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Recent Editions of Rosa Luxemburg’s Complete Works - The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg. Edited by Annelies Laschitza, Georg Adler, and Peter Hudis. Verso Publisher’s House New York / London 2011, Hardback, 609 pages, ISBN-13: 978-1-84467-453-4 - The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume IV: Political Writings. On Revolution: 1906–1919 In Preparation: Rosa Luxemburg: Gesammelte Werke, Band 8, Polnische Texte. hrsg. und aus dem Polnischen übersetzt von Holger Politt, Karl Dietz Verlag This volume contains the German translation of Luxemburg’s Polish writings and speeches yet unknown to the non Polish community of historians. - Rosa Luxemburg: Das unabhängige Polen und die Arbeiterfrage, aus dem Polnischen übersetzt und eingeleitet von Holger Politt, in: Klaus Kinner (ed.): Neue Texte von Rosa Luxemburg, Leipzig 2011 - Rosa Luxemburg: Nationalitätenfrage und Autonomie, hrsg. u. übers. von Holger Politt, Berlin 2012 - Rosa Luxemburg: Nach dem Pogrom. Texte über Antisemitismus, 1910/11, hrsg. und aus dem Polnischen übersetzt von Holger Politt, Potsdam 2014
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Verso Book - Released in late November 2018 The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume III Political Writings 1. On Revolution: 1897-1905 Edited by Axel Fair-Schulz, Peter Hudis, and William A. Pelz Translated by Henry Holland, Alicja Mann, and George Shriver Hardback Ebook - Hardback £70.00 592 pages ISBN-13: 978-1786635334 / ISBN-10: 178663533X This is the first of three volumes of the Complete Works devoted to the central theme of Rosa Luxemburg’s life and work: revolution. Spanning the years 1897 to the end of 1905, they contain speeches, articles, and essays on the strikes, protests, and political debates that culminated in the 1905 Russian Revolution, one of the most important social upheavals of modern times. Luxemburg’s near-daily articles and reports during 1905 on the ongoing revolution (which comprise the bulk of this volume) shed new light on such issues as the relation between spontaneity and organization, the role of national minorities in social revolution, and the inseparability of the struggle for socialism from revolutionary democracy. We become witnesses to Luxemburg’s effort to respond to the impulses, challenges, and ideas arising from a living revolutionary process, which in turn becomes the source of much of her subsequent political theory: such as her writings on the mass strike, her strident internationalism, and her insistence that revolutionary struggle never forget the need to transform the human personality. Virtually all of these writings appear in English for the first time (translated from both German and Polish) and many have only recently been identified as having been written by Luxemburg. |
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Prof. Dr. William A. Pelz (1951-2017) I met Bill Pelz for the first time in the fall of 2008. He graciously accepted an invitation to deliver a paper at a conference that a German colleague and I had organized at SUNY Potsdam, a small liberal arts college in upstate NY. Bill, being very much the urbane Chicagonite, seemed amusingly out of place in our rural college town. When I recommended a hiking and camping trip into the nearby Adirondack Mountains later on, Bill could only express his bewilderment at why anybody would voluntarily sleep in a tent instead of opting for the comforts of a hotel. To him, spending a night under an open sky was something forced upon our distant ancestors by necessity, not a fate freely chosen by any rational person. |
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Paul LeBlanc: Living Flame. The Revolutionary Passion of Rosa Luxemburg, Haymarket Books Chicago February 2020, Paperback, 171 pages, ISBN: 9781642590340, $20.00 ($10.00 50% off), with free bundled ebook - Michael Löwy: Rosa Luxemburg’s Open Ended Future: Socialism or Barbarism. Internationalism or Nationalism. 12th ANNUAL NICOS POULANTZAS MEMORIAL LECTURE, GOETHE Institute, Athen, 17th of December 2018. Video: https://urpe.wordpress.com/2019/02/01/michael-lowy-on-rosa-luxemburgs-open-ended-future-socialism-or-barbarism-internationalism-or-nationalism -- William A. Pelz: A People’s History of the German Revolution, London 2018, ISBN 9780745337104 (Paperback) Jean-François Fayet, Valérie Gorin, Stefanie Prezioso (ed.): Echoes of October. International Commemorations of the Bolshevik Revolution 1918-1990, Lawrence and Wishart Chadwell Heath 2017, ISBN: 9781910448960/ 256 pp - Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman La Porte (ed.): Weimar Communism as Mass Movement, 1918 -1933, Lawrence and Wishart Chadwell Heath 2017, ISBN 9781910448984 (Authors: Gerhard Engel, Ottokar Luban, Florian Wilde, Ralf Hoffrogge, Mario Kessler, Norman LaPorte, Marcel Bois, Constance Margain, Stefan Heinz, Sebastian Zehetmair, Ben Fowkes, Frederik Petersson,Bernhard H. Bayerlein) - Xiong Min: Rosa Luxemburg in China: 90 Years of Ups and Downs, July 15, 2017, originally presented at the Left Forum, New York, June 2015 in: http://newpol.org/content/rosa-luxemburg-china-ninety-years-ups-and-downs - Eric Hobsbawm: The Birth of a Holiday. The late Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm recounts the origins of International Workers' Day; in: Jacobin, 05.01.2017: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/05/the-birth-of-a-holiday - Sobhanlal Datta Gupta: Rosa Luxemburg, Seribaan Publisher House Kolkata, India, 2015, Part I of the Series “The Socialist Vision and the Silenced Voices of Democracy: New Perspectives”. ISBN: 81-87492-51-1 - Ralf Hoffrogge: Working Class Politics in the German Revolution. Richard Müller, the Revolutionary Shop Stewards and the Origins of the Concil Movement, Chicago 2015 - Sobhanlal Datta Gupta: Marxism in Dark Times. Select Essays for the New Century. - Riccardo Bellofiore (ed.): Rosa Luxemburg and the critique of political economy [papers of the conference in Bergamo December 2004], London 2009 (see: contents to the right on this site) |
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Bill Pelz and Ottokar Luban, Conferece in Waterloo, Canada 2912 |
