If you are American, you should be looking at the works of American revolutionaries for our context. Particularly, Harry Haywood’s work on the National Question in the US & Huey Newton’s work on organizing the lumpenproletariat.
I "do politics" in a couple of countries, America and one in Europe, and I do agree that Luxemburg's works are slightly better suited for the European context, but there's certainly still much to learn from her. Like I said, I like Lenin; I like Harry Haywood and Huey Newton even more (they do build on him in interesting ways!). I guess what really turned me off your original post was the list of names you gave, which included people who I feel "built off" Lenin in a very negative and unconstructive way.
it is impossible to build off Rosa’s work, just given the nature of historical development.
I think this is a hidebound and not particularly useful way of looking at theory. Leftists ought not be pinned down by one interpretation of "historical development"--we need to take insights wherever we can get them, and Rosa was a very intelligent woman writing about timeless issues of the left. I'll take some Lenin and some Luxemburg (to be honest, more Luxemburg), and celebrate Three L's Day every year (even though I don't really respect Liebknecht :winking face:).
Leftists ought not be pinned down by one interpretation of “historical development”–we need to take insights wherever we can get them
I agree with this. I'm not telling people "don't read or celebrate Luxembourg." But I am critical of people who try to frame Luxembourg as the "correct" and Lenin as "incorrect." They were both dedicated revolutionaries who had successes & mistakes, and provided us useful insights to learn from.
Lenin provided us the most robust theory on the age of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, and a material example of the dictatorship of the proletariat in practice. That is an unprecedented development on Marxism.
Revolutionaries who recognize this fact tend to be more successful. That is why we have so many Marxist-Leninst experiments, and no "Luxembourgist" ones. That's all I'm saying.
I agree with a the first bit, not entirely with the last bit, but I appreciate your point and the way you've presented it. Some of the other MLs on this site are not nearly as productive in their discourse. Thank you for the conversation!
I "do politics" in a couple of countries, America and one in Europe, and I do agree that Luxemburg's works are slightly better suited for the European context, but there's certainly still much to learn from her. Like I said, I like Lenin; I like Harry Haywood and Huey Newton even more (they do build on him in interesting ways!). I guess what really turned me off your original post was the list of names you gave, which included people who I feel "built off" Lenin in a very negative and unconstructive way.
I think this is a hidebound and not particularly useful way of looking at theory. Leftists ought not be pinned down by one interpretation of "historical development"--we need to take insights wherever we can get them, and Rosa was a very intelligent woman writing about timeless issues of the left. I'll take some Lenin and some Luxemburg (to be honest, more Luxemburg), and celebrate Three L's Day every year (even though I don't really respect Liebknecht :winking face:).
I agree with this. I'm not telling people "don't read or celebrate Luxembourg." But I am critical of people who try to frame Luxembourg as the "correct" and Lenin as "incorrect." They were both dedicated revolutionaries who had successes & mistakes, and provided us useful insights to learn from.
Lenin provided us the most robust theory on the age of imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism, and a material example of the dictatorship of the proletariat in practice. That is an unprecedented development on Marxism.
Revolutionaries who recognize this fact tend to be more successful. That is why we have so many Marxist-Leninst experiments, and no "Luxembourgist" ones. That's all I'm saying.
I agree with a the first bit, not entirely with the last bit, but I appreciate your point and the way you've presented it. Some of the other MLs on this site are not nearly as productive in their discourse. Thank you for the conversation!