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Selected Political Writings
English, German (translation)
- GenresPolitics
448 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1971
2 people are currently reading
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About the author
Rosa Luxemburg
492 books866 followersRosa Luxemburg (Rosalia Luxemburg, Polish: Róża Luksemburg) was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen. She was successively a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the Social Democratic Party of Germany(SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.
In 1915, after the SPD supported German involvement in World War I, she co-founded, with Karl Liebknecht, the anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacist League). On 1 January 1919 the Spartacist League became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In November 1918, during the German Revolution she founded the Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the central organ of the Spartacist movement.
She regarded the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 in Berlin as a blunder, but supported it after Liebknecht ordered it without her knowledge. When the revolt was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps (WWI veterans defending the Weimar Republic), Luxemburg, Liebknecht and some of their supporters were captured and murdered. Luxemburg was drowned in the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. After their deaths, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht became martyrs for Marxists. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht continues to play an important role among the German far-left.
In 1915, after the SPD supported German involvement in World War I, she co-founded, with Karl Liebknecht, the anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacist League). On 1 January 1919 the Spartacist League became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In November 1918, during the German Revolution she founded the Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the central organ of the Spartacist movement.
She regarded the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 in Berlin as a blunder, but supported it after Liebknecht ordered it without her knowledge. When the revolt was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps (WWI veterans defending the Weimar Republic), Luxemburg, Liebknecht and some of their supporters were captured and murdered. Luxemburg was drowned in the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. After their deaths, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht became martyrs for Marxists. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht continues to play an important role among the German far-left.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 14, 2019
This selection of pamphlets, essays, articles and speeches comprehensively compiles Rosa Luxemburg's conception of Marxism and her contributions to the theory. Mostly written in the conditions of pre-war Germany (with a few texts written in Russia and one in Poland), and the final texts written during and after the war, Luxemburg uses the then actual events to prove the theory, and to illustrate the faults of reformists, revisionists, anarchists and reactionaries.
Throughout the articles, a history of the SPD - the German Social Democratic Party - is sketched. How it rose as a revolutionary Marxist party, using parliamentary 'democracy' as a means to achieve the goal of abolishing capitalism, how it gradually drifted away from that goal, before completely abandoning it, how, on that fated day in august 1914, it ultimately and definitively betrayed the millions of proletarians that had rallied behind it by voting for the war, and how it ended up as nothing more than another bourgeois party, violently repressing the 1919 revolution, sparing no bloodshed and murdering many revolutionaries in the process, among whom was Rose Luxemburg. It should be added, though, that Luxemburg was opposed to initiating the revolution at that time, believing the material conditions not to be right, correctly foreseeing that it would not be succesful.
A hundred years ago tomorrow, on 15 January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered by paramilitary thugs, on the orders of their former comrades of the SPD, who abandoned revolutionary socialism in favour of opportunistic revisionism.
Throughout the articles, a history of the SPD - the German Social Democratic Party - is sketched. How it rose as a revolutionary Marxist party, using parliamentary 'democracy' as a means to achieve the goal of abolishing capitalism, how it gradually drifted away from that goal, before completely abandoning it, how, on that fated day in august 1914, it ultimately and definitively betrayed the millions of proletarians that had rallied behind it by voting for the war, and how it ended up as nothing more than another bourgeois party, violently repressing the 1919 revolution, sparing no bloodshed and murdering many revolutionaries in the process, among whom was Rose Luxemburg. It should be added, though, that Luxemburg was opposed to initiating the revolution at that time, believing the material conditions not to be right, correctly foreseeing that it would not be succesful.
A hundred years ago tomorrow, on 15 January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were murdered by paramilitary thugs, on the orders of their former comrades of the SPD, who abandoned revolutionary socialism in favour of opportunistic revisionism.
Displaying 1 of 1 review