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What Bill lacked in camping skills he more than made up with his legendary good humor and gift for friendship. He was a bon vivant, who truly delighted in fine dining and a multitude of brewed beverages. I vividly recall receiving several Christmas cards from him, with the unifying declaration: “Marx: Right about Capitalism. Right about Beer.” To me, Bill’s indefatigable personality has often evoked the milieu of Marx and Engels in London, as it was so colorfully described by Wilhelm Liebknecht in the latter’s famous Karl Marx: Biographical Memoirs of 1896. Bill, of course, had a life-long interest in Wilhelm Liebknecht and edited one of the best anthologies of Liebknecht’s writings in English. The circle of friends and comrades that coalesced around Marx and Engels, between the 1850s and the 1870s, was famously characterized, and in equal measure, by intense political and philosophical debates as well as frequent visits to pubs. Bill’s political and intellectual trajectory had been shaped by the hope that humanity can do better than capitalism. His vision of a socialist alternative remained rooted in his commitment to substantive equality, truly universal human rights, and participatory democracy from below. Bill Pelz proudly identified with his own working-class origins even when he became an increasingly well-known historian and activist. His diverse scholarly oeuvre focuses on the plight of working people on both sides of the Atlantic and their efforts to not only resist exploitation and subjugation, but also fight for a better world. Fighting for such a better world requires, as Bill often emphasized, not only a vision to strive for, but also a systematic analysis of the history of past struggles, with an eye for attempting to learn from both their successes and their failures. In 1988, Bill’s Ph.D. dissertation The Spartakusbund and the German Working Class Movement, 1914-1919, was published by Edwin Mellen Press. This volume was followed by Wilhelm Liebknecht and Social Democracy: A Documentary History, originally published by Greenwood Press in 1994. Haymarket Books of Chicago republished a revised version of this volume in 2016. In 2000, Bill put together his Eugene V. Debs Reader, printed by the Institute for Working Class History in Chicago. Just like his collection on Wilhelm Liebknecht, the Eugene V. Debs Reader has been re-issued recently, when Merlin Press in London published a revised edition in 2014. In 2007, Bill’s Against Capitalism: The European Left on the March came out, chronicling the history of the European labor movement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in an accessible fashion. Yet, while this book focuses on key developments in Europe, such as the Paris Commune, the rise and fall of the First and Second Internationals, as well as the Russian Revolutions of 1917, Bill remained keenly aware of the global reach of capitalism by balancing his narrative with references to developments outside of Europe, such as the Boer Wars in South Africa as well as various anti-colonial movements. This volume, conceptualized as an introductory text for college students and a general readership, was succeeded by Karl Marx: A World to Win, (Pearson Longman Publishers, 2012). This concise volume introduces the thinking and personality of Marx, with Bill’s signature wit. Marx’s:
Bill's love for cats was truly Leninist. Some, like his beloved Engels and Sputnik, were explicitly thanked in the introduction of his books, for their patience and overall support during the writing process. Bill could not resist subverting the customary acknowledgment blurb, noting that any mistake and/or error in the text's judgment was, of course, not the fault of anyone else but …. his cats', who alone should be blamed and scorned accordingly. Last but not least, there is Bill’s A People’s History of Modern Europe, published by Pluto Press in 2016. In sixteen chapters, he describes and analyzes the history of Europe since the Middles Ages -- through the history of ordinary people, -- thus departing from the standard perspective of the political, socio-economic, and cultural elites that still dominate most popular and academic historical surveys. Bill examines not only the oft-barbaric levels of exploitation of working people, by the various ruling classes, but also emphasizes resistance and class struggle, ranging from the Peasant Wars of the 1520s all the way to the struggles for universal voting rights and gender equality in the 19th and 20th centuries. Sadly, Bill will not see the publication of his last book: A People's History of the German Revolution, scheduled to come out in the late Spring of 2018. Much like his A People's History of Modern Europe, this volume is inspired by Howard Zinn's famous A People's History of the United States. Zinn wrote the introduction to the first edition of Bill's anthology of the writings of Eugene Debs and has had an impact on his political and scholarly development. Like Zinn, Bill rejected the pretense of intellectual neutrality and instead openly identified with the perspective of the downtrodden, the oppressed, the exploited, and the marginalized. He understood that revolutions should be approached not only in terms of what they failed to archive but also in terms of what could have been. A successful German revolution in 1918-1919 would have opened up other historical possibilities rather than the trajectory that led to both Stalin and Hitler, among other developments. The historian's craft, if done well, should convey a sense of the ultimate “openness” of historical developments to a range of different possible outcomes. In addition to his various publications, The Institute for Working Class History was a labor of love for Bill, who created it as a non-profit in 2000. The institute’s website describes its mission thus: the Institute of Working Class History (IWCH)* is an independent, non-partisan educational organization dedicated to the examination and promotion of the history of the common people. In 2014, the Institute re-published a volume of selected works by American labor leader Eugene V. Debs as well as organized conferences and seminars. In 2010, the IWCH organized an international conference in Chicago entitled: “A Century of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles.” In 2014, it also co-sponsored the Workers’ Internationalism Before 1914 Conference (with the University of East Anglia, School of History and the journal Socialist History) in Norwich, U.K. In 2016, Bill’s institute also co-sponsored the “Before ‘68: The