SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM?

[Panaconda]

Rosa Luxemburg

The slogan "socialism or barbarism" originated with the great German revolutionary socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg, who repeatedly raised it during World War I. It was a profound concept, one that has become ever more relevant as the years have passed.

Luxemburg spent her entire adult life organising and educating the working class to fight for socialism. She was convinced that if socialism didn't triumph, capitalism would become ever more barbaric, wiping out centuries of gains in civilisation. In a major 1915 anti-war polemic, she referred to Friedrich Engels' view that society must advance to socialism or revert to barbarism and then asked, "What does a 'reversion to barbarism' mean at the present stage of European civilization?"

She gave two related answers.

In the long run, she said in The Junius Pamphlet, a continuation of capitalism would lead to the literal collapse of civilised society and the coming of a new Dark Age, similar to Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire: "The collapse of all civilisation as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration — a great cemetery."

By saying this, Luxemburg was reminding the revolutionary left that socialism is not inevitable, that if the socialist movement failed, capitalism might destroy modern civilisation, leaving behind a much poorer and much harsher world.

In 1848, in The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote: "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles ... that each time ended, either in the revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes."

In Luxemburg's words: "Humanity is facing the alternative: Dissolution and downfall in capitalist anarchy, or regeneration through the social revolution."

...

http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/40018

[Ken Burch]

1. Rosa Luxemburg is proven more and more correct each day!

The last two years have shown us that capitalism isn't willing to tolerate ANY real reforms at all. The business class have now made it clear that they believe they have a right to a veto over government policy.

If we want democracy, we're going to have to either get rid of capitalism entirely, or, at the very least, create a large social sector that is independent of "market values" and can put human needs and democratic values first.

Might as well face it, folks: "the free market" doesn't free us, and will end up making all of us live at its mercy.

[Panaconda]

2. The free market is a lie

There is no reforming capitalism. May as well try to turn a barracuda into a vegetarian. You are correct on this.

[bobbolink]

3. I'm fascinated by people who see things so far ahead of their time.

I also know how lonely it is when your vision is that clear and that far-reaching.

[maryf]

9. and nobody listening

makes it worse...

[Odin2005]

4. And she was right.

[David__77]

5. And also, socialism or fascism...

I say socialism.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. But...but..socialism IS fascism -

or fascism is communism. Or something.

Glen Beck SAIIIID so!!!!!

[Panaconda]

7. The Junius Pamphlet

Written: February–April 1915 (while in prison).
First Published: In Zurich, February 1916, and illegally distributed in Germany.

Business thrives in the ruins. Cities become piles of ruins; villages become cemeteries; countries, deserts; populations are beggared; churches, horse stalls. International law, treaties and alliances, the most sacred words and the highest authority have been torn in shreds. Every sovereign “by the grace of God” is called a rogue and lying scoundrel by his cousin on the other side. Every diplomat is a cunning rascal to his colleagues in the other party. Every government sees every other as dooming its own people and worthy only of universal contempt. There are food riots in Venice, in Lisbon, Moscow, Singapore. There is plague in Russia, and misery and despair everywhere.

Violated, dishonored, wading in blood, dripping filth – there stands bourgeois society. This is it . Not all spic and span and moral, with pretense to culture, philosophy, ethics, order, peace, and the rule of law – but the ravening beast, the witches’ sabbath of anarchy, a plague to culture and humanity. Thus it reveals itself in its true, its naked form.

...

http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1915/junius/ch01.htm

[maryf]

10. Stunning...

bookmarked.

[TBF]

8. K&R nt

[Starry Messenger]

11. k & r

[leftstreet]

12. kick

The Junius Pamphlet is a must read

Too late to Rec. Don't know how I missed this