*Rosa Luxemburg at 150: Revisiting Her Radical Life and Legacy*
An online symposium hosted by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung and the
International Rosa Luxemburg Society in commemoration of the 150th
anniversary of her birth
4–5 March 2021
www.rosalux.de/rosa-at-150 <http://www.rosalux.de/rosa-at-150>
Born in southeastern Poland on 5 March 1871, Rosa Luxemburg was a
towering figure of the classical socialist movement— a brilliant
thinker, sharp-tongued rhetorician, and trailblazing leader of the
proletarian cause. The famed socialist historian and journalist Franz
Mehring once called her the "best brain after Marx". Her comrade and
dear friend Clara Zetkin described her as the "sharp sword, the living
flame of revolution". Even Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, with whom
she often clashed, was compelled to acknowledge her status as an "eagle"
of the Communist movement, at least in retrospect.
She was, by all accounts, a truly unique figure. A Jew, a Polish woman,
physically disabled and politically an irreconcilable Marxist—the
obstacles to her pursuing her aims in life were legion, yet she rose to
become one of the paramount leaders of the largest and strongest
socialist movement in the Western world, German Social Democracy. In her
short but brilliant career, she locked horns with the Prussian military
elite several times and spoke as equals with Karl Kautsky, August Bebel,
Victor Adler, and many other leading lights of socialism. As a political
agitator she rallied masses of workers against capitalism and
imperialist warfare, while also challenging Marxist orthodoxy as both a
theorist and instructor at the Social Democratic party school in Berlin.
Yet since being cut down by proto-fascist thugs in January 1919,
Luxemburg has been memorialized as a martyr for the revolution and a
symbol of the tragic highs and lows of Germany's twentieth century more
than anything else. While her name and image remains iconic, her
prodigious intellectual output and many contributions to socialist
theory, have often been reduced to footnotes.
In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of her birth, the
Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung together with the International Rosa Luxemburg
Society will hold a two-day virtual symposium on Rosa Luxemburg's
political and economic thought, highlighting her many contributions to
the socialist idea and seeking to apply those insights to our
twenty-first century reality, riven by economic crisis and the social
pressures wrought by a global pandemic. What can Luxemburg teach us
about economic crisis, gender relations, revolutionary patience, and the
struggle for a world beyond capitalism? Where have her ideas remained
relevant, and where do they require modification?
Join us on 4–5 March 2021 for a series of panels, discussions, and
keynote lectures on the life and legacy of this incredible woman, for
whom "the most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim
loudly what is happening".
Programme
4 March
*All times Central European Time (CET)/UCT+1
11:00 Opening remarks from Johanna Bussemer (RLS) and Ottokar Luban (IRLG)
11:15 Keynote presentation by Michael Löwy, "Either/Or: Rosa Luxemburg's
Radical Commitment to Socialist Internationalism"
13.00 Rosa Luxemburg's Reception on the Asian Continent
Chair: Sobhanlal Datta Gupta
Xiong Min, "What can Rosa Luxemburg tell us about being an intellectual
today?"
Ravi Kumar, "Rosa Luxemburg and the pedagogy of revolution: reflections
from the Indian Left"
Sibok Chang, "Rosa Luxemburg's reception and impact in Korea"
Michael R. Kraetke, "Rosa Luxemburg's heterodox view on the Global South"
15:00 The Enduring Question: Feminism and Rosa Luxemburg
Chair: Sandra Rein
Ankica Čakardić, "What is Luxemburgian feminism?"
Frigga Haug, "How to use Luxemburg's thoughts for feminist politics?"
17:00 Rosa Luxemburg in Latin America
Chair: Pablo Slavin
Rosa Rosa Gomes, "An analysis of the Brazilian Left from Luxemburg's
point of view"
Marina Kabat, "Rosa Luxemburg, the mass strike debate, and its
implications for understanding contemporary labor unrest and political
dynamics in Latin America"
Juliana Tumini, "The role of the right to the city as an instrument of
revolution in Latin America: A view from Rosa Luxemburg's perspective"
Tomás Várnagy, "Rosa Luxemburg, a Central European revolutionary"
19:00 Book Launch: Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg
Chair: Albert Scharenberg
Drucilla Cornell and Jane Gordon "'I Have a Thousand More Things I Want
to Say to You': An Introduction to Creolizing Rosa Luxemburg"
Paget Henry, "Claudia Jones, Political Economy, and the Creolizing of
Rosa Luxemburg"
Robin D.G. Kelley, "Walter Rodney's Russian Revolution and the Curious
Case of Rosa Luxemburg"
Siddhant Issar and John McMahon "Rosa Luxemburg and the Primitive
Accumulation of Whiteness"
5 March
11.15 Opening remarks for day 2 from Loren Balhorn (RLS)
11:30 Rosa Luxemburg and the Challenge of Political Strategy (tbc)
Chair: Johanna Bussemer
Lea Ypi
Gabriel Wollner
Michael Brie
14:00 Rosa Luxemburg and the Written Word
Chair: Julia Killet
Kate Evans, "Writing Red Rosa: creating the graphic biography of Rosa
Luxemburg"
Helen Scott, "Rosa Luxemburg's Literary Analysis"
Dana Mills, "'By itself every book is something terrible
unapproachable': Rosa Luxemburg as a reader & culture enthusiast"
16:00 Rosa Luxemburg Today: The Accumulation of Capital and The Mass
Strike in the Crisis of Neoliberal Capitalism
Chair: Ingo Schmidt
Riccardo Bellofiore, "Stagnation and progress in Marxism after Rosa
Luxemburg"
Radhika Desai, "Capitalist contradictions and imperialism in Rosa
Luxemburg's thought"
Rida Vaquas, "Rosa Luxemburg's political mass strike and the
international labour movement today"
Robert Ovetz, "The continuing relevance of The Mass Strike: Reading Rosa
Luxemburg as strategy"
18.00 Closing keynote presentation by Peter Hudis, "Using Rosa Luxemburg
to understand racialized capitalism"
No registration is required to participate. Watch the conference live on
our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/rosaluxglobal/
<http://www.facebook.com/rosaluxglobal/>
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