Left, Activism & Social Movements in the Long 1960s” at the University of East Anglia. Preparations for yet another conference have already been underway for 2018, again co-sponsored by the Institute for Working Class History, the Socialist History journal, and the School of History at the University of East Anglia/UK. Entitled Echoes of Revolution, 1848-1918. Revolution, Nationalism and Socialism, this latest conference is scheduled for February 17-18, 2018 and will now have to unfold without Bill. This unfortunately applies to Bill’s last major organizing effort as well: that is the International Rosa Luxemburg Conference in April 26-29, 2018 in Chicago, under the theme: “Rosa Luxemburg and Her Ideas Engaging the Left and Impacting the World.” Already 20 years ago at the May weekend of 1998 Bill organized in Chicago a successful conference of the International Rosa Luxemburg Society being furthermore engaged in the work of this society at their conferences with papers on Rosa Luxemburg and taking the responsibility of a chairmanship in a chairmen trio in summer 2016. Bill Pelz was drawn to Rosa Luxemburg for her unflinching commitment to an intrinsically linked socialism and democracy. There cannot be any meaningful socialism without democracy, as the sad examples of the so-called real-existing socialism in the Soviet Union and her satellite states have amply illustrated. Thus, there cannot also be any kind of meaningful and lasting democracy, going beyond empty electoral ritualism, without political democracy being augmented by economic democracy, which is the essence of socialism. One does not have to be a Marxist to understand this trajectory, as Thomas Piketty and the so-called Princeton Study demonstrate. To Bill Pelz, the socialist vision was not a call for any one-party dictatorships or a mere return to Keynesian welfare state capitalism but is the expansion of civil society, substantive equality, and the withering away of any oppressive state apparatus. ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS: EDITORIAL APPOINTMENTS: SELECT PUBLICATIONS: Published Articles and Essays: Book Reviews: ========================= |
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FAREWELL TO C L A U D I E W E I L L, In September 2018 Claudie Weill left us, victim of an aggressive cancer. One of the founding members of the International Rosa Luxemburg Association, she took part in many of our meetings, always contributing with new insights of committed historical scholarship. A great loss, not only to us, her friends, but to the growing family of Rosa Luxemburg scholars. Claudie Weill always had a keen interest in Rosa Luxemburg, and took the initiative, in 1971, to translate into French and present her political writings of the last years, that came out as volume two of the her selected writings : Oeuvres II. Oeuvres politiques (1917-18), Editions Maspero. I first met her in 1972 at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris), where she worked as assistant to the well known historian of international socialism, Georges Haupt, and we soon became friends. She told me that she only survived during the war thanks to French protestant people who hid Jewish children in the village of Chambon-sur-Lignon. Georges Haupt proposed that we work together in publishing an anthology of classic Marxists texts on the national question : Marx, Engels, Rosa Luxemburg, Otto Bauer, Lenin, etc. Claudie Weill contributed with precious biographical introductions of each author. The book, Les marxistes et la question nationale 1848-1914 (Paris, Editions Maspero), appeared in 1974 and was re-edited by Editions L'Harmattan in 1997. Claudie continued to work with Haupt, and soon helped him to publish a wonderful selection of Rosa Luxemburg's letters, translated into French : Vive la lutte ! (Long live struggle) Correspondance 1891-1914 and J'étais, je suis, je serai ! (I was, I am, I will be) Correspondance 1914-1919 (Paris, Editions Maspero, 1975, 1977). I still have my copy of the second volume, with friendly autographs of the four editors and translators ; Georges Haupt, Claudie Weill, Irène Petit and Gilbert Badia. In 1983 she co-organised in Paris, together with Markus Bürgi and Gilbert Badia, one of the first conferences of what was still an informal International Study Group on Rosa Luxemburg, created by the initiative of Narihiko Ito. I was together with Claudie at this event, whose proceedings were published by her and Badia : Rosa Luxemburg aujourd'hui, Paris, Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1986. A few years later, she translated (with the help of Bruno Drweski) and presented Rosa Luxemburg's main piece on the national issue, written (in Polish) in 1908-1909 : La question nationale et l'autonomie (Paris, Le Temps des Cerises, 2001). In her introduction, Claudie Weill writes : this is a major text, until now known to most people only through Lenin's polemics. "it allows one to seriously correct the image of Rosa Luxemburg as an uncompromising internationalist - which she indisputably was - who had underestimated or even ignored the national factor. " During all these years Claudie remained an active member of our association, and often took part in its conferences. I insisted, during several years, that she collect her essays on Rosa Luxemburg, and finally, in 2008, she did : this became the small but highly original book Rosa Luxemburg. Ombre et lumière (Shadow and light, Paris, Le Temps des Cérises)., which includes remarkable essays on Rosa Luxemburg and culture, her relation to the Mensheviks, her attitude towards the workers councils, etc. Our last common project, now interrupted by her death, was to be the edition and presentation of Rosa Luxemburg's writings on the national question for the collection of RL's complete works in French by Editions Agone. We lost a dear friend, and socialist scholarhip, a lively and creative thinker. Michael Löwy =============================================== |
