We communists have set ourselves the task of changing the course of world history. For that we need a theory of history, how it develops and changes and what role we, as communists, can play in bringing about that change. 

The saying popularly attributed to Henry Ford, that history is “just one damn thing after another” sums up the bourgeois attitude to historical events. Rather than any process or logic, things simply ‘happen’ randomly, or at the whim of a handful of ‘Great Men’. 

By contrast, communists are historical materialists. We see history as driven by the struggle between classes, progressing to higher stages as production methods, culture and thought become increasingly sophisticated. When senile and stagnant societies refuse to change, revolution becomes necessary to break the impasse and move humanity to the next rung. 

As Marie Fredericksen, a leading Danish communist, explains in this talk, we need a scientific understanding of history to draw lessons from the past that can be applied to our struggle for a socialist future.