https://twitter.com/Mateba_6/status/1541449829683011586

From the book Revolutionary Social Democracy: Working-Class Politics Across the Russian Empire (1882-1917)

  • FuckingFerengi [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    I think the simple reality of it is that the German state apparatus was much more organized and supplied than the Tsarist state ever was, and that extraordinary ability to crush dissent created fundamentally harsher conditions for the German communists. Desperate times call for desperate measures, Luxemburg and her coleadership may have resolved that it was the best and only way to deflect state repression & maintain party cohesion; if someone is going to be targeted, may as well be the divisive factional groups. Lenin and the Bolsheviks were brilliant revolutionaries, certainly, but I doubt they would have been nearly as effective if it weren’t for the relative weakness of the Tsardom.

    • captcha [any]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I have a personal theory that the state needs to fuck up for revolutionaries to ever win. Like for every action a revolutionary force could take, there's an appropriate counter strategy the state could take which the revolutionaries cannot counter. The question is if the state will take that counter strategy.

      One of the reasons why BLM gets traction is because the police always instinctively brutalize the protesters even when the correct strategy is to feign sympathy and let them carry on.

      • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
        ·
        2 years ago

        I think it depends on the relative power of the state compared to the revolution. Like, couple of socialist groups, let's say 7 centered on the big cities of the US versus the government gets owned easily of the government doesn't slip,, but if the military, at least a good chunk like 35-40%, joined a revolution it would be pretty even.

        • captcha [any]
          ·
          2 years ago

          but if the military, at least a good chunk like 35-40%, joined a revolution

          I would say allowing that to happen would be a fuck up on the state's part. For the Tsars that was keeping a massive conscripted standing army because volunteer armies were gay-satanic-judeao-liberalism.

          • GreenTeaRedFlag [any]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Yeah that's fair. I guess I'm looking at mistakes once things are underway, you just mean in general.

            • captcha [any]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I mostly meant before things are underway. Before the shit hits the fan the state has to think it's a good idea to throw shit at the fan.

    • Florist [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I don't know about that. The author of the book, Eric Blanc, also wrote an article called "The Rosa Luxemburg Myth: A Critique of Luxemburg’s Politics in Poland (1893–1919)" and in it he argues that

      This article challenges widespread uncritical portrayals of Rosa Luxemburg. By examining the politics and practices of Luxemburg and her SDKPiL party in Poland, I show that their commitment to proletarian emancipation was undermined by sectarian and doctrinaire tendencies that contributed to the defeat of Poland’s workers’ revolutions in 1905 and 1918–19. A critical analysis of their approaches to the national question, the Polish Socialist Party, German Social Democracy, and the role of the revolutionary party, undermines the prevailing romanticisation of Luxemburg. I argue that the Polish Socialist Party, Luxemburg’s main political rival, posed a viable Marxist alternative for Poland’s revolutionary movement.

      So I don't think Luxemburg's actions were necessary

      • FuckingFerengi [comrade/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yea, after I wrote the comment I thought more about it, realized I didn’t really agree with my thought. I will have to look into the PSP.