On The
100th Anniversary Of Newly-Fledged German Communist Leader Rosa
Luxemburg And Karl Liebknecht-Oh, What Might Have Been-
By Frank Jackman
History in the conditional, what might have happened if this or that thing, event, person had swerved this much or that, is always a tricky proposition. Tricky as reflected in this piece’s commemorative headline. Rosa Luxemburg the acknowledged theoretical wizard of the German Social-Democratic Party, the numero uno party of the Second, Socialist International, which was the logical organization to initiate the socialist revolution before World War II and Karl Liebknecht, the hellfire and brimstone propagandist and public speaker of that same party were assassinated in separate locale on the orders of the then ruling self-same Social-Democratic Party. The chasm between the Social-Democratic leaders trying to save Germany for “Western Civilization” in the wake of the “uncivilized” socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 had grown that wide that it was as if they were on two different planets, and maybe they were.
(By the way I am almost embarrassed to mention the term “socialist revolution” these days when people, especially young people, would be clueless as to what I was talking about or would think that this concept was so hopelessly old-fashioned that it would meet the same blank stares. Let me assure you that back in the day, yes, that back in the day, many a youth had that very term on the tips of their tongues. Could palpably feel it in the air. Hell, just ask your parents, or grandparents.)
Okay here is the conditional and maybe think about it before you dismiss the idea out of hand if only because the whole scheme is very much in the conditional. Rosa and Karl, among others made almost every mistake in the book before and during the Spartacist uprising in some of the main German cities in late 1918 after the German defeat in the war. Their biggest mistake before the uprising was sticking with the Social Democrats, as a left wing, when that party had turned at best reformist and eminently not a vehicle for the socialist revolution, or even a half-assed democratic “revolution” which is what they got with the overthrow of the Kaiser. They broke too late, and subsequently too late from a slightly more left-wing Independent Socialist Party which had split from the S-D when that party became the leading war party in Germany for all intents and purposes and the working class was raising its collective head and asking why.
The big mistake during the uprising was not taking enough protective cover, not keeping the leadership safe, keeping out of sight like Lenin had in Finland when things were dicey in 1917 Russia and fell easy prey to the Freikorps assassins. Here is the conditional, and as always it can be expanded to some nth degree if you let things get out of hand. What if, as in Russia, Rosa and Karl had broken from that rotten (for socialism) S-D organization and had a more firmly entrenched cadre with some experience in independent existence. What if the Spartacists had protected their acknowledged leaders better. There might have been a different trajectory for the aborted and failed German left-wing revolutionary opportunities over the next several years, there certainly would have been better leadership and perhaps, just perhaps the Nazi onslaught might have been stillborn, might have left Munich 1923 as their “heroic” and last moment.
Instead we have a still sad 100th anniversary of the assassination of two great international socialist fighters who headed to the danger not away always worthy of a nod and me left having to face those blank stares who are looking for way forward but might as well be on a different planet-from me.
Click on the title to link to the Karl Liebknecht Internet Archive's copy of his protest against the granting of war credits to the German government DURING World War I.
From the front lines of the anti-Afghan war struggle, such as it is.
Markin comment on this link:
This is the time for radicals and other anti-war activists to review the work of Karl Liebknecht, the great German internationalist revolutionary, as we face many of the same political problems that he had to confront with a capitalist government hellbent on war and escalation of war, including, in our case, the question of parliamentary opposition to the executive branch's war budget.
Markin comment:
Recently, while attending one of several impromptu ad hoc demonstrations in Boston called to protest the escalation of the latest American imperial adventure, Obama’s massive troop surge in Afghanistan, I fell into a discussion with a young militant I met there who has been carrying a poster that read – “Down With The Obama Government”. While such a homemade poster should gladden the heart of every old time anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist militant (and every new militant, as well) I argued with her, and I argue here that such a slogan is clearly premature. And here is why I think so.
I have made something of a truism in this space of the fact that politics, and that includes revolutionary politics, is many, if not most, times a matter of timing. That is the case here. To help illustrate that proposition I will give just a couple of pieces of information about this woman’s own political trajectory that I think demonstrates my case for the prematureness of her slogan. Budding militant X , in 2008, became as a freshman at a local Boston college an ardent supporter of, and campaign worker, for the presidential campaign of one Barack Obama. Apparently there was no job too small or place too far away that she would not go to on behalf of his candidacy.
