Rosa Luxemburg

Hipster reformism and the technological fix

Bruce Robinson reviews Aaron Bastani's 'Fully Automated Luxury Communism' Back in 2013-14 there was a lot of excitement on the left about “left accelerationism” and the prospect of a transition to a “post-capitalism” fuelled by technological advances based on information. Aaron Bastani coined the meme of “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” (FALC), and it led a fitful life on the Internet. It has now returned in the form of a book which sets out to be a manifesto. Since 2015 Bastani has moved from a politics rooted in “post-workerist” thinkers to become a born-again supporter of Jeremy Corbyn...

AUDIO: The Rosa Luxemburg collection

Now online here , audio files which include • An introduction to Rosa Luxemburg's life and works, a talk taken from the AWL London forum on 18 January 2019. • An introduction to 'The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions', published in 1906. • Workers' Liberty's pamphlet 'The German Revolution, selected writings of Rosa Luxemburg'. The pamphlet can also be purchased here .

AUDIO: The Mass Strike

In the centenary year of the murder of revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg, listen to this introduction to her pamphlet 'The Mass Strike, the Political Party and the Trade Unions', published in 1906. Taken from a talk at the AWL London forum on 18 January 2019. Follow us on Soundcloud

Rosa Luxemburg and imperialism

Rosa Luxemburg considered her most important contribution to be her book, The Accumulation of Capital, published in 1913. The legacy of the Polish­-German revolutionary socialist leader who was murdered by a right­-wing militia operating under the aegis of a Social­ Democratic government just over 100 years ago has come down to us through a haze of sentimental misrepresentation and selective republishing, but now can and should be reconsidered. For decades the two most widely ­available texts from Luxemburg were critical notes on the Bolshevik revolution, drafted in jail in 1918, and not...

Reading about Rosa Luxemburg

As we go to press on 15 January 2019, it is exactly the 100th anniversary of the murder of the Polish¬German revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg. She was killed by a right-wing militia operating under the Social¬Democratic government which was heading off the German workers’ revolution. We have a pamphlet in production on Luxemburg and the German revolution. Readers can also find a good summary of Luxemburg’s political work in two articles, from 1935 and 1938 , by Max Shachtman. The 1938 article is in print as an item in our book In Defence of Bolshevism . Much more on Rosa Luxemburg on our...

Revolution in Germany, 1918

In November 1918, German workers overthrew the imperial government and ended the First World War. What began as a sailors’ revolt within weeks saw workers’ councils take charge of various German cities. A social democratic government took power amidst a situation of dual power. The revolution, however, would be defeated, or at least limited to the replacement of the old monarchist government by a parliamentary democracy, and a parliamentary democracy so flawed that it would within 15 years fall to the Nazis. At the end of October 1918, the German admirals decided on a last-gasp operation...

Luxemburg, economics, crises, and the national question

This article seeks to review and reflect on the two volumes of Rosa Luxemburg's Complete Works published so far. Only a scattering - a much thicker scattering since the 1970s, but still a scattering - of Luxemburg's writings have been available in English until now. Since the 1970s there has been a "Collected Works" in German. Even that misses out a lot. The new Complete Works, edited by Peter Hudis, will be fourteen volumes. As Hudis explained in an article in Solidarity 356 (11/3/15: bit.ly/hudis-rl), "given the amount of time, care, and attention that she gave to developing her major...

Glory o, glory o, to the bold Bolsheviks

The Russian Revolution has had all sorts of things grafted onto the image it projects to us. But what was it in reality? In the revolution, the workers and the farmers — and the soldiers who were mainly peasants — revolted against the ruling classes and the war. This was a tremendously democratic movement. It was a movement that created soviets, that is workers’ councils. No powerful state made the revolution. It was the people, the workers, the red guards in St Petersburg and Moscow, the factory militias. What they thought they were doing was liberating themselves from all future class rule...

Badges, postcards and posters!

Workers' Liberty is producing a range of badges, postcards and posters to help our fundraising drive. Badges Wear your revolutionary heart on your sleeve (or jumper) with our set of five badges — Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Leon Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg and Eleanor Marx. 50p each when sold in person. Order a set of 5 online for £2.50 including postage. UK orders only, for international orders please email office@workersliberty.org to work out postage costs Postcards A set of 5 postcards with quotes from Rosa Luxemburg, Leon Trotsky, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Eleanor Marx. 50p each when...

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