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La crisis de la socialdemocracia
Rosa Luxemburgo (1871-1919) se situó a la vanguardia en la lucha contra la guerra mundial. Era la consecuencia lógica de su lucha antimilitarista que provocó su encarcelamiento en varias ocasiones por el militarismo prusiano, acusada de «llamar a la rebelión», «incitar a los soldados a la desobediencia» e «insultar al emperador». Durante el tiempo que pasó en la cárcel escribió uno de sus ensayos más célebres: La crisis de la socialdemocracia,conocido también comoFolleto Junius. En él explicaba que el conflicto bélico no poseía un carácter defensivo frente al zarismo ruso, sino que constituía una guerra imperialista surgida de las contradicciones y necesidades del desarrollo del capitalismo. En aquel periodo de reacción fue todo un manual para la educación del núcleo de cuadros marxistas y obreros revolucionarios de Alemania que posteriormente protagonizaría la revolución de los consejos en noviembre de 1918. Nadie puede quedar indiferente ante la comprometida vida de Rosa Luxemburgo. Amada y admirada por los espíritus más combativos, sigue siendo en el sigloxxisinónimo de rebelión y revolución.
173 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1915
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About the author
Rosa Luxemburg
473 books849 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 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 19, 2022
The twenty-first #book I finished in 2022: Rosa Luxemburg wrote this pamphlet in 1915. She was stuck in the Women's Prison on Berlin's Barnimstraße while millions of young workers were being massacred in the trenches of the First World War. The pamphlet was published underground (thanks, Leo Jogiches!) under the pseudonym "Junius." V.I. Lenin wrote a review in which he referred to Junius as "he" — did he really not recognize Luxemburg's unmistakable style, or was he deliberately trying to protect her identity?
With biting prose and a profound knowledge of geopolitics, Luxemburg demolished all the myths being told about the war. How did she pull this off without access to a large library? I have no idea. She explained how inner-imperialist competition led directly to mass murder. Every side claimed to be acting in "self-defense" — Luxemburg showed how every side was in fact out for conquest. Even small countries such as Belgium and Serbia, attacked by aggressive neighbors, were part of the imperialist scramble to control the world. This is why real socialists, even in Belgium and Serbia, opposed "national defense."
But as Lenin pointed out, Luxemburg was not radical enough. She explained how the working class, organized in a socialist movement, could use class struggle to end the war. But this pamphlet shows no understanding of how the war was sharpening capitalism's contradictions to the point where they would explode in revolution. Just three years after she wrote this, such a revolution freed Luxemburg from prison and destroyed the German Empire. She did not yet draw all the necessary conclusions from her critique of social patriotism. It was only during the revolution that she understood the need for a complete break with social chauvinists, and the transformation of the imperialist war into civil war.
This is a fascinating pamphlet to read, along with Lenin's commentary, in a time when social patriotism is sweeping the Left.
With biting prose and a profound knowledge of geopolitics, Luxemburg demolished all the myths being told about the war. How did she pull this off without access to a large library? I have no idea. She explained how inner-imperialist competition led directly to mass murder. Every side claimed to be acting in "self-defense" — Luxemburg showed how every side was in fact out for conquest. Even small countries such as Belgium and Serbia, attacked by aggressive neighbors, were part of the imperialist scramble to control the world. This is why real socialists, even in Belgium and Serbia, opposed "national defense."
But as Lenin pointed out, Luxemburg was not radical enough. She explained how the working class, organized in a socialist movement, could use class struggle to end the war. But this pamphlet shows no understanding of how the war was sharpening capitalism's contradictions to the point where they would explode in revolution. Just three years after she wrote this, such a revolution freed Luxemburg from prison and destroyed the German Empire. She did not yet draw all the necessary conclusions from her critique of social patriotism. It was only during the revolution that she understood the need for a complete break with social chauvinists, and the transformation of the imperialist war into civil war.
This is a fascinating pamphlet to read, along with Lenin's commentary, in a time when social patriotism is sweeping the Left.
September 23, 2022
Uno de los atributos que más respeto en los libros es su capacidad para continuar vigentes, incluso aunque el contexto en el que se redactaron y en el que se colocaron haya sido hace mucho tiempo. Este libro en particular resulta muy vigente, en el contexto actual de la invasión a Ucrania.
