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.
Markin comment:
Every January, as readers of this blog are now, hopefully, familiar with the international communist movement honors the 3 Ls-Lenin, Luxemburg and Liebknecht, fallen leaders of the early 20th century communist movement who died in this month (and whose untimely deaths left a huge, irreplaceable gap in the international leadership of that time). January is thus a time for us to reflect on the roots of our movement and those who brought us along this far. In order to give a fuller measure of honor to our fallen forbears this January, and in future Januarys, this space will honor others who have contributed in some way to the struggle for our communist future. That future classless society, however, will be the true memorial to their sacrifices. This year we pay special honor to American Communist party founder and later Trotskyist leader, James P. Cannon, Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, and German Left Communist Karl Korsch.
Note on inclusion: As in other series on this site (“Labor’s Untold Story”, “Leaders Of The Bolshevik Revolution”, etc.) this year’s honorees do not exhaust the list of every possible communist worthy of the name. Nor, in fact, is the list limited to Bolshevik-style communists. There will be names included from other traditions (like anarchism, social democracy, the Diggers, Levellers, Jacobins, etc.) whose efforts contributed to the international struggle. Also, as was true of previous series this year’s efforts are no more than an introduction to these heroes of the class struggle. Future years will see more detailed information on each entry, particularly about many of the lesser known figures. Better yet, the reader can pick up the ball and run with it if he or she has more knowledge about the particular exploits of some communist militant, or to include a missing one.
*******
Antonio Gramsci 1919
To the section commissars of the FIAT-Brevetti workshops
First Published: L'Ordine Nuovo, 13 September 1919;
Translated: by Mchael Carney.
Comrades!
The new form which the internal commission has assumed in your workshop with the nomination of section commissars and the discussions which preceded and accompanied this transformation have not passed unnoticed amongst the workers and bosses of Turin. On the one hand they are readying themselves to imitate you and take over other establishments in the city and province, on the other the bosses and their agents, the organizers of the big industrial enterprises, are watching this movement with growing interest and are asking themselves and asking you what is the direction in which this is headed, what is the programme which the Turin working class proposes to carry out.
We know that to the establishing of this movement our paper has contributed more than a little. In it the question has been examined from not only a general and theoretical point of view, but the results of experience in other countries have been gathered and publicized, to furnish the elements for study of practical applications. We know, however, that our work has had a value in that it has satisfied a need, it has favoured the concrete establishment of an aspiration which was latent in the conscience of the labouring masses. For this reason we quickly understood each other, and could quickly pass from discussion to realization.
The need, the aspiration from which the renewal movement of the labour organization draws its origin, are, we believe, in the things themselves, are a direct consequence of the point at which has arrived, in its development, the social and economic organism based on private appropriation of the means of exchange and production. Today, the worker in the factory and the peasant in the country, the English miner and the Russian muzhik, workers of the whole world, in a more or less certain way, feel in a more or less direct way that truth which the men of studies had foreseen, and gathering ever greater certainty, when they observe the events of this period of the history of humanity: we are arrived at a point in which the working class, if it wishes to rise to the task of reconstruction which is in its deeds and in its will, must begin to organize itself in a positive fashion matched to the end to be reached.
And if it is true that the new society will be based on work and the coordination of the energies of producers, the places where they work, where the producers live and work in common, will tomorrow be the centres of the social organism and will have to take the place of the governing bodies of today’s society. As, in the first days of the labour struggle, organization by trade was that which was best fitted to the aims of defence, to the necessities of the battles for economic betterment and immediate discipline, so today, when the aims of reconstruction are delineated with ever greater consistency in the minds of workers, it is necessary that a factory organization, a true school for the reconstructive capacities of workers, arise next to and in support of the former.
The working masses must prepare themselves effectively for the acquisition of complete mastery of themselves, and the first step on this path is the most solid self-discipline, in the workshop, in an autonomous, spontaneous and free way. Nor can it be denied that the discipline which with the new system will be installed will lead to an improvement of production, but this is none other than a proof of a thesis of socialism: the more human productive forces, emancipating themselves from the slavery to which capitalism would want them forever condemned, become conscious of themselves, liberate themselves and freely organize themselves, the better the manner of their use becomes: a man always works better than a slave. To those who object that this is collaboration with our adversaries, with the company owners, we respond that instead this is the only means of mastery, because the working class conceives of the possibility of _doing for itself_ and of doing well: indeed, it acquires day by day a clearer certainty of being alone capable of saving the world from ruin and desolation. Thus every action which you undertake, every battle offered under your guidance will be illuminated by the light of the ultimate end which is in the souls and intentions of all of you.
So acts apparently of little importance in which the mandate conferred on you is explained acquire enormous value. Elected by a constituency in which disorganized elements are still numerous, your first task will certainly be that of enrolling them in the ranks of the organization, work which for the most part will be eased by the fact that they will find in you those who are always ready to defend them, guide them, engage them in the life of the factory. You will show them by example that the strength of the worker is all in union and solidarity with his comrades.
