Offener Brief an Jean Jaures.
Luxemburg, Rosa. Offener Brief an Jean Jaurès. Die Neue Zeit. Wochenschrift der Deutschen Sozialdemokratie, vol. XXVI/2, issue 43. Stuttgart, Paul Singer, July 24, 1908.
8vo.;, decorative wrappers; evenly lightly browned.
First appearance in print of Rosa Luxemburg’s open letter to her friend, the hugely popular leader of the French socialist movement, Jean Jaurès, whose life ended in a way similar to that of Rosa Luxemburg: he was murdered by a young chauvinist on the eve of the First World War.
Luxemburg’s pacifism, internationalism and position not commonly held by the left, that military conflict could never have an emancipatory effect, had brought them both together. At international meetings Rosa Luxemburg translated Jaurès’ speeches and explained his positions. In this open letter, however, she has to contradict Jaurès’ belief, that the newly formed triple entente between France, Britain and Russia could secure peace. She warns that ententes and alliances of states are expressions of imperialism and capitalism, and that the bourgeois system does not allow the co-existence of the interest of the state and the common good. Another reason for this open letter was her experience and deep loathing of the reactionary character of tsarist Russia.
Together with:
Luxemburg, Rosa. Die Neue Zeit. Wochenschrift der Deutschen Sozialdemokratie, vol. XXVI/2, issue 51. Stuttgart, Paul Singer, September 18, 1908.
8vo.; wrappers; worn.
This issue contains three articles discussing the English suffragette movement, one written by the radical Marxist Henry (known as Harry) Quelch, and the other one on English Social Democracy and women’s liberation, written by the German émigré in London J. Sachse.
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