Rosa Luxemburg's War

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Rosa Luxemburg was a political activist who was against World War I. She was a “defender of Marxist purity against all comers. (Luxemburg, 1916)” Although she spent most of her time in jail during the war, she smuggled out a pamphlet published under the name “Junius”. This pamphlet would become the basis of a new group she would form with other communists call the Spartacus League, and ultimately the Communist Party of Germany. She would be considered handicapped in Germany since she was a woman, Jewish and Polish. Luxemburg, along with other members of Spartacus were murdered by right wing vigilantes on January 15, 1919. Luxemburg was a proponent figure in opposition to the first World War. She argued that World War I was …show more content…

She predicted a German victory but this was not the case, however, she did predict the economic consequences the war would have on Germany. In the first World War, Germany faced defeat and had to pay war reparations. As she states in her pamphlet, “After a "victorious" war the German people would have to pay back the war credits granted by the patriotic parliament, that is, in reality have to bear an immense burden of taxation while enduring a strengthened military reaction--the only lasting, tangible fruit of "victory." She was accurate in her prediction as Germany did have to pay war reparations. Germany faced one of the heaviest consequences of the war because they went into massive debt and their currency, the German Mark, had become worthless. This also gives Luxemburg validity as she had warned that war would cause problems between other countries. She warned that second war would come for the loser of the of the first war. She states, “And directly upon the liquidation of this world war, these [conflicts] may lead to a new world war, perhaps over Constantinople, and would certainly make it likely. Thus, from this side, too, [an Anglo-French] victory would lead to a new feverish armaments race among all the states--with defeated Germany obviously in the forefront. An era of unalloyed militarism and reaction would dominate all Europe with a new world war as its …show more content…

She states in her pamphlet, “that is the mass destruction of the European proletariat. Never before on this scale has a war exterminated whole strata of the population; not for a century have all the great and ancient cultural nations of Europe been attacked. Millions of human lives have been destroyed in the Vosges, the Ardennes, in Belgium, Poland, in the Carpathians, on the Save. Millions have been crippled. But of these millions, nine out of ten are working people from the city and the countryside. (Luxemburg, 2016)” She sees the war as a loss in terms of gaining new and current supporters of the communist movement. Instead of calling for unity and peace, the working class is being sent out for slaughter in a war for the

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