Live the Russian Revolution”, he might be lynched before he had gone fifty yards. And why? Because it stands for the destruction of the rotting capitalist system, with its unnecessary poverty and degradation, its imperialist war and its fascist dictatorships, its class domination and racial persecution. Every Negro with an ounce of political understanding or a spark of revolt against oppression will recognise the significance and celebrate the anniversary of the October revolution in Russia. This international conference aims to not simply recognise the significance of the anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1917 itself, but explore the impact the revolutionary events made across the African diaspora and the subsequent critical intellectual influence of Marxism and Bolshevism on the current of revolutionary ‘black internationalism’ in its aftermath. The conference will also engage with the ways in which black internationalist activism and organising critically intervened in the traditions of Marxism and Communism. We hope to publish some of the proceedings of the event, and will be in touch with those who presented at the conference about this afterwards, but if you have any questions or thoughts about this please feel free to approach any of us. This conference pack contains the programme, and details of the participants and speakers. If you have any questions about anything, please do get in touch with us. In closing, we would just like to thank each of you for attending the conference, particularly our keynote speakers and special performers, and those who have travelled long distances to be here. We would also like to thank again our sponsors, the British Association for American Studies, the US Embassy, London and the Lipman-Miliband Trust for their generous support, and our conference administrator Izabella Penier for all her work in helping make this event possible. With thanks, David Featherstone, Christian Høgsbjerg, Alan Rice, and Olga Tabachnikova, and on behalf of the Institute for Black Atlantic Research, UCLan. Conference hashtag: #TheRedandtheBlack #theredandtheblack