So also you must be vigilant that in the divisions the rules of work established by the trade federations and accepted in the agreements are respected, since in this area even a slight derogation from the established principles can constitute a serious offence against the rights and personality of the worker, of which you are rigid and tenacious defenders and custodians. And since you will live continuously amongst workers and work, you will be in a position to notice the modifications imposed by the technical progress of production and the improved consciousness and capacity of the workers themselves. In this way a workshop _custom_ will be established, that is from the laws which the producers will develop and apply to themselves. We are certain that the importance of this fact does not escape you, that it is evident before the minds of all the constituencies which with readiness and enthusiasm have understood the value and the significance of the work which you have proposed to do: beginning the active intervention in the technical field and in the disciplinary, of those same forces of labour.
In the technical field you will be able on the one hand to carry out a useful task of information, collecting precious data and materials both for the trade federations and for the central and governing bodies of the new workshop organizations. You will see to it also that workers of the section acquire an ever greater ability, and will banish the miserable feelings of professional jealousy which still make them divided and discordant; you will thus train them for the day in which, having to work no longer for the boss but for themselves, it will be necessary for them to be united in solidarity, to grow the forces of the great proletarian army, of which they are the first cells. Why could you not make grow, in the workshop itself, suitable sections for education, true professional schools, where every worker, rising from brutalizing tasks, might open his mind to the processes of production, and better himself?
Certainly, to do all that discipline will be necessary, but the discipline which you ask of the working masses will be well different from that which the boss imposes and claims, strong with the right of ownership which gives him a position of privilege. You will be strong with another law, that of labour which after centuries of being a tool in the hands of your exploiters today will redeem itself, will direct itself. Your power, opposed to that of the bosses and their officials, will represent in front of the forces of the past, the free forces of the future, which await their hour, and prepare it, knowing that it will be the hour of redemption from every slavery.
And so the central organs which will arise for every section group, for every group of factories, for every city, for every region, up to a supreme national workers’ council, will advance, enlarge, intensify the work of control, of preparation and of order of the whole class for the aims of conquest and government.
The path will not be short, or easy, we know: many difficulties will arise and will oppose you, and to overcome them will require making use of great abilities, will sometimes require calling on the strength of the organized class, will require you to be ever more lively and pushed to action by a great faith, but that which is most important, oh comrades, is that the workers, under the guidance of you and of those who will imitate you, acquire the living certainty of walking finally, sure of the aim, on the great road of the future.
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.
Markin comment:
Every January, as readers of this blog are now, hopefully, familiar with the international communist movement honors the 3 Ls-Lenin, Luxemburg and Liebknecht, fallen leaders of the early 20th century communist movement who died in this month (and whose untimely deaths left a huge, irreplaceable gap in the international leadership of that time). January is thus a time for us to reflect on the roots of our movement and those who brought us along this far. In order to give a fuller measure of honor to our fallen forbears this January, and in future Januarys, this space will honor others who have contributed in some way to the struggle for our communist future. That future classless society, however, will be the true memorial to their sacrifices. This year we pay special honor to American Communist party founder and later Trotskyist leader, James P. Cannon, Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci, and German Left Communist Karl Korsch.
Note on inclusion: As in other series on this site (“Labor’s Untold Story”, “Leaders Of The Bolshevik Revolution”, etc.) this year’s honorees do not exhaust the list of every possible communist worthy of the name. Nor, in fact, is the list limited to Bolshevik-style communists. There will be names included from other traditions (like anarchism, social democracy, the Diggers, Levellers, Jacobins, etc.) whose efforts contributed to the international struggle. Also, as was true of previous series this year’s efforts are no more than an introduction to these heroes of the class struggle. Future years will see more detailed information on each entry, particularly about many of the lesser known figures. Better yet, the reader can pick up the ball and run with it if he or she has more knowledge about the particular exploits of some communist militant, or to include a missing one.
*******
Antonio Gramsci 1919
To the section commissars of the FIAT-Brevetti workshops
First Published: L'Ordine Nuovo, 13 September 1919;
Translated: by Mchael Carney.
Comrades!
The new form which the internal commission has assumed in your workshop with the nomination of section commissars and the discussions which preceded and accompanied this transformation have not passed unnoticed amongst the workers and bosses of Turin. On the one hand they are readying themselves to imitate you and take over other establishments in the city and province, on the other the bosses and their agents, the organizers of the big industrial enterprises, are watching this movement with growing interest and are asking themselves and asking you what is the direction in which this is headed, what is the programme which the Turin working class proposes to carry out.
We know that to the establishing of this movement our paper has contributed more than a little. In it the question has been examined from not only a general and theoretical point of view, but the results of experience in other countries have been gathered and publicized, to furnish the elements for study of practical applications. We know, however, that our work has had a value in that it has satisfied a need, it has favoured the concrete establishment of an aspiration which was latent in the conscience of the labouring masses. For this reason we quickly understood each other, and could quickly pass from discussion to realization.
