Destroying the Threat of Luxemburgism in the SPD and the KPD: Rosa Luxemburg and the Theory of Mass Strike1

Abstract

The Revolutions of 1905–1906 were a watershed in Rosa Luxemburg's practical and theoretical thought. It was at this point that the changing nature of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) Executive became clear to her and the potential of mass strike (action) showed itself. Luxemburg believed that the debilitating potential of spontaneous mass strike could be utilised as a special weapon in times of revolutionary upheaval. Luxemburg intended mass strikes to be a tool used by the SPD in the overthrow of capitalism, but her theory posed a threat first to the SPD and then to the Comintern. This article will discuss why the SPD and the Comintern feared Luxemburg's concept of mass strike and the way in which both distorted her analysis to suit their own purposes. This article will argue that the SPD and the Comintern utilised similar methods to distort the meaning of her work in order to distance themselves, and the movement, from revolution.