Home

Luxemburg Rosa 1871 - 1919 (48)

Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.


QUOTES

Political Writings

“People who pronounce themselves in favor of the method of legislative reform in place of and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society. . . . Our program becomes not the realization of Socialism, but the reform of capitalism; not the suppression of the system of wage labor, but the diminution of exploitation, that is, the suppression of the abuses of capitalism instead of the suppression of capitalism itself.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)was a Polish socialist and revolutionary, ideological leader of the so-called "ecumenical face of socialism." He was born in the Russian-occupied Poland on March 5, 1871, the fifth child of a very poor Jewish family. Because of the miserable conditions and lack of food, she wasn’t properly developed and had a lame leg and health problems throughout her life. Since 1882, the family had moved to Warsaw, and Rosa became entangled in the political affairs of the left-wing "Proletariat". In 1886 the party was declared illegal and its four leaders were executed. She does not abandon the party and at the age of 18 she moved to Zutich in order to escape arrest. She studied political science, law and history and came into contact with the Polish and Russian dissidents, refugees. In 1892, she was the main editor of the unlawful journal of the Communist party in Poland, which was typified in Paris, and in 1894 the Proletariat was renamed as Socialist Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland; Rosa emerged as its leader.

In 1898 she got her Ph.D. from the University of Zurich and settled in Berlin writing revolutionary articles in communists’ magazines and newspapers. In 1899 she published the text "Social Reform or Revolution" and with his rhetorical skill she soon became a leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In 1903 she criticized Lenin for his efforts to assemble all power. During the Russian revolution of 1905 she disagreed with the tactics of the Bolsheviks and broke up with Russian communism. By 1905 she had been imprisoned three times because of her articles against the German emperor. In December 1905, she illegally entered Poland to help the country's extremist movement. She was arrested in March 1906 and stayed for 4 months in prison. Returning to Germany, she spoke in front of a large crowd about the need for a revolution like that of Russia. She was arrested and spent two months in prison.

In 1907 she took part in the Convention of the Socialist International in London and in the following years she wrote several essays against capitalism. During World War I she founded the "Spartacus" Union for the immediate end of the war and called people to a general strike against the war; for that she was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. She continued to oppose the war and spend most of her time in prison. On November 8, 1917, the German revolutionaries liberated her as the labor and military revolutionary councils had occupied much of West Germany in order to establish a council democracy, like the soviet one. The far-right party however reconstituted and together with the generals of the old emperor, managed to stifle the working class movement by killing thousands of workers. On January 15, 1919, they arrested Luxemburg in Berlin and murdered her by hammering her head with their rifles. Her body was thrown into a canal.