Keywords:
Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Marx, revolutionary Realpolitik, socialism, working class, capitalism
Abstract
Marx died on March 14, 1883. Exactly twenty years later, on March 14, 1903, Rosa Luxemburg’s reflections on Karl Marx were published in German in Vorwärts, the newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. tripleC publishes an English translation of Luxemburg’s essay on the occasion of Marx’s bicentenary. Christian Fuchs’ postface “Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg” asks the question of how we can make sense of Rosa Luxemburg’s reading of Marx in 2018. Source of the German original: Luxemburg, Rosa. 1903. Karl Marx. Vorwärts 62: 1-2.
Author Biography
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was a leading socialist politician, Marxist theorist, anti-militarist and proponent of democratic socialism. She opposed the First World War, which led to her and Karl Liebknecht’s departure from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and their founding of the Spartacus League. Luxemburg opposed war, nationalism and imperialism and wrote on issues such as the relationship of reform and revolution, the mass strike as political strategy, war and peace, the logic and development of capitalism, the Russian Revolution, or theory and praxis. Among her most important publications are Reform or Revolution (1899); The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions (1906); The National Question (1908/1909); Introduction to Political Economy (1909/1910); The Accumulation of Capital (1913); The Crisis of Social Democracy (The Junius Pamphlet) (1916); The Russian Revolu- tion (1918). On January 15, 1919, right-wing extremist paramilitaries murdered Rosa Luxem- burg and Karl Liebknecht. Luxemburg has until today remained a highly influential figure in socialist politics and theory.
Section
Karl Marx @ 200: Debating Capitalism & Perspectives for the Future of Radical Theory
