The Daily Worker Newspaper, June 5, 1926, Page 9

ae) Great Woman Revolutionist, Rosa Luxemburg OSA LUXEMBURG was born May 5th, 1871, tn a small town in Po land. In spite of the poverty of her parents there was a desire for and an appreciation of intellectual attain- ments. Her mother, especially, of whom Rosa always spoke and wrote with such tenderness, seams to have maintained a high standard for the family, The language of the ‘house- hold was not Yiddish, but Polish, The books the family read were not the Talmud, but the classics, ° Rosa entered the Girls’ High School in Warsaw at an unusually early age. She graduated at fifteen, with the highest honors and would have re- ceived the gold medal had it not been that already she was suspected of po- litical tendencies inimical to the gov- ernment of the “little father” in St. Petersburg. For three years after her graduation she devoted herself to lit- erature, belles lettres, in a circle of friends more liberal than revolution- ary, altho sufficiently revolutionary to bring down upon themselves the attention of the vigilant police of the czar, At the age of eighteen Rosa was compelled to leave Russian-Poland and flee to Zurich, that famous city-of- refuge of European political refugees. In Zurich she studied in the univer- sity, especialy mathematics and nat- ural science. Among her fellow students were a number of Polish and Russian exiles and their friends, and the family with whom she lived brought her within the ranks of the revolutionists. li must have been a test of the spirit of the young woman. On the one hand, among her young friends, she had the zest of youth and its dreams of a nobler, finer, free world. On the other, in the house where she lived, she wit- nessed the effects of the struggle upon the souls, who had devoted themselves to the pursuit of this ideal. The Lu- beck family were also exiles, from Germany, where the father had been @ member,,of the Social Democratic party. He lay, now, helpless and dll, confined to his bed, unable even to write. His wife, the mother of a large family of children, had grown weary of the battle, longed only to free herself from the sordid weary Tound of her daily life, and was dis- contented, unhappy, impatient. As if they had been her own people, Rosa undertook to hold this group to- gether. She wrote at the dictation of the father, helped the mother over her mental and spiritual struggles, gath- ered the children about her, and suc- ceeded in bringing peace and serenity and new hope and spirit into the fam- ily. It was an excellent training for the work she was to do im future, in a larger field. But even now she was approaching Socialism, not from ‘the angle of bound spirits seeking free- dom, but from the scientific basis laid down by Marx and Engels, whom she read and studied during this period. In the years between 1889 and 1892 she studied, now in Zurich, now in Berne, and again in Genoa, socialism and hhistory. During these years she met Plechanov and Axelrod, and drew about her and them a circle of Polish revolutionists, Karski, Leo Jogisches, and others, and sought to introduce the science of Marx into the political life of these youths. Up to this time the Polish rebels had found expres- sion im terrorism alone, holding their organization together by conspirative measures and plans. Their chief leader was Dazynski, who believed that a social revolution was possible for Poland only after it had become independent of Russia. Up to this time there had been but one day in the year that might be called a day of freedom for the work- ers of Russia. It was the Ist of May, a day when workers might leave their places of employment and attend meet- ings or demonstrations or hold pa- rades. Doubtless it was granted by the eczar’s government all the more cheerfully because it indicated to the police the strength and fervor of the masses and brought forward new lead- ers and new objects for persecution., It was, however, greeted by the work-' ers with special literary productions, and among these, on May Ist, 1892, was a brochure written by Rosa Lux- emburg. It was not printed, however, because it was written, not in prose, but in hexameters. A Fighter for the Workers. This was the beginning of Rosa Luxemburg’s real struggle. Up to this time she had only been in training. In 1893 she was barred from the In- ternational Congress held in Zurich, on the charge that her organization— the Polish Revolutionary Party—was one of spies and informers, Undaunt- ed by this terrible blow, she persisted in her efforts to base the Polish revo- lution on scientific Marxism, proclaim- ing ever her sincere conviction that Poland’s hope and salvation lay only in a union of the working class of Poland with the working class of Rus- sia and their combined struggle against the bourgeoisie. THE TINY WOGREER. A Weekly Edited by Jonny Red Vol. I Saturday, June 5, 1926 No, 2 EXTRA! EXTRA! FUNNIES PRIZES! When is an old cat] Nobody won the oe a that’s not a