“This 600-page volume is the second of three volumes of the Complete Works devoted to the central theme of Rosa Luxemburg’s life and work—revolution. It contains her writings On Revolution from 1906 to 1909—covering the 1905–06 Russian Revolution, an epoch-making event, and its aftermath. All of the material in the series consists of new translations, from German, Polish, and Russian originals.”
Thanks to the editors, Peter Hudis and Sandra Rein, the work of the other translators, Jacob Blumenfeld, Nicholas Grey, Henry Holland, Zachary Murphy King, Joseph Muller, who have all done a marvelous job, as well as the collective support of the editorial board. And of course, thanks to all those who helped this work evolve in the best way possible.
Keep reading Rosa: there’s much to learn from her!
For those interested in writing up a review, please get in touch with Peter Hudis.
Check out a snippet of my translation of Rosa Luxemburg’s article on the purpose of May Day on the Verso Blog: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/rosa-luxemburg-on-the-purpose-of-may-day
Rosa Luxemburg observes the changing pulse of the proletarian struggle from the May Day celebrations in 1907:
“May Day celebrations are a living historical part of the international proletarian class struggle, and because of this, they accurately reflect the last twenty years of all phases, all moments of this struggle. Viewed from a distance, it is always the same monotonous repetition of identical speeches and articles, identical demands and resolutions. That is also why those whose gaze only clings to the rigid surface of things and who do not feel the imperceptible inner becoming of the circumstances believe that the May Day celebration has lost its meaning through the repetition, that it has almost become “an empty demonstration.”
But under this seemingly identical form of appearance, the May Day celebrations conceal the changing pulse of the proletarian struggle, which shares a life with the workers’ movement and therefore changes with it, reflecting in its own ideas, in its mood, in its tension the changing situations of the class struggle.
[…]”