Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T15:16:07.184Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Revolutionary Thinking: Luxemburg’s Socialist International Theory

from Part I - Canonical Thinkers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2021

Patricia Owens
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Katharina Rietzler
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
Get access

Summary

This essay’s re-reading of Rosa Luxemburg’s international thought reintroduces us to a canonical thinker whose contributions have not yet received the recognition they deserve. Instead, Luxemburg has been infantilized by both Marxist and liberal traditions, traditions that she challenged for their exalting of national self-determination. Her most important contribution, however, relates to capitalism’s reliance on tapping into non-capitalist modes of production and exchange. This was central to her sophisticated understanding of imperialism. As Hutchings explains, to Luxemburg it would have been unsurprising that the world economy today continues to rely on bonded labor. But Luxemburg’s positionality as an international thinker is also relevant to histories of international thought. Hers was a life steeped in political activism within the imperialist core, and her analysis of international politics contended with the religious, class, ethnic and racial hierarchies of the land-based empires of pre-World War I Eastern and Central Europe.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×