Her reasoning, as she immersed herself emerged fully into the political battlefield, for supporting Obama need not detain us here, although that is an interesting story for another time as it somewhat parallels my own checkered youthful political evolution. As she related her story about her hours of campaigning and the places she had gone let’s just say that I not mistakenly realized that she is a fellow political ‘junkie’. In any case, Ms. X had high hopes, especially for Obama’s peace platform, as least as she understood it. By February of this year, with Obama’s deployment of some 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan just shortly after his inauguration, she was very worried. This latest troop escalation put her into opposition on the streets.
Hey, this is a nice conversion for our side. This, my friends, is the kind of human material we need to recruit as we gather cadre for our future anti-war, anti-capitalist struggles, right? Right. But this saga of a youthful disillusioned liberal seems to me to be exactly the point. We are just now in the beginning of a period that should see the breaking, among some, of illusions in the Obama government. We, certainly, will add to that process with our own timely propaganda (including the use of this example) but this is where we are realistically- in the process of accruing a critical mass of fervent anti-imperialist, anti-war militants.
I strongly emphasize again, we are not there now- not by a long shot. So take another look at that slogan- “Down With The Obama Government”. What could that mean today? It could only mean some alternate form of Democratic Party administration of the executive branch of government (A Biden government?). Or, more realistically, some “Tea Party”-style Republican administration. Egad- we damn sure do not want that.
For those of us who have some acquaintance with revolutionary history, we know that this kind of slogan certainly has had its uses. In a pre-revolutionary or revolutionary period, as most famously demonstrated by the Bolsheviks in their agitation and propaganda in the spring and summer of 1917 during the Russian revolution, a variation of this slogan can have great effect. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes," times ain’t now nothing like they used to be”.
So, here is what I propose (and I did so, in a kidding and gentle manner) to Ms. X. Store that poster for now and help us get the American and other Allied troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq (and the world). Victory in that effort will go a long way towards fulfilling the reality expressed in her slogan. One day we will unwrap that poster and walk the streets under that banner- with plenty of people behind us. Our day will come, but just to be on the safe side for now -Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops From Afghanistan Iraq! Not One Penny, Not One Person For Obama's Wars! Build A Workers Party That Fights For A Workers Government!
By Frank Jackman
History in the conditional, what might have happened if this or that thing, event, person had swerved this much or that, is always a tricky proposition. Tricky as reflected in this piece’s commemorative headline. Rosa Luxemburg the acknowledged theoretical wizard of the German Social-Democratic Party, the numero uno party of the Second, Socialist International, which was the logical organization to initiate the socialist revolution before World War II and Karl Liebknecht, the hellfire and brimstone propagandist and public speaker of that same party were assassinated in separate locale on the orders of the then ruling self-same Social-Democratic Party. The chasm between the Social-Democratic leaders trying to save Germany for “Western Civilization” in the wake of the “uncivilized” socialist revolution in Russia in 1917 had grown that wide that it was as if they were on two different planets, and maybe they were.
(By the way I am almost embarrassed to mention the term “socialist revolution” these days when people, especially young people, would be clueless as to what I was talking about or would think that this concept was so hopelessly old-fashioned that it would meet the same blank stares. Let me assure you that back in the day, yes, that back in the day, many a youth had that very term on the tips of their tongues. Could palpably feel it in the air. Hell, just ask your parents, or grandparents.)
Okay here is the conditional and maybe think about it before you dismiss the idea out of hand if only because the whole scheme is very much in the conditional. Rosa and Karl, among others made almost every mistake in the book before and during the Spartacist uprising in some of the main German cities in late 1918 after the German defeat in the war. Their biggest mistake before the uprising was sticking with the Social Democrats, as a left wing, when that party had turned at best reformist and eminently not a vehicle for the socialist revolution, or even a half-assed democratic “revolution” which is what they got with the overthrow of the Kaiser. They broke too late, and subsequently too late from a slightly more left-wing Independent Socialist Party which had split from the S-D when that party became the leading war party in Germany for all intents and purposes and the working class was raising its collective head and asking why.