August 31, 2024
El 1914, el Partit Socialdemòcrata Alemany (SPD) (el que havia sigut el partit de Luxemburg i l’esperança de la revolució mundial) va votar a favor dels pressupostos de guerra, traint al proletariat alemany i mundial, abandonant la seva tradició internacionalista, cedint davant l’imperialisme i avantposant els interessos de “la pàtria” per sobre dels del socialisme.
És en aquest context que des de la presó Luxemburg escriu aquest text que és tan actual que posa la pell de gallina. Contra la defensa de la pàtria, unió proletària internacional i “guerra a la guerra”. Luxemburg exposa les condicions materials que han portat a la guerra tot explicant les relacions imperialistes entre països europeus des de final del sXIX fins al moment que escriu: l’inici de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Anticipa, a més, que el final de la guerra serà “el preludio de una pròxima Segunda Guerra Mundial” (això escrit el 1914-15!!!).
Algunes cites:
“La guerra mundial comenzada oficialmente el 4 de agosto era la misma por la que trabajaba incansablemente desde hacía décadas la política imperialista alemana e internacional...” (p88)
“La socialdemocracia no llevo al proletariado moderno a la lucha de clases. Por el contrario, la lucha de clases creó el movimiento socialdemócrata internacional para darle objetivos y unidad conscientes a los distintos fragmentos locales y dispersos de la lucha de clases” (p 109)
“Para el proletariado europeo en tanto classe, la victoria o derrota de cualquiera de los dos bandos sería igualment desastrosa. Porque la guerra en sí, cualquiera que sea su resultado militar, es la peor derrota que puede sufrir el proletariado europeo” (p156)
“El dominio mundial del imperialismo es una necesidad histórica, que la Internacional proletaria lo derribe también lo es. Las dos necesidades históricas coexisten en constante conflicto. Nuestra necesidad es el socialismo” (p 158)
Petonets internacionalistes i guerra a la guerra!
És en aquest context que des de la presó Luxemburg escriu aquest text que és tan actual que posa la pell de gallina. Contra la defensa de la pàtria, unió proletària internacional i “guerra a la guerra”. Luxemburg exposa les condicions materials que han portat a la guerra tot explicant les relacions imperialistes entre països europeus des de final del sXIX fins al moment que escriu: l’inici de la Primera Guerra Mundial. Anticipa, a més, que el final de la guerra serà “el preludio de una pròxima Segunda Guerra Mundial” (això escrit el 1914-15!!!).
Algunes cites:
“La guerra mundial comenzada oficialmente el 4 de agosto era la misma por la que trabajaba incansablemente desde hacía décadas la política imperialista alemana e internacional...” (p88)
“La socialdemocracia no llevo al proletariado moderno a la lucha de clases. Por el contrario, la lucha de clases creó el movimiento socialdemócrata internacional para darle objetivos y unidad conscientes a los distintos fragmentos locales y dispersos de la lucha de clases” (p 109)
“Para el proletariado europeo en tanto classe, la victoria o derrota de cualquiera de los dos bandos sería igualment desastrosa. Porque la guerra en sí, cualquiera que sea su resultado militar, es la peor derrota que puede sufrir el proletariado europeo” (p156)
“El dominio mundial del imperialismo es una necesidad histórica, que la Internacional proletaria lo derribe también lo es. Las dos necesidades históricas coexisten en constante conflicto. Nuestra necesidad es el socialismo” (p 158)
Petonets internacionalistes i guerra a la guerra!
November 21, 2021
Rosa Luxemburgo deja negro sobre blanco de quien estaba el grueso de la “intelectualidad socialdemócrata” en la Gran Guerra al mismo tiempo que describe muy bien las dinámicas económico-militares del imperialismo como fase del capitalismo. Muy recomendable después de “El imperialismo, fase superior del capitalismo”.
March 25, 2022
sirvió coño
August 11, 2022
la amo
February 16, 2023
Lyrical. We must measure the depth of our fall if failure is not to become defeat.
September 8, 2025
Picked this up from my dusty bookshelves to remind myself what an old-fashioned, full-blooded political polemic looks like. Luxemburg had every reason to bring her emotions to the boil at the time it was written - between February and April 1915 - as the evidence of the consequences of social democracy's capitulation to the forces pushing for war were becoming so starkly clear.
She sets out her case across eight chapters which have the common theme of the damage done to the internationalist socialist movement by the vote of the parliamentary faction of the German social democratic party (SDP) for the credits which initiated the launching of the first world war. For 45 years the party had agitated against warfare. The parliamentarians had set out the claim that this time it was different and Germany found itself in a fight for national survival and that this required the suspension of class struggle. The new policy was represented as 'burgfriede' - derived from the medieval period which literally meant the suspension of civil conflict whilst the castle was under siege.
