Rosa Luxemburg was a shining star of the early socialist movement. As an economist and political theorist, a teacher and public speaker, a comrade and rebel, a revolutionary and martyr of the German Revolution, she was many things to many people. Her legacy today reflects that, stretching across a broad spectrum of the international left.
In the Fall of 2016, our office held a conference at the New School and co-hosted with Verso Books to which we invited a mixture of academics, journalists, and activists to discuss Rosa Luxemburg’s theoretical work and how it may contribute to current discussions taking place on the Left. The contributions of our invited speakers were so good that we decided to turn them into a book.
Rosa Remix is the result. With seven sections and sixteen chapters, Rosa Remix covers a wide range of subjects, starting with Rosa’s life, finishing with her legacy, and in between grappling with issues like climate justice, feminism, graphic novels, or protest movements.
The book also includes drawings from a recent graphic biography of Rosa Luxemburg’s life, plus contributions from its editor and artist/author.
With this unique collection of short essays, we hope to truly remix Rosa’s body of work, carrying forward her indomitable spirit and invaluable political and economic theories for a new generation of activists and engaged citizens.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEW TAKES ON A LONGTIME CLASSIC
• Stefanie Ehmsen & Albert Scharenberg: An Introduction to Rosa Remix
• Rory Castle: Rosa Luxemburg: A Revolutionary Life
SPONTANEITY AND ORGANIZATION
• Jason Schulman: The Mass Strike and Rosa’s Theory of Spontaneity
• Ethan Earle: The Global Protest Wave of 2011–12
ROSA LUXEMBURG AND FEMINISM
• Nancy Holmstrom: Rosa Luxemburg: A Legacy for Feminists?
• Amber A’Lee Frost: Pick-up Artists, Ashley Madison, and Lifestyle Feminism
• Alhelí Alvarado-Díaz: Heroine of the Revolution
RED ROSA: A GRAPHIC BIOGRAPHY OF ROSA LUXEMBURG
• Kate Evans: Writing (and Drawing) Rosa
• Paul Buhle: Red Rosa: The Making of a Graphic Novel
SOCIALISM OR BARBARISM
• Bhaskar Sunkara: An Unoriginal Plan to Save the Planet
• Alyssa Battistoni: Socialism or Whole Foods: Luxemburgian Answers to our Climate Crisis
• Sandra Rein: It’s the End of the World as We Know It: Militarism Then and Now
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL
• Raphaële Chappe: New Perspectives on Neoliberal Finance
• Patrick Bond: The Accumulation of Capital: Remixed for Modern-day Southern Africa
• Richard D. Wolff: One Hundred Years of Capitalism’s Global Relocation
INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION
• Peter Hudis & Paul Le Blanc: A Life Worth Revisiting: Looking Back on (and Publishing) Rosa’s Complete Works