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Professor Narihiko Ito (2031 – 2017) Founder and (honorable) Chairman of the International Rosa Luxemburg Society On 29 November 2017 at the age of 86 Professor Narihiko Ito, the Japanese Rosa Luxemburg and peace researcher, passed away. Narihiko Ito was born in 1931 in the old imperial capital of Kamakura which was his residence most of his life time. Till his retirement as Emeritus Professor in 2002, he taught as a distinguished professor in the faculty of Social Sciences at the Chuô University in Tokyo. In between he acted as Visiting Professor in places among which particularly notable is the University of Osnabrück (Germany). Since his young days his social, political and scientific engagement has been concentrated on peace and conflict research. Among his numerous international activities what needs to be stressed in this context is that in 2002-2004 he acted as the Co-Chairman of the International Criminal Tribunal for Afghanistan (IC-TA) and in 2004-2005 of the International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq (ICTI). Among the researchers he obtained international reputation particularly through his sustained activities over three and half decades as the chairman of the International Rosa Luxemburg Society, which was founded in Zürich in 1980 on his initiative. Since then the Society has held many scientific conferences with large international participation in different cities of the world (Beijing, Berlin [2x], Bochum [Germany], Chicago, Guangzhou [China], Hamburg, Moscow, Paris [2x], Seoul, Tampere [Finland], Tokyo [2x], Warsaw, Zürich [2x]) and has, besides, published a series of conference volumes. In the years of the “Cold War” his special concern was to see to it that Rosa Luxemburg researchers from the East and the West could meet and come to an understanding. Further, as a Member of the Advisory Body and as a representative of Japanese social scientists Narihiko Ito has, for many decades, collaborated with the International Conference of Labor and Social History – ITH -- in its annual conferences held in Linz. The list of his publications in Japanese, German and English is long. To name, for example : in Japanese : “Light towards overcoming of Darkness --- For Relations between Japan and Korea in the 21st century” (2000); “A History of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution” (2001, Korean translation 2005, German translation 2006); “Peace and Justice in Palestine !” (2002); in German : ‘Rosa Luxemburg “I embrace you, I so much long for you ”. Letters from Prison 1915-1918’ (Bonn 1980, 1984, 1996); “Japan and peaceful reunification of Korea” (Osnabrück, 2002); “The Peace Article of the Japanese Constitution --- for a World without War and Militarism” (Münster 2006); with Annelies Laschitza & Ottokar Luban (eds.) “Rosa Luxemburg. Economic and historic-political aspects of her Work” (Berlin 2010); German/English: “Guide to the Thought of Rosa Luxemburg” (Tokyo 2007). In 2011 he was conferred the “Literati Network Award for Excellence 2011” for his essay “Is the national question an aporia for humanity? How to read Rosa Luxemburg’s ‘The national question and autonomy’”, in: Research in Political Economy, 2011/vol. 26. The major accomplishment of his life has been the struggle for the retention of Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, which forbids the right to wage war, the working of which the conservative Japanese regime has always tried to strike at. Among other activities he has been involved in intensive activities concerning an understanding with Korea after the end of Japanese colonial rule. On the occasion of the centenary of Japan’s annexation of Korea Narihiko Ito organized a big Congress in Tokyo in 2010 in which more than 1000 persons participated. No such comparable event has taken place in the two Koreas. A decade long friendship tied him in 2009 with the deceased South Korean President Kim Dae-Jong, the initiator of “sunshine politics”. As member of the Steering Committee of the Annual China-Japan Civil meet for Peace in Asia as well as a Rosa Luxemburg researcher since 1986 he has been tied up with the Chinese colleagues towards building up important contacts for reconciliation with China, which was once occupied by Japan. The other meaningful achievement of his life has been his self-funded work on Rosa Luxemburg and the constant, intensive inspiration that he has provided to international Rosa Luxemburg research through the scholarly network, the International Rosa Luxemburg Society, which he has guided. Thus, he initiated even the last international Rosa Luxemburg conferences in Moscow (2011), Paris (2013) and Seoul (2015) and in 2014 brought out a volume in Japanese comprising the presentations made in these conferences. Despite his impaired health, particularly his eye sight, as its honored chairman his wide contacts with the International Rosa Luxemburg Society continue. Because of this inspiration a wide range of essays, monographs, editions, conference volumes over Rosa Luxemburg has appeared in different parts of the world over the last few years : in Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain, India, South Korea, USA (see: site “Weitere Ankündigungen”). Most importantly, supplementary volumes of the hitherto unknown works of Rosa Luxemburg are being published under the editorship of Annelies Laschitza and Eckhard Müller (2 volumes, each 900 pages) and Holger Politt is engaged in editing the translations of the Polish works as well. For international Rosa Luxemburg research what is of great importance is the English language project of “The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg” in which two volumes, under the chief editorship of Peter Hudis, have appeared (see: site “Weitere Ankündigungen”) and there is also the Chinese project of bringing out an edition of the complete works. In France too, after publication of three volumes a complete edition of Luxemburg’s works is being worked upon (see: site “Français). Professor Narihiko Ito has contributed as a prominent motive builder that Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas have not only stayed alive but the circulation of her ideas is being experienced internationally too very widely. His colleagues and friends all over the world will keep his legacy and continue his work. Prepared by György Széll and Ottokar Luban - Translation into English: Sobhanlal Datta Gupta _____________________________________________________