Luxemburg makes it clear that Germany was not an innocent victim of the great power machinations of France, England and Russia. As an energetic rising capitalist power it found its options for further development hemmed in by the dominance established over European affairs established over a longer period by the English and the French. Led by Prussia, the country's ruling elites looked for opportunities to out-manoeuvrer its rivals in Turkey, Mesopotamia, the Balkans and North Africa, working in concert with its one reliable ally in Austria. As tensions built up, the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist in Sarajevo provided the trigger for the conflagration.
Luxemburg reviews the record of the SDP in relation to other crisis points over the previous period find finds in that a solid statement of principle which should have informed the parliamentary faction when it came to 1914. But she also extends Marxist theory to develop her own position on imperialism which really becomes the vital part of her argument. As capitalism across a set of nations moves into its mature phase it begins to encounter the problem of market saturation - where the opportunity to invest profits becomes more limited by competition between rival capitalist blocs. The solution is to reach outwards into relatively under-developed regions where investments would achieve higher rates of return. But the late-comer to this competitive process finds that even here the old powers have their footmarks at every nook and cranny. At this point economic competition moves into diplomacy between nations, and when this breaks down, into open warfare. For Luxemburg, this was the thing driving Europe and then the rest of the world into warfare, and not the defence of the integrity of a national community.
There are reasons to feel uneasy about some of her assertions that derive from this argument. Among these is her insistence that the age of struggles for national self-determination where no longer legitimate because everything now reach out directly into imperial conflict. I'm not sure if she ever gave any consideration to the uprising against Britain's subjugation of Ireland which broke out in 1916 but that pointed to the fact that the national-democratic phase of social revolution still extended into the 20th century. In the 21st century she would surely have to contend with the legitimate wishes of Ukraine to be finally free of its subservience to the Russian empire.
Whatever has to be revisited with regard to points of Marxist theory, Luxemburg's writings remain a model of how polemics can be both vigorous in terms of points of principle, and also highly relevant to the practical issues of the day.
She sets out her case across eight chapters which have the common theme of the damage done to the internationalist socialist movement by the vote of the parliamentary faction of the German social democratic party (SDP) for the credits which initiated the launching of the first world war. For 45 years the party had agitated against warfare. The parliamentarians had set out the claim that this time it was different and Germany found itself in a fight for national survival and that this required the suspension of class struggle. The new policy was represented as 'burgfriede' - derived from the medieval period which literally meant the suspension of civil conflict whilst the castle was under siege.
Luxemburg makes it clear that Germany was not an innocent victim of the great power machinations of France, England and Russia. As an energetic rising capitalist power it found its options for further development hemmed in by the dominance established over European affairs established over a longer period by the English and the French. Led by Prussia, the country's ruling elites looked for opportunities to out-manoeuvrer its rivals in Turkey, Mesopotamia, the Balkans and North Africa, working in concert with its one reliable ally in Austria. As tensions built up, the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand by a Serb nationalist in Sarajevo provided the trigger for the conflagration.
Luxemburg reviews the record of the SDP in relation to other crisis points over the previous period find finds in that a solid statement of principle which should have informed the parliamentary faction when it came to 1914. But she also extends Marxist theory to develop her own position on imperialism which really becomes the vital part of her argument. As capitalism across a set of nations moves into its mature phase it begins to encounter the problem of market saturation - where the opportunity to invest profits becomes more limited by competition between rival capitalist blocs. The solution is to reach outwards into relatively under-developed regions where investments would achieve higher rates of return. But the late-comer to this competitive process finds that even here the old powers have their footmarks at every nook and cranny. At this point economic competition moves into diplomacy between nations, and when this breaks down, into open warfare. For Luxemburg, this was the thing driving Europe and then the rest of the world into warfare, and not the defence of the integrity of a national community.
There are reasons to feel uneasy about some of her assertions that derive from this argument. Among these is her insistence that the age of struggles for national self-determination where no longer legitimate because everything now reach out directly into imperial conflict. I'm not sure if she ever gave any consideration to the uprising against Britain's subjugation of Ireland which broke out in 1916 but that pointed to the fact that the national-democratic phase of social revolution still extended into the 20th century. In the 21st century she would surely have to contend with the legitimate wishes of Ukraine to be finally free of its subservience to the Russian empire.
