... movement (1950s) the collapse of the soviet union (1991) or the feminist revolution (1920s). "The possibilities for political action lie on a continuum which stretches from obedience through tolerated nonconformity, conventional protest, direct action, non-revolutionary terrorism to revolution, a decisive rupture of the existing system."1 Several common points exist however; (for whether or not revolutionary actions are/were right, and/or historically justified, depends largely on one's own point of comparison). Firstly, as David Beetham suggests, revolutions, without exception, are characterised by extra-legal mass action.2 Secondly, revolutions bring about fundamental political and sociological changes. Finally, no matter what revolutionary sentiment or tactics are employed, they will encounter some level of resistance or outright hostility from the established system, and its supporters. Revolutionaries can not help but be perceived as a threat by any conventional system; this will in turn blur any attempt to quantify the rights and wrongs of revolutionary politics. No governmental system can ...

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