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Prof. Dr. Feliks Tych (1929-2015) An Outstanding Rosa Luxemburg Researcher Historian of the European Labor Movement, and of Post-Holocaust Issues On February 17th, 2015 Feliks Tych passed away in Warsaw at the age of 85. The distinguished Polish scholar is well known to North American and UK historians mainly for his important research results on the famous Polish-German socialist Rosa Luxemburg and on the “Jewish Bund”. During World War II his Jewish parents could give him to a Polish family. So he survived while all other family members became victims of the Holocaust. After the war he studied history in Warsaw and Moscow and in 1960 he received his post-doctoral degree (habilitation) with a thesis about the Left Polish Socialist Party in World War I. Between 1956 and 1968 he worked at the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences and in the History Department of the Polish Workers Movement. During these years and later on, too, he initiated several important projects and edited very carefully reference books and document volumes e. g. the “Biographical Dictionary of Polish Labor Movement”, the “Archive of Labor Movement” with unknown documents from Polish and Russian archives in 11 volumes, the Journal “Z pola walki“ with many essays and documentations like some unknown Rosa Luxemburg letters which were discovered by Feliks Tych in a Moscow archive. But in 1968 as a result of the anti-Jewish purges in Poland he was dismissed. Nevertheless he continued his scientific work - for the next two years as a “free” academic writer - publishing 3 volumes with the complete Rosa Luxemburg letters to her close companion Leo Jogiches - a pioneer work which was translated into German, French, and English and gave much impact and inspiration to the Rosa Luxemburg research. It was especially this work that gave him an international reputation in the early years of his career. When the anti-Semitic wave in Poland went down again he could work as the head of the archive of the Polish Labor Party and was appointed as extraordinary professor in 1970, as full professor in 1982. After the cancellation of travel restrictions by the Polish communist authorities for him he could join again the “International Conference of Labour and Social History” an annual congress in the city of Linz in Austria and meeting place for international scholars of labor movement. During his permanent active participation he influenced the meetings as a “bridge constructor” between the “Eastern” and “Western” historians which was quite a difficult but important task in the era of the “Cold War”. In the same sense he worked actively in the “International Rosa Luxemburg Society” (Chairman: Prof. Narihiko Ito, Tokyo) since its foundation in 1980. Due to his international reputation he received invitations from foreign universities and in the 1990s worked as visiting professor at several German universities. From 1995 to 2006 he headed the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw for which he improved its financial stability and of its scientific and public influence and reputation. One result was the “Museum of Polish Jews” which he initiated and realized with the help of many volunteers. Several important publication projects (some of which he even continued after his retirement) were e. g. document editions like the Ringelblum archive papers from the Warsaw Ghetto, the documents on the Polish Jews who had fled to the Russian occupied part of Poland, children interviews protocols on the holocaust (1944-1948). At the same time he still lectured and published on labor movement issues. As a special honor he was asked to take over the memorial speech before the German Parliament on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, 27 January 2010. Prof. Tych leaves a rich scientific heritage: He was author of five monographs, a most careful editor of 26 tomes of reference books on labor movement and Jewish history in Eastern and Central Europe during the late 19th and the 20th century. He was a most appreciated lecturer at international conferences and a much demanded writer by scientific journals with altogether about 300 papers. Many of his works have been published not only in Poland but also in other countries from Germany on to France, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Israel, the US, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Ottokar Luban (“International Rosa Luxemburg Society”) Translation from German into English: Dr. Rory Castle ________________________________________ |
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Circular International R o s a – L u x e m b u r g – S o c i e t y (IRLS) End of August 2016 Dear friends of the IRLS, due to severe health problems especially with his eye sight it is no more possible for our chairman Prof. Dr. Narihiko Ito to make long journeys for participating in our conferences and to correspond directly with the colleagues of the IRLS. Therefore Prof. Ito recognized himself that we need a successor (or successors) to continue his work with the IRLS. With his own profound research results, with the International Rosa Luxemburg Society (IRLS), founded by him in 1980, its conferences and publications, he made a very strong and crucial impact on the international academic community to keep Rosa Luxemburg’s ideas not only alive but to spread them all over the world. You can see the success of these activities in recent monographs on Rosa Luxemburg in many countries like Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Great-Britain, India, new conference volumes in China, Japan, and France, also new editions of her works in Brazil, France, (South-)Korea, Germany and – most important – the big crucial projects of the Complete Rosa Luxemburg Works in English with the chief editor Prof. Dr. Peter Hudis, in French by the Collectif Smolny, and in Chinese (!!!) by the Rosa Luxemburg scholars of the University of Wuhan with Prof. Dr. He Ping. Crucial editions of yet unprinted works in German or from Polish were published or are going to be published soon under the editorship of Prof. Dr. Annelies Laschitza – together with Dr. Eckhard Müller – and for the translating and editing of the Polish works Dr. Holger Politt. To a great extent this is the result of Prof. Ito’s long lasting intensive activities of many decades since the 1970 years. If the IRLS would not exist anymore an important element of promoting Rosa Luxemburg’s alternative understanding of socialism would be missed. In today’s world we are greatly in need of it. After an intense exchange of opinions we found the following new organizational structure:
Best wishes Sobhanlal Datta Gupta, sobhanlaldattagupta@gmail.com William A. Pelz, Pablo Slavin, slavinpe@gmail.com Ottokar Luban, oluban@gmx.de