Whatever has to be revisited with regard to points of Marxist theory, Luxemburg's writings remain a model of how polemics can be both vigorous in terms of points of principle, and also highly relevant to the practical issues of the day.
June 2, 2025
„Dasselbe tragische Quidproquo passierte der Sozialdemokratie, wenn sie sich zur Begründung ihrer Haltung in diesem Kriege auf das Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Nationen beruft. Es ist wahr: Der Sozialismus gesteht jedem Volke das Recht auf Unabhängigkeit und Freiheit, auf selbständige Verfügung über die eigenen Geschicke zu. Aber es ist ein wahrer Hohn auf den Sozialismus, wenn die heutigen kapitalistischen Staaten als der Ausdruck dieses Selbstbestimmungsrechts der Nationen hingestellt werden. In welchem dieser Staaten hat denn die Nation bis jetzt über die Formen und Bedingungen seines nationalen, politischen, oder sozialen Daseins bestimmt?
[…]
Solange kapitalistische Staaten bestehen, namentlich solange die imperialistische Weltpolitik das innere und äußere Leben der Staaten bestimmt und gestaltet, hat das nationale Selbstbestimmungsrecht mit ihrer Praxis im Krieg wie im Frieden nicht das geringste gemein.
Noch mehr: In dem heutigen imperialistischen Milieu kann es überhaupt keine nationalen Verteidigungskriege mehr geben, und jede sozialistische Politik, die von diesem bestimmenden historischen Milieu absieht, die sich mitten im Weltstrudel nur von den isolierten Gesichtspunkten eines Landes leiten lassen will, ist von vornherein auf Sand gebaut.
[…]
Die französischen Sozialisten waren in ihre Illusion von der „nationalen Verteidigung” besonders durch die Tatsache hineingetrieben worden, daß die französische Regierung wie das ganze Volk im Juli 1914 nicht die geringsten Kriegsabsichten hatten. „In Frankreich sind heute alle aufrichtig und ehrlich, rückhaltlos und vorbehaltlos für den Frieden”, bezeugte Jaurès in der letzten Rede seines Lebens, am Vorabend des Krieges im Brüsseler Volkshaus. Die Tatsache stimmt vollkommen, und sie kann psychologisch die Entrüstung begreiflich machen, die sich der französischen Sozialisten bemächtigt hatte, als der verbrecherische Krieg ihrem Lande aufgezwungen wurde. Aber zur Beurteilung des Weltkrieges als einer historischen Erscheinung und zur Stellungnahme der proletarischen Politik ihm gegenüber reicht die Tatsache nicht aus. Die Geschichte, aus der der heutige Krieg geboren wurde, begann nicht erst im Juli 1914, sondern sie reicht Jahrzehnte zurück, wo sich Faden an Faden mit der Notwendigkeit eines Naturgesetzes knüpfte, bis das dichtmaschige Netz der imperialistischen Weltpolitik fünf Weltteile umstrickt hatte – ein gewaltiger historischer Komplex von Erscheinungen, deren Wurzeln in die plutonischen Tiefen des ökonomischen Werdens hinabreichen, deren äußerste Zweige in die undeutlich heraufdämmernde neue Welt hinüberwinken, Erscheinungen, bei deren umfassender Größe die Begriffe von Schuld und Sühne, von Verteidigung und Angriff wesenlos verblassen.
Die imperialistische Politik ist nicht das Werk irgendeines oder einiger Staaten, sie ist das Produkt eines bestimmten Reifegrads in der Weltentwicklung des Kapitals, eine von Hause aus internationale Erscheinung, ein unteilbares Ganzes, das nur in allen seinen Wechselbeziehungen erkennbar ist und dem sich kein einzelner Staat zu entziehen vermag.“
(GW 4, S. 134-137)
[…]
Solange kapitalistische Staaten bestehen, namentlich solange die imperialistische Weltpolitik das innere und äußere Leben der Staaten bestimmt und gestaltet, hat das nationale Selbstbestimmungsrecht mit ihrer Praxis im Krieg wie im Frieden nicht das geringste gemein.
Noch mehr: In dem heutigen imperialistischen Milieu kann es überhaupt keine nationalen Verteidigungskriege mehr geben, und jede sozialistische Politik, die von diesem bestimmenden historischen Milieu absieht, die sich mitten im Weltstrudel nur von den isolierten Gesichtspunkten eines Landes leiten lassen will, ist von vornherein auf Sand gebaut.
