Seeing someone “vaguelly left” unironically defending the extrajudicial murder of Rosa fucking Luxembourg was not in my bingo card.
Note that even Germany itself celebrates Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht
Seeing someone “vaguelly left” unironically defending the extrajudicial murder of Rosa fucking Luxembourg was not in my bingo card.
Note that even Germany itself celebrates Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht
The SPDs record is anti-democratic, they used elections to legitimize themselves then unleashed paramilitaries to crush organized workers. That’s not taking ‘democracy seriously,’ that’s narrowing what it means to protect the state.
Revolutionary democracy is more than just fucking ballots and voting. The entire point is mass participation, self organization and ongoing struggle.
The January uprising wasn’t a Bolshevik-style coup. It was a mass revolt sparked by SPD repression, which the KPD didn’t even plan and which Luxemburg herself thought was premature.
‘history major’
I mean elections can be pretty good at legitimizing if they’re free and fair
don’t think we disagree, though the point is more that they’re necessary, but insufficient. having elections can legitimize the process, but if you turn around and rely on right wing paramilitaries to suppress your opposition then it’s not really legitimate.
‘The opposition’ here meaning… people literally attempting a coup.
Right, but they’re good because they’re supposed to give people a voice in their governance, the whole ‘by the people’ thing.
If you only use them to legitimize your program and then toss out the actual desires of the people; that is bad.
But that means you are threatening my comfort and privileges!!! Emancipation is only worth it if it benefits me personally without having to do any effort.
On a more serious note, elections are all good and well but will not bring the possibilty of completely changing course, just look how any bourgeois democracy reacts the moment a candidate goes too far in “socialist” rhetoric, instantly the whole private and public sector will cooperate to stop this person, and we’re not even talking about full-blown communists, look at Corbyn, Melenchon,… becoming a full fascist state through the process of bourgeois elections is deemed acceptable and even necessary, anything else has to face the consequences, and they use violence as well, elections are fair and free until they become a menace to the ruling class.
Tbf, where one learns “history” can certainly skew their knowledge and understanding of “history.”