Advisory Board of the International Rosa Luxemburg Society Jacqueline Bois (France), Prof. Dr. Frigga Haug (Germany), |
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Past Event: International Conference on Rosa Luxemburg Paris, October 2013 |
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You find a first report in English on the website Videos of all lectures and discussions:English and French Printed versions of three papers in French: |
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Past Conference of the .International R o s a L u x e m b u r g Society October 5 / 6, 2011 in Moscow. at the R G A S P I (Russian State Archive of Social-Political History) Main Conference Issues:
See also the conference report (in German) on the site “Konferenzen” with several German and English lecture papers as downloads. Co-organizers: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation with its Moscow Office, Foundation “Alternatives”, Moscow ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conference Reader (in German) with essays from the events in Tokyo (2007) and Berlin (2009) has been published at the end of 2010: Rosa Luxemburg. Ökonomische und historisch-politische Aspekte ihres Werkes. Internationale Rosa-Luxemburg-Gesellschaft in Tokio, April 2007, und Berlin, Januar 2009, Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin 2010, ca. 190 S., Broschur, 16,90 €, ISBN 978-3-320-02233-4 --------------------------
P a s t International Conference in Chicago: A Century of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles These were the lectures on Rosa Luxemburg :
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- Helmut Konrad (ed.): Masao Nishikawa: Socialists and International Actions for Peace 1914 - 1923, Berlin 2010 - Nirmal Ray: Rosa Luxemburg. A Revolutionary Socialist, vol. I, Kolkata [India] 2005 -Sobhanlal Datta Gupta: Rosa Luxemburg, Seribaan Publisher House Kolkata, India, 2015, Part I of the Series “The Socialist Vision and the Silenced Voices of Democracy: New Perspectives”. ISBN: 81-87492-51-1 - Jacqueline Rose: Women in Dark Times, London 2014 - Stefanie Ehmsen and Albert Scharenberg (eds), Rosa Remix, New York: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, 2016, download of complete text: http://www.rosalux-nyc.org/wp-content/files_mf/rosa_remixtxt_web.pdf |
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"Only The Strongest Fight Throughout Their Entire Lives" Prof. Dr.Theodor Bergmann (1916-2017) It seemed that the older he grew the less likely it was that he could actually die. Even after Theodor Bergmann celebrated his 100th birthday, this indefatigable Professor of Agricultural Sciences and, later on, historian of the labor movement continued his busy schedule of delivering public lectures and authoring books. He ever sparkled with vitality and new ideas. Just a few months ago, the VSA-Verlag published Der chinesische Weg. Versuch, eine ferne Entwicklung zu verstehen. [The Chinese Way. An Attempt to Understand a Development in a Far-Away Place.] It turned out to be his last book. On June 12th, Theodor Bergmann passed away, -- being well into his one hundredth and second year, -- in his elected home of Stuttgart, Germany. With his death, the last living connection to the labor movement of the Weimar Republic has been severed: he was the final surviving participant and eye witness. Born on March 7th, 1916, in Berlin, to a large Rabbinical family, young Theo joined the Communist movement in 1929, but he did not join the Communist Party of Germany [KPD]. Instead, he opted for the anti-Stalinist KPD-Opposition, the KPO, which had coalesced around Heinrich Brandler and August Thalheimer. Theodor Bergmann remained committed to their example, of a critical Marxism, for the rest of his long life. He searched for a world, where freedom and social justice would be intrinsically connected. To him, only a truly emancipatory socialism had the potential to bring such a world into existence; yet, Theodor Bergmann also knew, only too well, what Bertolt Brecht had alluded to, when he characterized socialism as “the simple thing that is so difficult to do.” Theodor Bergmann was only 17 years old in 1933, when the Nazi rise to power forced him into exile – to Palestine, Czechoslovakia, and Sweden, as stops along the way. His life was hard and often dangerous, and twice the Nazis came very close to capturing him. In 1946, he returned to West Germany, as Stalinist East Germany was no alternative to him. He found political belonging, in the group “Arbeiterpolitik” [Worker’s Politics], and also a personal home with comrade Gretel Steinhilber, who, like Theo, was active within the KPO. In his memoirs (that he updated and republished on the occasion of his 100th birthday), he described succinctly how arduous his journey had been, from having been an agricultural laborer, living in exile, to finally becoming a professor, for Internationally-Comparative Agricultural Policy at the University of Stuttgart-Hohenheim. And not surprisingly, more than a few “colleagues,” -- with a Nazi past, -- tried to undermine and sabotage Theodor Bergmann’s academic career. Ultimately, Bergmann prevailed, thanks to his legendary work energy, immense discipline, and an unyielding optimism -- that defined him until his last day. The range of his productivity and creativity is underscored by the over 60 books that he either wrote or edited, as well as his several-hundred published scholarly papers, and another several-hundred journalistic pieces, -- which have appeared on five different continents. He generously shared his immense knowledge and insights, without being pretentious or condescending, and was a genuine socialist Weltbürger, a citizen of the world. Bergmann was fluent in five languages, both as a writer and as a speaker. On top of that, he had a reading knowledge of another half-dozen languages as well. No fewer than seventeen times, he traveled to China on his own dime and to Israel even more frequently. There were many trips to India and Pakistan, among many other countries, in order to better “understand developments" there. Never an armchair academic, Theo Bergman, while living in exile, worked as a Hebrew teacher, a mine worker, and as an agricultural laborer. Agriculture became his chosen field, when he could finally consider a more academic career. In 1947, he