[…]
Die französischen Sozialisten waren in ihre Illusion von der „nationalen Verteidigung” besonders durch die Tatsache hineingetrieben worden, daß die französische Regierung wie das ganze Volk im Juli 1914 nicht die geringsten Kriegsabsichten hatten. „In Frankreich sind heute alle aufrichtig und ehrlich, rückhaltlos und vorbehaltlos für den Frieden”, bezeugte Jaurès in der letzten Rede seines Lebens, am Vorabend des Krieges im Brüsseler Volkshaus. Die Tatsache stimmt vollkommen, und sie kann psychologisch die Entrüstung begreiflich machen, die sich der französischen Sozialisten bemächtigt hatte, als der verbrecherische Krieg ihrem Lande aufgezwungen wurde. Aber zur Beurteilung des Weltkrieges als einer historischen Erscheinung und zur Stellungnahme der proletarischen Politik ihm gegenüber reicht die Tatsache nicht aus. Die Geschichte, aus der der heutige Krieg geboren wurde, begann nicht erst im Juli 1914, sondern sie reicht Jahrzehnte zurück, wo sich Faden an Faden mit der Notwendigkeit eines Naturgesetzes knüpfte, bis das dichtmaschige Netz der imperialistischen Weltpolitik fünf Weltteile umstrickt hatte – ein gewaltiger historischer Komplex von Erscheinungen, deren Wurzeln in die plutonischen Tiefen des ökonomischen Werdens hinabreichen, deren äußerste Zweige in die undeutlich heraufdämmernde neue Welt hinüberwinken, Erscheinungen, bei deren umfassender Größe die Begriffe von Schuld und Sühne, von Verteidigung und Angriff wesenlos verblassen.
Die imperialistische Politik ist nicht das Werk irgendeines oder einiger Staaten, sie ist das Produkt eines bestimmten Reifegrads in der Weltentwicklung des Kapitals, eine von Hause aus internationale Erscheinung, ein unteilbares Ganzes, das nur in allen seinen Wechselbeziehungen erkennbar ist und dem sich kein einzelner Staat zu entziehen vermag.“
(GW 4, S. 134-137)
April 19, 2024
Ahora que vuelven a sonar tambores de guerra en Europa es imprescindible recordar que las guerras imperialistas son el negocio de unos pocos a costa del exterminio de los trabajadores; que no podemos caer en "la hipocresía burguesa que lleva a cada nación a reconocer la infamia solamente cuando viste el uniforme de la otra"; que en vez de sumarnos a la guerra imperialista debemos destruir al estado que nos mete en ella, y que no es la primera vez que esto ocurre, que tenemos experiencias previas de las que aprender.
Rosa explica con claridad la situación del imperialismo europeo previo a la primera guerra mundial, la traición de la socialdemocracia alemana apoyando los presupuestos de guerra y las primeras consecuencias de la guerra para la clase obrera y su lucha.
"La demencia de la guerra no tendrá fin, la sangrienta pesadilla del infierno no cesará hasta que los obreros de Alemania, de Francia, de Rusia y de Gran Bretaña despierten de su delirio; se estrechen fraternalmente las manos y ahoguen al coro brutal de los agitadores belicistas y el grito ronco de las hienas capitalistas en el poderoso grito del trabajo: «¡Proletarios de todos los países, uníos!»".
Rosa explica con claridad la situación del imperialismo europeo previo a la primera guerra mundial, la traición de la socialdemocracia alemana apoyando los presupuestos de guerra y las primeras consecuencias de la guerra para la clase obrera y su lucha.
"La demencia de la guerra no tendrá fin, la sangrienta pesadilla del infierno no cesará hasta que los obreros de Alemania, de Francia, de Rusia y de Gran Bretaña despierten de su delirio; se estrechen fraternalmente las manos y ahoguen al coro brutal de los agitadores belicistas y el grito ronco de las hienas capitalistas en el poderoso grito del trabajo: «¡Proletarios de todos los países, uníos!»".
April 6, 2023
Tremendas intuiciones sobre qué significaba la IGM, pero también interesantísimo para ver cómo hila esto Luxemburgo con sus posiciones sobre el papel del Partido, la idea de vanguardia y la de acción espontánea de masas. La acción de masas estalla por su cuenta y en el momento apropiado, no hay recetas, solo una disposición, unas fuerzas, las consignas apropiadas, la idea de una integración con la totalidad para entender el conflicto que sólo está en el proletariado como portador de una ventana epistemológica privilegiada a la que la burguesía en el poder no puede acceder, tampoco en la guerra imperial. La idea de Unión Sagrada como el Partido del Capital en tiempos de guerra. La incomprensión de la socialdemocracia y su idea de protección de la Kultur y El Progreso. Muy apropiado y muy maduro.
