Rosa Luxemburg — The New Stage
Rosa’s Luxemburg’s article “The New Stage” was written in 1894 and published in the 9th issue (March) of “The Worker’s Cause” (Sprawa Robotnicza).
Note from The Acheron: This small report, published by Rosa Luxemburg in Sprawa Robotnicza, describes the newborn Polish Social-Democracy, briefly outlining the struggles and tasks at hand. Translated from Polish “Wybór pism” Tom 1 (“The Selected writings of Rosa Luxemburg,” Volume I) published in Warsaw in 1959, it displays one of the first works Luxemburg ever produced— this piece was written when she was only 23, showing much understanding and dedication to the contemporary Marxist movement.
We hope our readers find this glance at the nascent Polish Communist movement historically interesting and theoretically sound. Reading about the first steps of prominent revolutionaries and their activism reveals the passion and love they had for their work.
The Acheron thanks Jan Michalik and Bartłomiej Pociecha for assisting with the translation.
The New Stage
With joy and pride, we hurry to share with all fellow workers the latest momentous news from our Party life: at the beginning of March, there was a national convention of the Polish Social-Democracy in Warsaw.
For the first time in the history of Polish socialism, workers from the provinces and Warsaw gathered and held meetings on the spot on the tasks and forms of socialist agitation.
For the first time Warsaw saw gatherings and meetings much different than the ones before. This wasn’t a gathering of sugar shareholders or brewers debating over how to increase their profits and rob the buyers. This wasn’t a gathering of coal mine owners, discussing how to best exploit their workers and what new benefits to scrounge from the government. This wasn’t a gathering of capitalists, exploiters and the Tsar’s servants. This was a gathering of Social-Democratic workers, debating over socialist agitation, over relief for hard-working people, over liberating them from capital and Tsardom.
In the country and Warsaw itself, insulting both self-confident capitalists and sly vigilance of the police, gendarmes, spies — Social-Democratic workers declared a war against exploitation and oppression, carefully considering all possible strategies and tactics for it.
A bold idea, which the previous Polish socialists had never dreamed of carrying out, was put into practice according to all the rules accompanying similar circumstances. Before, when all of the Polish socialists’ congresses congregating abroad consisted only of the so-called socialist intellectuals, the first gathering of Social-Democracy held in the country was purely a workers’ convention, in which the said intellectuals were present in very small numbers. Workers from Warsaw and workers from the main provincial centers gathered together to discuss their affairs — all under the banner of Social-Democracy.
We are well aware of the size of our Party Congress; we are well aware of the organizational scantiness present there. Our gathering naturally can’t match the size of other European workers’ congresses. But for our conditions, and mainly for the future of our movement this event was undoubtedly significant.
In the history of our Party, this is the third important occurrence this year. The first one was the merging of workers organisation “Proletariat” with “The Union of Polish Workers.” Exactly a year ago, in March, the Social-Democracy united all truly revolutionary, socialist workers movements under its banner. The then-Polish Socialist Party gave rise to a united Social-Democratic party in the entire nation.
The second important fact of our history was changing the Party’s name to The Social-Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and simultaneously protecting the Party from both internal and external patriotic influences. [1] It would seem that the name itself is of secondary importance. In Western Europe with open political relations it is right to some degree. There, each party is able to express its activity and contributions at all times. Here, in our conditions, things are completely different. We work surrounded by a deep night of political lifelessness, gagged by the iron guise of Tsarist despotism. It is why all people who like to fish in cloudy waters [2] are able to impersonate other businesses or grab others’ activity under their banner. Most eloquent support of that idea comes precisely from the history of our Polish Socialist Party and conditions, which provoked the name change. [3] With taking the name of Social-Democracy, our party made a lot of effort to separate itself from all attempts of similar nature which would falsify its true activity or its program.
At last, there exist the necessary conditions to bring the Social-Democratic Party to a level where it can appropriately respond to its great tasks for the Polish working class, for society as a whole, and for the International Proletariat. The Party once again clearly approved the program that was the basis of its activity from the very beginning, created a strong and cohesive organization corresponding to the conditions, devised and established all forms of its daily activity, and finally expressed its position categorically with regard to all major issues of Party and program life.
Go ahead, our Social-Democracy is now fully armed to fight for its grand slogans. Our comrades will now begin their work with double energy, set ablaze with new enthusiasm. May their activities end with the greatest outcomes! May the word of salvation and the fighting banner of Social-Democracy spread as widely and as far as possible throughout our country!
Long live the Social-Democracy!
Footnotes
1. In the sense of programs to rebuild independent Poland (Rosa Luxemburg’s note).
2. The approximate English translation of “łowić ryby w mętnej wodzie” would be “fishing in cloudy waters,” meaning to do vague business, profit from suspicious scenarios and exploit confusion for your own benefit.
3. Although a few months ago the “party” called the PPS appeared on the scene again, it is social-patriotic in its direction and has nothing to do with the previous one (Rosa Luxemburg’s note).
