Source: Le Socialisme, March 15, 1908, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Marx’s death. Translated: from the French for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
It is generally only after their death that the scientific value of most great thinkers is fully recognized. Time gives them their full importance.
But there is a very particular reason why, as the day on which we lost the author retreats further into the past, Marxist theory increasingly penetrates social strata and finds new partisans.
Marxist theory is nothing but the scientific reflex of the class struggle engendered by capitalism with the inevitability of a law of nature.
The continuous extension and the growing strength of this theory are consequences of the la... (From: Marxists.org.) ‘Every society which grows must expand its productive apparatus every year. This will be a necessity for the future socialist society as much as it is for the present capitalist society, or as it was for the simple commodity-production and peasant economy of the past, which produced for its own need.’[1]
Here, in a nutshell, is Bauer’s solution to the problem of accumulation. In order to accumulate, capital needs a steadily increasing outlet to make the realization of surplus value possible. Where does the outlet come from? Bauer answers: the population in capitalist society grows, like that in any other society, thus increasing the demand for commodities and giving the foundation for accumulation in general. ‘In ... (From: Marxists.org.) Rodbertus digs deeper than v. Kirchmann. He looks for the roots of evil in the very foundations of social organization and declares bitter war on the predominant Free Trade school – not against a system of unrestricted commodity circulation or the freedom of trade which he fully accepts, but against the Manchester doctrine of laissez-faire within the internal social relations of economy. At that time, after the period of storm and stress of classical economics, a system of unscrupulous apologetics was already in full sway which found its most perfect expression in the ‘doctrine of harmony’ of M. Frédéric Bastiat, the famous vulgarian and idol of all Philistines, and quite soon the various Schultzes were to fl... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Die Rote Fahne, November 27th, 1918. Source: Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Political Writings, edited and introduced by Robert Looker, pp.271-4. Translated: (from the German) W.D. Graf. Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins with special thanks to Robert Looker for help with permissions. Copyright: Random House, 1972, ISBN/ISSN: 0224005960. Printed with the permission of Random House. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
The charming little plan for a dignified, peaceable, ‘constitutional’ German revolution which preserves ‘law and order’, and which regards as its primary and most urgent task the protection of capitalist private property – this little plan is going to pot: A... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Le Socialisme, September 9, 1911. Translated: for marxists.org for Mitch Abidor.
Dear Citizens:
In a recent issue of Socialisme (no. 194, September 2) I read in the article by Citizen Compére-Morel, The Socialists and War, the following lines:
“To be sure, we don’t dispute that the majority, the overwhelming majority of the Mannheim Congress, lined up behind Bebel, refused to take into consideration a motion of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht who, in Germany, carry on a campaign like that carried on in France by Hervé in favor of the theories exposed in 1893 by the Dutchman Domela Nieuwenhuis at the International Congress of Zurich, tending to create a special anti-militarist committee wit... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: (in French) in Le Mouvement socialiste, 1 January 1903 (in response to a questionnaire). Source: The Social Democrat, August 1903. Transcription/Markup: Adam Buick/B. Baggins. Copyleft: Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
I. The Church under the Monarchy and under the Republic
When one speaks of an anti-clerical policy of Socialism, it is evident that it is not intended to attack religious convictions from a Socialistic point of view. The religion of the masses will only completely disappear with the society of today, when man, instead of being dominated by the social process, will dominate... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Die Rote Fahne, November 18th, 1918. Source: Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Political Writings, edited and introduced by Robert Looker, pp.253-7. Translated: (from the German) W.D. Graf. Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins with special thanks to Robert Looker for help with permissions. Copyright: Random House, 1972, ISBN/ISSN: 0224005960. Printed with the permission of Random House. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
The revolution has begun. What is called for now is not jubilation at was has been accomplished, not triumph over the beaten foe, but the strictest self-criticism and iron concentration of energy in order to continue the work we have begun. For our accomplishments are small and the foe h... (From: Marxists.org.) Originally published: in Polish in Czerwony Sztandar, No.86, June 1906. [1*] Translated: Peter Manson (from French).
This translation from Weekly Worker, No.753, 22 January 2009.
Copied with thanks from the CPGB/Weekly Worker Website. Marked up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Comrade Plekhanov has published an exhaustive article in the Courrier entitled, How far does the right go?, in which he accuses the Bolsheviks of Blanquism.