January 1, 2025
El análisis que acá se desplega del comunismo internacional y de las perspectivas del materialismo histórico es excelente. No sólo es un despliegue histórico sobre, desde el marxismo, las condiciones que llevaron a la primera guerra mundial, sino también un despliegue teórico político del papel del Partido de los obreros en el contexto de la guerra, del imperialismo y de la relación entre pueblos.
Destaca mucho la inferioridad que se expresa sobre los pueblos aún no capitalistas, el materialismo histórico muestra claras jerarquías, pues finalmente el proletariado es masas (fuerza) y cultura (dirección); nada pueden las dominaciones antiguas ante un sistema como el capitalismo.
Cada predicción sobre el camino del Socialismo Internacional es fallida; ni su victoria era inminente, ni estamos ad portas de la revolución.
Destaca mucho la inferioridad que se expresa sobre los pueblos aún no capitalistas, el materialismo histórico muestra claras jerarquías, pues finalmente el proletariado es masas (fuerza) y cultura (dirección); nada pueden las dominaciones antiguas ante un sistema como el capitalismo.
Cada predicción sobre el camino del Socialismo Internacional es fallida; ni su victoria era inminente, ni estamos ad portas de la revolución.
January 21, 2021
A damning historical account of the nature of imperial power-games and the role of German Social Demcoracy in fomenting them at the expense of those whose interests they claimed to represent. While *arguably* "anachronistic" in some of its extraneous detail, this work carries lessons on the nature of pragmatic political compromise which remain relevant to the present day insofar as "social democratic" regimes continue to capitulate to the worst impulses of capital, from Tony Blair's "New Labour" to Syriza's role in Greek austerity politics.
August 31, 2025
A más de un siglo, el texto de Luxemburgo conserva plena vigencia. La crisis de la socialdemocracia no solo explica el colapso de un partido obrero en 1914, sino que ofrece claves para entender los grandes conflictos y transformaciones del siglo XX. Su crítica sigue siendo un recordatorio de que, en la historia, las buenas ideas pueden sucumbir si no enfrentan las estructuras materiales que las condicionan.
November 27, 2024
Came to this organically in the context of the escalating tension between NATO and Russia. One of the most important anti-war, anti-imperialist texts from the WW1. Gets to the heart of what it means to be a socialist and the responsibility of socialists to oppose the violence of capitalist-imperialism.
January 19, 2025
It's alright.
It's kinda short for such a heavy topic, though that's to be expected from a pamphlet.
It was not correct in it's assessment that democracy is over:
though the conclusion of which it gains from this is very insightful and interesting.
I don't believe it to be that bad of a work, though it's somewhat not applicable.
I enjoyed it, however :)
It's kinda short for such a heavy topic, though that's to be expected from a pamphlet.
It was not correct in it's assessment that democracy is over:
though the conclusion of which it gains from this is very insightful and interesting.
I don't believe it to be that bad of a work, though it's somewhat not applicable.
I enjoyed it, however :)
December 17, 2025
En una época donde el miedo a una próxima guerra mundial está al orden del día (o eso nos hacen creer), es necesario leer a quienes - desde su experiencia - nos ilustraron sobre verdaderos intereses de aquellos que las provocan.
July 24, 2022
Luxemburg's radical call to international proletarian organization against imperialism of all forms.
(may expand later)
(may expand later)
January 3, 2024
Absoluto banger
May 7, 2024
No tiene un libro malo, es mi madre lit
April 1, 2025
One of the greatest political pamphlets I have ever read.
April 9, 2025
Es impresionante como el PSOE y sobre todo Sumar lleva tantos años vivo, demasiados
May 1, 2025
phenomenal analysis and overview of SPDs capitulation and the lead up to ww1. very relevant for today
Read
June 1, 2025Still relevant 👀
June 21, 2025
Me ha encantado, me encanta su visión de la Internacional en tiempos de guerra. Debería ser lectura obligatoria del instituto!
March 1, 2025
rosa wapa
September 15, 2019
Luxemburg puts all her convictions on the table. Her opinion on the state of Europe, the world, the 1st world war, and what communists can do with all this.
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