The big mistake during the uprising was not taking enough protective cover, not keeping the leadership safe, keeping out of sight like Lenin had in Finland when things were dicey in 1917 Russia and fell easy prey to the Freikorps assassins. Here is the conditional, and as always it can be expanded to some nth degree if you let things get out of hand. What if, as in Russia, Rosa and Karl had broken from that rotten (for socialism) S-D organization and had a more firmly entrenched cadre with some experience in independent existence. What if the Spartacists had protected their acknowledged leaders better. There might have been a different trajectory for the aborted and failed German left-wing revolutionary opportunities over the next several years, there certainly would have been better leadership and perhaps, just perhaps the Nazi onslaught might have been stillborn, might have left Munich 1923 as their “heroic” and last moment.
Instead we have a still sad 100th anniversary of the assassination of two great international socialist fighters who headed to the danger not away always worthy of a nod and me left having to face those blank stares who are looking for way forward but might as well be on a different planet-from me.
Click on the title to link to the Karl Liebknecht Internet Archive's copy of his protest against the granting of war credits to the German government DURING World War I.
From the front lines of the anti-Afghan war struggle, such as it is.
Markin comment on this link:
This is the time for radicals and other anti-war activists to review the work of Karl Liebknecht, the great German internationalist revolutionary, as we face many of the same political problems that he had to confront with a capitalist government hellbent on war and escalation of war, including, in our case, the question of parliamentary opposition to the executive branch's war budget.
Markin comment:
Recently, while attending one of several impromptu ad hoc demonstrations in Boston called to protest the escalation of the latest American imperial adventure, Obama’s massive troop surge in Afghanistan, I fell into a discussion with a young militant I met there who has been carrying a poster that read – “Down With The Obama Government”. While such a homemade poster should gladden the heart of every old time anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist militant (and every new militant, as well) I argued with her, and I argue here that such a slogan is clearly premature. And here is why I think so.
I have made something of a truism in this space of the fact that politics, and that includes revolutionary politics, is many, if not most, times a matter of timing. That is the case here. To help illustrate that proposition I will give just a couple of pieces of information about this woman’s own political trajectory that I think demonstrates my case for the prematureness of her slogan. Budding militant X , in 2008, became as a freshman at a local Boston college an ardent supporter of, and campaign worker, for the presidential campaign of one Barack Obama. Apparently there was no job too small or place too far away that she would not go to on behalf of his candidacy.
Her reasoning, as she immersed herself emerged fully into the political battlefield, for supporting Obama need not detain us here, although that is an interesting story for another time as it somewhat parallels my own checkered youthful political evolution. As she related her story about her hours of campaigning and the places she had gone let’s just say that I not mistakenly realized that she is a fellow political ‘junkie’. In any case, Ms. X had high hopes, especially for Obama’s peace platform, as least as she understood it. By February of this year, with Obama’s deployment of some 20,000 additional troops to Afghanistan just shortly after his inauguration, she was very worried. This latest troop escalation put her into opposition on the streets.
Hey, this is a nice conversion for our side. This, my friends, is the kind of human material we need to recruit as we gather cadre for our future anti-war, anti-capitalist struggles, right? Right. But this saga of a youthful disillusioned liberal seems to me to be exactly the point. We are just now in the beginning of a period that should see the breaking, among some, of illusions in the Obama government. We, certainly, will add to that process with our own timely propaganda (including the use of this example) but this is where we are realistically- in the process of accruing a critical mass of fervent anti-imperialist, anti-war militants.
I strongly emphasize again, we are not there now- not by a long shot. So take another look at that slogan- “Down With The Obama Government”. What could that mean today? It could only mean some alternate form of Democratic Party administration of the executive branch of government (A Biden government?). Or, more realistically, some “Tea Party”-style Republican administration. Egad- we damn sure do not want that.
For those of us who have some acquaintance with revolutionary history, we know that this kind of slogan certainly has had its uses. In a pre-revolutionary or revolutionary period, as most famously demonstrated by the Bolsheviks in their agitation and propaganda in the spring and summer of 1917 during the Russian revolution, a variation of this slogan can have great effect. Unfortunately, as the old saying goes," times ain’t now nothing like they used to be”.
So, here is what I propose (and I did so, in a kidding and gentle manner) to Ms. X. Store that poster for now and help us get the American and other Allied troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq (and the world). Victory in that effort will go a long way towards fulfilling the reality expressed in her slogan. One day we will unwrap that poster and walk the streets under that banner- with plenty of people behind us. Our day will come, but just to be on the safe side for now -Obama- Immediate Unconditional Withdrawal Of All U.S. Troops From Afghanistan Iraq! Not One Penny, Not One Person For Obama's Wars! Build A Workers Party That Fights For A Workers Government!
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