It is not incumbent upon us to defend the Russian comrades upon whom comrade Plekhanov rains the blows of his erudition and dialectic. They are perfectly capable of doing so themselves. But it is worth commenting on certain remarks which our readers too will find of int... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: Late November, 1918. First Published: Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), November 25, 1918. Translated: (from the German) by A. Lehrer. Transcription/Markup: A. Lehrer/Brian Baggins. Copyleft: Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2002, 2003. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
PROLETARIANS! Men and Women of Labor! Comrades!
The revolution in Germany has come! The masses of the soldiers who for years were driven to slaughter for the sake of capitalistic profits; the masses of workers, who for four years were exploited, crushed, and starved, have revolted. Prussian militarism, that fearful tool of oppression, that scourge of humanity – lies... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Leipziger Volkszeitung, July 24th, 1911. Source: Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Political Writings, edited and introduced by Robert Looker. Translated: (from the German) W.D. Graf. Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins with special thanks to Robert Looker for help with permissions. Copyright: Random House, 1972, ISBN/ISSN: 0224005960. Printed with the permission of Random House. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
Because of the Morocco Affair, as is well known, it has occurred to a number of our French comrades that an international socialist demonstration against the militaristic colonial adventure is called for. This would be arranged by the organ competent for such matters, the International Sociali... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: An illegal leaflet from May 1916. [1] Source: https://www.marxists.org/deutsch/archiv/luxemburg/1916/05/hundepol.htm. German original: Institute for Marxism-Leninism of the Central Committee of the SED, Central Party Archive, D.F. V/14. Translated from German: Schummelpilz, Amadanny. Redaction, Editing and Formatting: Luka, Schummelpilz. Markup: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Editors’ Note: As the member of the Reichstag, Liebknecht had parliamentary immunity from prosecution. When the military judicial authorities demanded that this immunity be removed for organizing an anti-war demonstration on May the 1st (which was a huge success, with 10,000 attendants and clashes with the police)... (From: Marxists.org.) Originally Written: April 30, 1913 Source: The Communist, Vol. VII, No. 5, May 1928, pp. 262-264. Publisher: Workers (Communist) Party of America Transcribed/HTML Markup: Brian Reid Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.
[The May Day article printed below was written by Rosa Luxemburg for May Day, 1913, a year before the outbreak of the World War. It shows the combination of sensitiveness to coming events and concern with the methods of meeting them which is characteristic of the highest kind of revolutionary leadership. Its scornful analysis of... (From: Marxists.org.) From: Cahiers de la Quinzaine, no.11; Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
The socialist principle of class struggle demands the action of the proletariat wherever its interests as a class are in question. This is the case for all conflicts that divide the bourgeoisie. Every shift in the relation of social forces in bourgeois society, any change in the political relations of the country, influences, in the first place, the situation of the working class. We can’t act as indifferent witnesses to what goes on in the interior of the bourgeoisie, unless socialism could be realized outside of bourgeois society, for example through the foundation in each country of a separate colony. But since we haven’t thought of e... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Die Rote Fahne, No.3, 18 November 1918. Source: International Socialist Review, Vol.30 No.1, January-February 1969, pp.5-6. Translated: (from the French which was from the original in German) William L. McPherson in Germany After the Armistice: A Report Based on the Personal Testimony of Representative Germany, Concerning the Conditions Existing in 1919, edited by Maurice Berger. Transcription/Markup: Einde O’Callaghan, Daniel Gaido, & Brian Baggins Public Domain: Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2005. This work is completely free.
This is an alternate translation of the same work by a different name A Duty of Honor, which is the correct German translation for Eine Ehrenpflicht.
We did not wish for... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Die Rote Fahne, November 18th, 1918. Source: Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Political Writings, edited and introduced by Robert Looker, pp.258-61. Translated: (from the German) W.D. Graf. Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins with special thanks to Robert Looker for help with permissions. Copyright: Random House, 1972, ISBN/ISSN: 0224005960. Printed with the permission of Random House. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
We did not want any ‘amnesty’, nor pardon, for the political prisoners who were the victims of the old order. We demanded our right to freedom, through struggle and revolution, for the hundreds of faithful and brave men and women who were languishing in prison because they h... (From: Marxists.org.) (1902)
First Published: Leipzeiger Volkszeitung, September 19, 1902.
Source: German: Ausgewählte Reden und Schriften, II (Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1951), pp.156-60; English: Selected Political Writings Rosa Luxemburg, 1971, edited by Dick Howard.