was finally able to finish his college degree in agricultural science in Bonn. He had begun his studies in exile but was prevented by circumstances from finishing until after World War II. Yet, even with his degree in hand, any thought of an academic career seemed unrealistic for a long time to come. As an unskilled worker in the metal-processing industry, later on as an employee of the Chamber of Agricultural Affairs in Hannover, and finally as a project leader in Turkey, Bergmann worked to complete his Doctoral degree, as well as his second Doctoral Degree [the so-called Habilitation: the prerequisite for university teaching]. This was in addition to his regular professional duties and without much support. It was not until 1973 that he became a professor in Stuttgart-Hohenheim. There, he helped students who were targeted by the anti-Leftist witch hunts of the era, including the extensive black listings and other forms of harassment, and he offered his help regardless of whether he agreed with the specific ideological perspective of the targeted students or not. Theodor Bergmann’s field of specialization, in his teaching as well as in his research, focused on the comparative study of the developmental agricultural models and cooperatives in different countries, especially China, India, and Israel. Even today, his former students and Ph.D. candidates speak fondly about his helpfulness, his impressive expertise, and his exceedingly well-rounded humanistic learning. While being unassuming and approachable, Bergmann nevertheless demanded a great deal from his students, – while always arguably demanding the most from himself. The history and politics of the labor movement became increasingly central to Bergmann’s intellectual activities, especially after his official retirement, which led him to be busier than ever. His history of the anti-Stalinist KPO, entitled Gegen den Strom [Against the Current], appeared first in 1987 and has come out in several new and expanded editions since. It is now a well-established classic in the field. In addition, he wrote well-documented works on the Comintern, the Spanish Civil War, the Israeli-Arab Conflict, to mention just a few. Theo Bergmann also initiated, together with his colleague and friend Gert Schäfer, a range of international conferences on the history and current problems of the labor and union movements, e.g. on Karl Marx and August Thalheimer in 1983 and 1984, in the Stuttgart area, also on Trotsky, Bukharin, Lenin, the Russian Revolution, and Friedrich Engels – among others. In word and deed, and via his extensive networking skills, he supported the work of the Rosa Luxemburg Society presenting own papers at its conferences, editing several conference readers and initiatating and co-organizing the important international congress of the International Rosa Luxemburg Society in Guangzhou/Canton in 2004 with an eventful information tour around the Chinese country side. Theodor Bergmann saw himself as a critical Marxist. Hence it was no surprise that his work was banned in the former GDR. Yet, it was only natural for him to come to the aid of East Germany’s disenfranchised scholars after 1990, -- despite the fact that they were supposed to denounce Theodor Bergmann as a “revisionist” and “renegade,” during the GDR’s existence. He joined the PDS [Party for Democratic Socialism – the new organization that emerged from the ashes of the old SED ruling party] and led its state division in Baden-Württemberg for some time, remaining active in the political-education efforts of the party until the end of his life. Theo Bergmann especially enjoyed speaking in front of high school students, and he was frequently invited to do so. He placed great important on sharing his personal experiences, -- as his long life of great peril and important insights fascinated the politically-curious from younger generations. I myself recall rather fondly how my college students in Potsdam/Germany stood open-mouthed, as Theo Bergmann concluded a freely-delivered talk, followed by a spirited discussion and Q & A session, and then finished with the remark: “I hope that I have not exhausted you too much.” At that point, Theo Bergmann was already over 100-years old. Theodor Bergmann was consequent and consistent in his thinking and conduct. Yet, he could also empathize with the human shortcomings in others, as not everybody could always fight. Those who falter don’t need our constant criticism, but they always need our solidarity. Theo embodied Bertolt Brecht's sentiment that "[t]he weak do not fight. The stronger ones fight for maybe an hour. Those who are even stronger might fight for many years. But the strongest fight during the entire lives. They are indispensable." Theodor Bergmann never thought of himself as indispensable. But he was it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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2015 ‘Socialism in Asia and Europe’ 27 - 28 November 2015 See program: http://ieas21.or.kr/rosa2015/ |
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May 2015 The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume II: Economic Writings 2, Rosa Luxemburg’s theoretical masterpiece Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) is widely regarded as one of the most creative writers of modern socialism and the foremost female theoretician of European radicalism. Her wide-ranging and incisive works, which include studies on capitalism’s inherent drive for global expansion, the relation between spontaneity and organization, and the inseparability of democracy and socialism, have made her a pole of attraction for theorists and activists around the world. Her fiercely independent intellect and uncompromising defense of human liberty speaks more powerfully to our era than to any other. - The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg, Volume 1: Economic Writings I Part of the The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg series |
