Assignment #6

October 29, 2013

The Junius Pamphlet: passage

One thing is certain. The world war is a turning point. It is foolish and mad to imagine that we need only survive the war, like a rabbit waiting out the storm under a bush, in order to fall happily back into the old routine once it is over. The world war has altered the conditions of our struggle and, most of all, it has changed us. Not that the basic law of capitalist development, the life-and-death war between capital and labor, will experience any amelioration. But now, in the midst of the war, the masks are falling and the old familiar visages smirk at us. The tempo of development has received a mighty jolt from the eruption of the volcano of imperialism. The violence of the conflicts in the bosom of society, the enormousness of the tasks that tower up before the socialist proletariat – these make everything that has transpired in the history of the workers’ movement seem a pleasant idyll. (“Luxemburg”)

            According to Luxemburg, the war affected everyone. The rich and worst of all the poor or working class. The turning point is when Germany failed to capture Paris, it was the beginning of the end, everything that was to lead to victory failed and Germany was defeated.  People were fooled into believing that once the war was over things would be better, the economy and government would improve. They could return to their safe, warm, home - the government would provide and support –but nothing is the same, life is bleak, the proletariats who were struggling before, now they have to fight for rations, protect their women, avoid mobs, and heed curfews for their own safety among other things. There is little hope for any improvement in the relationship between the poor and the rich sector; there is still a large divide, an imbalance if you will, between the two. There are sudden demands for workers during an opportunistic time, the rich oppress, plunder, and exploit the poor to gain profit. The power struggle among the leaders, the rich and how it affects the poor more so than any other sector is again about to boil over. It seemed intolerable before but now it is survival of the fittest. There is no going back to the good old, simple days.  She was against war, and considered it suicidal.

         Nihilism fuels capitalism and capitalism feeds on anything like a parasite, especially war. Nihilism causes war which leads to destruction and death. War is meaningless, a power struggle if you must, a means to an end, while to the next man it creates a capitalistic atmosphere which may or may not lead to an imperialist gravesite for the poor. When there is war everything changes. There is the opportunity to capitalize on another’s defeat and or victory. There are shortages of food supplies, medicine, arms, failed value of their currency. And worst the atrocities. During and after the war, defeated Germany was crushed, the collapsed economy and unstable government created chaos. Of course the working class has no choice but to keep challenging the unstable government, and the private sector because they need work to feed their families and to survive. Luxemberg helps us to see what many people endured during one of the most difficult times in history, how people in general never gave up hope, even though they felt as if the government had failed them. Bourgeois class domination is undoubtedly an historical necessity, but, so too, the rising of the working class against it. Capital is an historical necessity, but, so too, it’s grave digger, the socialist proletariat. Rosa Luxemburg