Translated: (from the German) Rosemarie Waldrop.
Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins.
Copyright: Monthly Review Press © 1971. Printed with the permission of Monthly Review. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
An extensive debate concerning the eight-hour day followed the report on parliamentary activity at our Party Congress last Wednesday and Thursday. It is true, it ended with the usual referral of demands to our parliamentary dele... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: April, 1916: Banned in Germany. Source: Rosa Luxemburg: Selected political writings, edited and introduced by Robert Looker. Translated: (from the German) W.D. Graf. Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins with special thanks to Robert Looker for help with permissions. Copyright: Random House, 1972, ISBN/ISSN: 0224005960. Printed with the permission of Random House. Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004.
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation, III 15:16
Comrades! You are all aware of the division that exists in the bosom of the intra-party op... (From: Marxists.org.) First Published: Source: New International, July 1942, pp.184-186. Translated: (from the German) E. Lund Transcription/Markup: Ted Crawford/Brian Baggins Copyleft: Luxemburg Internet Archive (marxists.org) 2004. Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
The Reichstag elections of 1912 were viewed by the German liberal bourgeoisie as an important test of strength against the Kaiser and his landowner-militarist support. Though not able to control the executive branch of the government, the Reichstag had authority to legislate on questions of such first-rate importance to the bourgeoisie as the budget, taxes and tariffs. With the help of the Social Democracy, the... (From: Marxists.org.) German original: Protokoll der Verhandlungen des Parteitags der Sozialdemokratischen Partei Deutschlands, abgehalten zu Nürnberg vom 13. bis 19. September 1908, Berlin 1908, pp. 267–269. Source: Rosa Luxemburg, Gesammelte Werke, Vol. II, pp. 256–259. Translation: Rida Vaquas. Revision: Einde O’Callaghan. Transcription & Markup: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
At the Mannheim Congress, when the question of working together with the trade unions was unfurled in all its consequences and ways and means were sought, so that we would be able to achieve the inevitably necessary close cooperation in the interests of both branches of the workers’ movement, I was among those comra... (From: Marxists.org.) Introduction
The first three letters were first presented by Feliks Tych in the Internationale wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung, 27. Jahrgang, September 1996, No.3. The fourth and fifth letters were published in the 6th volume of Rosa Luxemburg’s Letters in German, i.e. Rosa Luxemburg, Gesammelte Briefe, Vol.6, Dietz Verlag 1993. Detailed source information follows each letter.
The first three letters were written at the same time as her article, The Russian Revolution, and can be understood as an extension of and commentary on it. The letters were written while Rosa Luxemburg was in prison in Breslau. The prison regime was such that she was able to her correspondence and articles smu... (From: Marxists.org.) Written: First published in Liepziger Volkszeitung, April 30, 1913. Published: From Selected Political Writings of Rosa Luxemburg, tr. Dick Howard (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1971). Online Version: marxists.org April 2002.
In the middle of the wildest orgies of imperialism, the world holiday of the proletariat is repeating itself for the twenty-fourth time. What has taken place in the quarter of a century since the epoch-making decision to celebrate May Day is an immense part of the historical path. When the May demonstration made its debut, the vanguard of the International, the German working class, was breaking the chains of a shameful law of exception and setting out on the path of a free, legal development. The period of the long de... (From: Marxists.org.) Most of all: Who are the true perpetrators of this oppression, which the Poles must suffer by the Germans? Who should we make responsible for this violent Germanization? The usual answer is: “It’s the fault of the Germans. The Germans are oppressing us.” This is what Polish papers in the Poznan province always write. But is it possible to blame the entire German people, 50 million Germans? This would be a great injustice and a great error, which we would suffer most from. To get a clear picture of the situation, to see where is the actual cause of our oppression, is absolutely necessary, if we want to seriously and successfully start to defend our endangered nationality.
It is crystal-clear that the Prussian government ... (From: Marxists.org.) Part I:
The History and Present State of Polish Industry
1.2 The Transition to
Large-Scale Industry, 1850-1870
We have become acquainted with the first beginnings and development of industry in Poland within the internal market. We have seen that it owes its start to the efforts of the government, and that as a result of the limited internal market it was not able to divest itself of the manufacturing form even into the 1850s. But here the first epoch of its history ends, and a new page begins. Beginning in the 1850s a series of new circumstances arose which, although in themselves very diverse, ultimately had the effect that the Russian market was opened up to Polish production, which was thus assured a mass market. This gradu... (From: Marxists.org.) (1903)
[Exstract]
First Published: (Polish) Przeglad Socialdemokratyczsy, January-February 1903.
