Rosa Luxemburg 5 March 1871-15 January 1919 Rosa Luxemburg was a brave and determined revolutionary, an untiring fighter against revisionism and reformism and an esteemed theoretician, who always kept her upright and uncompromising attitude. In addition to her activity of many years as a teacher in the party school she also wrote many writings and papers, issued together with Karl Liebknecht the daily newspaper "Die Rote Fahne" (Red Flag) and was a leading member of the parties of the working class of Poland and Germany. On March 5, 1871, Rosalia (called Rosa) was born in the Russian part of Poland. Being only 19 years old she was already forced to leave her country out of political reasons. She was studying and awarded a doctorate in Switzerland and continued her activities as a leading member of the Polish Workers´ Party. In the beginning of the 20th century she took up residence in Germany, adopts the German nationality and participates actively in the struggle of the German working class. In 1898 she becomes member of the SPD. She belongs to the uncompromising critics of the revisionist E: Bernstein and exposes his revisionism in some of her works. Later on, she proves again her firm stand against revisionism in the conflict with the renegade Kautsky. Rosa was sentenced to prison again and again and passes a long time behind prison wall. Even if she analysed many things in a correct way, she was also wrong in some points. From her writings follows an overestimation of the spontaneous movement and thus a belittling of the conscious element, the party. This idea may have played a role in the delayed organisational break with the opportunists and the foundation of an independent communist Party. Also in the field of political economy her works contain some misjudgements. Mistakenly, she thought that the capitalist system will break down by itself. But in spite of this theoretical mistakes, Rosa Luxemburg was an outstanding leader of the German and international working class. The bourgeoisie new very well how dangerous leader of the working class, who are deeply rooted in the proletarian masses, like Rosa Luxemburg, could be for them and they took all kinds of action against her. After the November Revolution and the January Uprising, which had made the capitalist order shaken, they did not even shrink from open murder. Posters saying "kill their leaders" were distributed everywhere and a real hunt was lauched against the leaders of the proletariat. In the night of 15th January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were kidnapped and killed with the direct participation of the SPD. Her corpse was thrown in the Landwehrkanal and was disappeared for months. But the plan to let Rosa disappear did not work. Today, her memory is more alive than ever!
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