banjobutch:Happy birthday, Rosa Luxemburg! (March 5, 1871)A Marxist economist, philosopher, and revo
banjobutch:Happy birthday, Rosa Luxemburg! (March 5, 1871)A Marxist economist, philosopher, and revolutionary of Polish origin and Jewish descent, Rosa Luxemburg became a socialist at a young age, joining the Polish Proletariat Party at 15 and helping to organize a general strike, which led to the execution of several Proletariat leaders. Fleeing to Switzerland, Luxemburg studied and earned her doctorate, unusual for a woman in those days. Becoming involved in the international socialist movement, Luxemburg’s ideas put her at odds with some other leading socialists such as Lenin, although they always maintained a mutual respect. Moving to Germany, Luxemburg became active in the Social Democratic Party’s left wing, opposed to the revisionist and reformist program of centrist Marxists such as Eduard Bernstein, writing the pamphlet Reform or Revolution in response and criticism to Bernstein’s ideas. As the SPD declared support for the German government in World War I, Luxemburg and other revolutionaries of the SPD left wing split and formed the Spartacus League, which would eventually become the Communist Party of Germany. As Germany plunged into chaos following the war, the Sparticists seized the opportunity to rise up in revolution, sparking socialist uprisings in Berlin. These were put down by the SPD government of newly republican Germany, which sent in the proto-fascist Freikorps paramilitaries, which captured socialist leaders including Karl Liebknecht and Luxemburg, murdering them.“The masses are the decisive element, they are the rock on which the final victory of the revolution will be built. The masses were on the heights; they have developed this ‘defeat’ into one of the historical defeats which are the pride and strength of international socialism. And that is why the future victory will bloom from this ‘defeat’. 'Order reigns in Berlin!’ You stupid henchmen! Your ‘order’ is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will already ‘raise itself with a rattle’ and announce with fanfare, to your terror: I was, I am, I will be!” -- source link