Source: (German) Politische Schriften, III (Frankfurt: Europaische, Verlagsanstalt, 1968), pp.23-82. (English) Selected Political Writings Rosa Luxemburg, 1971, edited by Dick Howard.
Abstract: The original article contains parts 1-7. This work presents only 1-4. We earnestly hope to find someone who can translate the remaining sections of this work.
Translated: Originally written in Polish, then translated into German (by Tadeusz Kachlak, with the help of Bernherd Blanke and Victoria Vierhelles), this text was translated from the German translation into English by Tom Herbst.
Transcription/Markup: T... (From: Marxists.org.) Source: Le Socialiste, May 1-8, 1904; Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor.
May Day this year stands out particularly because it is being celebrated in the midst of the noises of war. Because of this, its character as a demonstration in favor of world peace has the upper hand this year. But more than ever, in the presence of war, the specifically proletarian demonstration must also be the expression of this idea, that the realization of universal peace cannot be conceived of except as linked to the realization of our socialist final goal.
If the Russo-Japanese War has demonstrated anything, it’s the vanity of the speculations of those “humanitarian” socialists who claim to found world peace on the system of ... (From: Marxists.org.) “But since we have been unable to prevent the war, since it has come in spite of us, and our country is facing invasion, shall we leave our country defenseless! Shall we deliver it into the hands of the enemy? Does not socialism demand the right of nations to determine their own destinies? Does it not mean that every people is justified, nay more, is in duty bound, to protect its liberties, its independence? ‘When the house is on fire, shall we not first try to put out the blaze before stopping to ascertain the incendiary?’”
These arguments have been repeated, again and again in defense of the attitude of the social democracy in Germany and in France.
Even in the neutral countries this argument has been used. T... (From: Marxists.org.) Originally written for a volume commemorating Ferdinantd Lassalle. [1*] This version: Weekly Worker, No.752, 15 January 2009. Translated: Ben Lewis.
Copied with thanks from the CPGB/Weekly Worker Website. Marked up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Lassalle’s immediate relationship with the March [1848] revolution has remained a mere fragmentary, almost fleeting, one.
This is partly because of his still relatively young age, but above all because of the peculiar concatenation of circumstances in his life which – for almost a decade – chained him to the individual fate of a woman badly abused by the dominant feudal powers and which have made his energy to the service of the revoluti... (From: Marxists.org.) First published: Die Gleichheit, No.18, 1913, pp.275-77. This translation: Weekly Worker, No.752, 15 January 2009. Translated: Ben Lewis.
Copied with thanks from the CPGB/Weekly Worker Website. Marked up: Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
“Hutten’s error was merely that of all prophetic natures: namely to view and desire at once a shining ideal, which humanity can only achieve step by step and bit by bit after centuries of struggle.”
With these words, David Friedrich Strauss closes his novel Hutten. And what applies to Hutten also applies to Lassalle in the same degree. Of course, centuries do not come into consideration in the speedy development of contemporary capitalist developme... (From: Marxists.org.) So far we have examined the problem of centralism from the viewpoint of the general principles of the Social Democracy, and to some extent, in the light of conditions peculiar to Russia. However, the military ultra-centralism cried up by Lenin and his friends is not the product of accidental differences of opinion. It is said to be related to a campaign against opportunism which Lenin has carried to the smallest organizational detail.
“It is important,” says Lenin (page 52), “to forge a more or less effective weapon against opportunism.” He believes that opportunism springs specifically from the characteristic leaning of intellectuals to decentralization and disorganization, from their aversion for strict discipli... (From: Marxists.org.) My dear little Sonya,
Today, August 5th, I have just received your two letters; they came together, the one of July 11th (!!) and the one of July 23rd.
You see that the post works more slowly than if I were in New York. But the books you sent me came to hand earlier. Heartfelt thanks for everything. I am so sorry that I had to leave you in your present situation; how I should have liked to stroll with you through the fields once more, or watch the sunset from the bay-window in your kitchen ... Helmi,[3] too sent me a long postcard describing his journey. Thanks so much also for the Hölderlin.[4] But you must not squander so much money on me; I really don’t like it.
Thanks so much for the hamper of good things and for the... (From: Marxists.org.)