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February 2011 The Letters of Rosa LuxemburgEdited by Annelies Laschitza, Georg Adler, and Peter Hudis Translated by George Shriver Letters from the heroic German revolutionary to her comrades, friends and lovers. This is the most comprehensive collection of letters by Rosa Luxemburg ever published in English, including 190 letters written to leading figures in the European and international labor and socialist movements like Leo Jogiches, Karl Kautsky, Clara Zetkin and Karl Liebknecht and others who were her closest friends, lovers and colleagues. Many of these letters appear for the first time in English translation; all help to illuminate the inner life of this iconic revolutionary, who was at once an economic and social theorist, a political activist and a lyrical stylist. Her political concerns are revealed alongside her personal struggles within a socialist movement that was often hostile to independently minded women. This collection will provide readers with a newer and deeper appreciation of Luxemburg as a writer and historical figure. |
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Hardback, 512 pages, ISBN: 9781844674534 Verso Publisher’s House London / New York 2011 $ 39.95 / £ 25.00 Published in February 2011 |
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An interesting Rosa Luxemburg blog in England: |
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- Sobhanlal Datta Gupta: Rosa Luxemburg, Seribaan Publisher House Kolkata, India, 2015, Part I of the Series “The Socialist Vision and the Silenced Voices of Democracy: New Perspectives”. ISBN: 81-87492-51-1 - Kate Evans: Red Rosa, a Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg, written and illustrated by Kate Evans, edited and with an afterword by Paul Buhle, London /Brooklyn, N.Y., 2015. ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-099-9 - All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918 -1919. Edited and Translated by Gabriel Kuhn, PM Press Oakland, CA, USA, 2012, The Merlin Press, Pontypool, Wales, U.K., 2012, ISBN: 978-1-60486-111-2; |
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Unedited English Papers from the International Conference in Tokyo, April 2007 - Doğan Goecmen (Adıyaman, Turkey): Rosa Luxemburg, the legacy of classical German philosophy and the fundamental methodological questions of social and political theory1 - Subhoranjan Dasgupta (Kolkata, India): Rosa Luxemburg’s Response to and Critique of Creativity and Culture - He Ping (Wuhan, China): Rosa Luxemburg “The Accumulation of Capital” and China - Michael R. Kraetke (Lancaster, U.K.): Rosa Luxemburg – Her analysis of Imperialismand her contribution to the critique of political economy (First draft) - William A. Pelz (Chicago, USA): Another Luxemburgism is Possible: Reflections on Rosa and the Radical Socialist Project” - Pablo Slavin (Mar del Plata, Argentina): Rosa Luxemburg’s concept of Democracy - Gyoergy Szell (Osnabrück, Germany): Militarism &Capitalism - Zhou Shangwen (Shanghai, China)/Zhang Zhiyao (Yangzhou, China): Rosa Luxemburg’s Contribution to the Movement of Women’s Emancipation - Zhou Shangwen (Shanghai, China)/Zhang Zhiyao（Yangzhou, China）: How Rosa Luxembourg Look On Marxism and Socialism - Zhao kai-rong (Wuhan, China): Marxism: how to face the challenge of nationalism? The divergence and its contemporary significance of Marx, Lenin, Luxemburg’s thought on nationalism
Unedited English Papers from the International Conference in Berlin, January 2009 - He Ping (Wuhan, China): Studies of Rosa Luxemburg in China since 2006 - Sobhanlal Datta Gupta (Kolkata, India): Rosa Luxemburg’s Letters as Texts of a New Vision of Revolutionary Democracy and Socialism |
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June 2009 Rosa Luxemburg and the Critique of Political Economy Edited by Riccardo Bellofiore This book analyzes the important contributions of Rosa Luxemburg to economic theory as well as devoting some space to her background as a left social-democratic politician and her personality. The book's main focus of attention is the theory of capitalist development and the theory of the crash, but its connection with the theory of value, the theory of the monetary circuit, the theory of distribution and the theory of international finance are also explored. The contributors to the volume come from different theoretical perspectives, both from within and outside the Marxian tradition - Post-Keynesians, Kaleckians and Circuitists are all included. Table of Contents Rosa Luxemburg and the Critique of Political Economy, edited by Riccardo Bellofiore, Routledge Studies in the History of Economics, Routledge: Thirteen papers discuss Rosa Luxemburg's contribution to Marxian critical political economy. Papers explore: Rosa Luxemburg's on capitalist dynamics, distribution and effective demand crises (Riccardo Bellofiore) Luxemburg's critique of Karl Marx's schemes of reproduction--a reevaluation and a possible generalization (Meghnad Desai and Roberto Veneziani); Where does the money and demand- come from?--Rosa Luxemburg and the Marxian reproduction schema (Andrew B. Trigg); The monetary circuit of capital in the Anti-Critique (Riccardo Bellofiore); Late Marx and Luxemburg--opening a development within political economy (Paul Zarembka); Rosa Luxemburg and finance (Jan Toporowski); Economics, politics, and crisis theory--Luxemburg, Bukharin, and Grossmann on the limits of capital (Paul Mattick); Luxemburg's and Kalecki's theories and visions of capitalist dynamics (Tadeusz Kowalik); Imperialism today (Joseph Halevi); Rosa Luxemburg on imperialism--some issues of substance and method (Roberto Veneziani); Rosa Luxemburg's The Accumulation of Capital: East and West (He Ping); A very political political economist-- Rosa Luxemburg's theory of wages (Michael R. Kraetke); Rosa Luxemburg on trade unions and the party--the polemics with Kautsky and Lenin--an assessment (Andrea Panaccione); and Luxemburg--the woman, the revolutionary (Edoarda Masi). Riccardo Bellofiore is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Bergamo and Research Associate with the Centre for the History and Methodology of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. Index. Author Biography Riccardo Bellofiore is at the University of Bergamo, Italy. June 2009: 216pp | Hardback: 978-0-415-40570-6 £70.00 DISCOUNTED PRICE £56.00 €66.00 For more information visit: www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415405706/ For more details, or to request a copy for review, please contact: Gemma Walker, Marketing Co-ordinator Gemma.Walker@tandf.co.uk +44 (0) 207 017 6192 |
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Toward the United Front
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A most interesting website |
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