“If indeed the socialist commonwealth were an impossibility, then mankind would be cut off from all further economic development. In that event modern society would decay, as did the Roman empire nearly two thousand years ago, and finally relapse into barbarism.

“As things stand today capitalist civilization cannot continue; we must either move forward into socialism or fall back into barbarism.”:rosa:

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.

“Democracy is indispensable to the working class, because only through the exercise of its democratic rights, in the struggle for democracy, can the proletariat become aware of its class interests and its historic task.”:rosa:

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.

“Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party – though they are quite numerous – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always the freedom of the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of justice, but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when ‘freedom’ becomes a special privilege.”

Hola Camaradas :fidel-salute-big: , Our Comrades In Texas are currently passing Through some Hard times :amerikkka: so if you had some Leftover Change or are a bourgeoisie Class Traitor here are some Mutual Aid programs that you could donate to :left-unity-3:

The State and Revolution :flag-su:

:lenin-shining: :unity: :kropotkin-shining:

The Conquest of Bread :ancom:

Remember, sort by new you :LIB:

Yesterday’s megathread :sad-boi:

Follow the ChapoChat twitter account :comrade-birdie:

THEORY; it’s good for what ails you (all kinds of tendencies inside!) :RIchard-D-Wolff:

COMMUNITY CALENDAR - AN EXPERIMENT IN PROMOTING USER ORGANIZING EFFORTS :af:

Join the fresh and beautiful batch of new comms:

!genzedong@hexbear.net :deng-salute:

!agitprop@hexbear.net :allende-rhetoric:

!paganism@hexbear.net :anarchist-occult:

!neurodiverse@hexbear.net :Care-Comrade:

_

_

:hammer-sickle: Question of the Day :hammer-sickle:

Who is your favorite non ML Marxist :rosa-shining:

  • EconomicCumflation [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Pretty sure it's been six months as of today since I quit smoking :deng-smile:

    What a waste of money that was

  • lizbo [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Anyone else here distrustful as fuck of medical professionals?

    I am a recovering addict and I feel like I cannot disclose this to anyone in the profession without the risk of me getting ripped off of the prescriptions that literally keep me from killing myself. And ofc if this were to happen and I became upset, this would be labelled "drug seeking behaviour" (FWIW I currently take all of my medications as prescribed). I am disgusted by the medical profession's obsession with treating patients with addiction issues as liars and criminals. I have heard so many testimonies that are basically: if you have substance abuse issues in your medical records, you are assumed for the rest of your life to be untrustworthy and never in legitimate need of scheduled prescriptions.

    Oh and apparently in my country, the federal court can force therapists to disclose records from sessions so they can be used against you during prosecution. So yeah you have no confidentiality even before being found guilty. Makes me fucking sick.

    • maverick [they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Doctors fucking suck, I'm completely with you here. I've been chronically ill for basically my whole life and I can't count the number of shitty doctors I've seen with both hands.

      I can count the number of good doctors, however, because I've seen only one.

      At least in the US, unless you're financially well off or just get lucky, the only doctors you'll be seeing are severely lacking in skill, knowledge, and empathy.

  • PurrLure [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Props to @GoodPiggies (Not sure what your chapo user name is lol) For spending like 2+ hours tonight teaching me how to build train related mechanics on the Chapo Factions Minecraft Server.

    It was very educational and it hurt my brain. :fidel-salute-big:

  • YungTheorist [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    What is fascism if not capitalism persevering?

    Unrelated, Israel is a US puppet state, and it’s weird to see the idea that Israel is manipulating the US and not the other way around. I’m saying this because I see a lot of memes and jokes and whatever about the US sending us off to fight and die for Israel, as if the US doesn’t have its own cynical, shitty motives

  • Importantguy123 [comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Reading The Conquest of Bread for the first time, wanted to get into it since I was afraid that I was giving myself over to baseless utopianism after repeatedly singing the praises of Fully Automated Luxury Communism. Anyways, I always have the habit of reading the very last page of a book before I start sitting down with it and I found this passage:

    The only thing that may be wanting to the Revolution is the boldness of initiative.

    With our minds already narrowed in our youth, enslaved by the past in our mature age and til' the grave, we hardly dare think. If a new idea is mentioned-before venturing on having an opinion of our own, we consult musty books a hundred years old to know what the ancient masters thought on the subject.

    Lmao, I just got banged on and basically called a lib by some dude who literally died a hundred years ago... how the fuck does that even happen

    :angery: :angery:

  • grisbajskulor [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Green Glennwald is truly doing a speedrun of godawful takes this week

    • defending V*ush for N-word
    • "identity politics is always bullshit" + directly following up with "curious that the left keeps cancelling jewish & gay reporters, nazi germany much??"
    • steve bannon is a socialist

    why is this all coming out so suddenly? it really feels like he's had some kind of very sudden strasserist awakening

  • eXAt [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Just found out Nelson Mandela was a member of the communist party in addition to the ANC as confirmed by both parties after his death.