The need, the aspiration from which the renewal movement of the labour organization draws its origin, are, we believe, in the things themselves, are a direct consequence of the point at which has arrived, in its development, the social and economic organism based on private appropriation of the means of exchange and production. Today, the worker in the factory and the peasant in the country, the English miner and the Russian muzhik, workers of the whole world, in a more or less certain way, feel in a more or less direct way that truth which the men of studies had foreseen, and gathering ever greater certainty, when they observe the events of this period of the history of humanity: we are arrived at a point in which the working class, if it wishes to rise to the task of reconstruction which is in its deeds and in its will, must begin to organize itself in a positive fashion matched to the end to be reached.
And if it is true that the new society will be based on work and the coordination of the energies of producers, the places where they work, where the producers live and work in common, will tomorrow be the centres of the social organism and will have to take the place of the governing bodies of today’s society. As, in the first days of the labour struggle, organization by trade was that which was best fitted to the aims of defence, to the necessities of the battles for economic betterment and immediate discipline, so today, when the aims of reconstruction are delineated with ever greater consistency in the minds of workers, it is necessary that a factory organization, a true school for the reconstructive capacities of workers, arise next to and in support of the former.
The working masses must prepare themselves effectively for the acquisition of complete mastery of themselves, and the first step on this path is the most solid self-discipline, in the workshop, in an autonomous, spontaneous and free way. Nor can it be denied that the discipline which with the new system will be installed will lead to an improvement of production, but this is none other than a proof of a thesis of socialism: the more human productive forces, emancipating themselves from the slavery to which capitalism would want them forever condemned, become conscious of themselves, liberate themselves and freely organize themselves, the better the manner of their use becomes: a man always works better than a slave. To those who object that this is collaboration with our adversaries, with the company owners, we respond that instead this is the only means of mastery, because the working class conceives of the possibility of _doing for itself_ and of doing well: indeed, it acquires day by day a clearer certainty of being alone capable of saving the world from ruin and desolation. Thus every action which you undertake, every battle offered under your guidance will be illuminated by the light of the ultimate end which is in the souls and intentions of all of you.
So acts apparently of little importance in which the mandate conferred on you is explained acquire enormous value. Elected by a constituency in which disorganized elements are still numerous, your first task will certainly be that of enrolling them in the ranks of the organization, work which for the most part will be eased by the fact that they will find in you those who are always ready to defend them, guide them, engage them in the life of the factory. You will show them by example that the strength of the worker is all in union and solidarity with his comrades.
So also you must be vigilant that in the divisions the rules of work established by the trade federations and accepted in the agreements are respected, since in this area even a slight derogation from the established principles can constitute a serious offence against the rights and personality of the worker, of which you are rigid and tenacious defenders and custodians. And since you will live continuously amongst workers and work, you will be in a position to notice the modifications imposed by the technical progress of production and the improved consciousness and capacity of the workers themselves. In this way a workshop _custom_ will be established, that is from the laws which the producers will develop and apply to themselves. We are certain that the importance of this fact does not escape you, that it is evident before the minds of all the constituencies which with readiness and enthusiasm have understood the value and the significance of the work which you have proposed to do: beginning the active intervention in the technical field and in the disciplinary, of those same forces of labour.
In the technical field you will be able on the one hand to carry out a useful task of information, collecting precious data and materials both for the trade federations and for the central and governing bodies of the new workshop organizations. You will see to it also that workers of the section acquire an ever greater ability, and will banish the miserable feelings of professional jealousy which still make them divided and discordant; you will thus train them for the day in which, having to work no longer for the boss but for themselves, it will be necessary for them to be united in solidarity, to grow the forces of the great proletarian army, of which they are the first cells. Why could you not make grow, in the workshop itself, suitable sections for education, true professional schools, where every worker, rising from brutalizing tasks, might open his mind to the processes of production, and better himself?
Certainly, to do all that discipline will be necessary, but the discipline which you ask of the working masses will be well different from that which the boss imposes and claims, strong with the right of ownership which gives him a position of privilege. You will be strong with another law, that of labour which after centuries of being a tool in the hands of your exploiters today will redeem itself, will direct itself. Your power, opposed to that of the bosses and their officials, will represent in front of the forces of the past, the free forces of the future, which await their hour, and prepare it, knowing that it will be the hour of redemption from every slavery.
And so the central organs which will arise for every section group, for every group of factories, for every city, for every region, up to a supreme national workers’ council, will advance, enlarge, intensify the work of control, of preparation and of order of the whole class for the aims of conquest and government.
The path will not be short, or easy, we know: many difficulties will arise and will oppose you, and to overcome them will require making use of great abilities, will sometimes require calling on the strength of the organized class, will require you to be ever more lively and pushed to action by a great faith, but that which is most important, oh comrades, is that the workers, under the guidance of you and of those who will imitate you, acquire the living certainty of walking finally, sure of the aim, on the great road of the future.
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