cat? | swell all day sucker Cones Sold. teacher! MI a stacey ary rr u nswer! ng (Very Special) aes cranky question, Last year at “Why do teach- $22,729,000 gallons of ice cream was eaten in this coun- try. isn’t that @ lot, NEWS Hundreds of children are right in the\ strike in Passaic, New Jer- And if all the cones eaten were pus side by side, papers ciaim, they would reach three times around the world, “ Boys and. girls whose parents are workers didn’t eat as much as rich children ate. And the money made on ice cream gave the rich children can- dy and other thin besides, The work- ers who made the Ice cream got such low wages for do- sey (that’s near New York). They sure are a scrappy bunch of kids and fight with the older workers against the bosses, POEM A guy | hate is ike McCann He crawls for the boss He Isn't a man, Another Poem. Did A “Holy Cow’? ing it that G‘wan awa. Dekees made a lot] Don’t aay me of profit, ni ers say that every "ttle boy has & chance to be presi- dent some day?” Rush your an- swer and win that swell sucker! REMEMBER! For the best thing sent in to the INY WORKER, a ng What kind of a bird Is a cuckoo? The bird that thinks he can get rich If T - aber wig. a FAIRY TALE thing sive “Sonnay Johnny joined the | Red will put your Boy Scouts. H | mame on top of the Got strong and wise ge of the and patriotic and issue as oditor, never ate garilo class. Write 80 he wouidn’t|2°Mething now! —_ if this isn’t a falry tale you sure have to admit it’s the bunk! In 1895 she went to Paris, studied Polish history in the National Library, and wrote two famous articles, pub- lighed serially: The Industrial Deyg-i- opment of Poland, and Social Patriot- ism In Poland. In 1896 she attended the International Congress in London This was a victory that must have -| healed whatever wound remained after her Zurich experience three years be- fore. In the autumn of that year, in order to obtain a standing in the Ger- man Social Democratic Party, she en- tered college and by the ist of May, 1897, she had attained the degree of L.L. D.. The magna cum laude was not to be ‘hers, although she had won it and it was recommended by her professors, because the faculty coun- cil decided “that is, for a woman, too much,” There remained another condition still unfulfilled. In order to live in Ger- many and work in the Social Demo- cratic Party without being subject to banishment, she must become a Ger- man citizen. This was arranged by a formal, nominal, marriage to a son of the Lubeck family in Zurich, and, paus- ing only long enough to make the necessary arrangements for an im- mediate divorce, she left for Ger- many on the day of her marriage. In this same year she made a journey to Warsaw under an assumed name, was arrested and spem miore than three months in prison. In the succeeding years she grew ever more and more impatient of opportunists, compromisers, and users of empty phrases. She was the brains and leader of the party school. She made enemies among the members of the Party by her uncompromising stand. There was even a motion to expel her from the ranks of the party, Already, in 1890, the first clouds of the imperialist war were appearing on the horizon. The immediate threat of war began to submerge the minds of the masses; its.problems to supersede those of theories and party tactics. Now all her energies were thrown into the struggle against militarism. She did not lose her grasp of Marxian science, even here. Her book on The Accumualtion of Capital was written while she was traveling over Germany, speahing from platforms, proclaiming, “When we are ordered to shoot our French brothers we shall say, no, that we will not do.” LL Sn One vision from a recital of the facts of her history a strong, a coura- geous, a fervent, but an eager, impa- tient soul, The vision is true, but incomplete. She was also sensitive, tender, and—as these letters show— immeasurably gentle and considerate, Her iteration of the words “Be cheer- ful and serene” addressed to a friend who—despite grievous anxieties—was still enjoying that freedom trom which Rosa herself was debarred; her rare plaints at the circumstances of her own fate, no less than the intimate revelations of her apprehension of beauty in all things; her keen and sen- sitive response to the smallest mant festations of nature—all these com- bine to place this well rounded and well night complete nature and soul so high that one must bow reverentiy before it. Her cool, clear, scientific brain; the ardor of her courageous and daring spirit; and this almost ecstatic beauty-loving soul—what an ideal and what a model! 1? Not only because she was, in theory, in heart and soul, and in activity, an internationalist, but because she was @ great spirit and a great soul, does Rosa Luxemburg belong to all the world. The Poland of her birth, the Germany of her later labors, hold her no more than Italy holds the spirit of Leonardo da Vinci or Greece holds Socrates. The soul that sets out upon the great search for truth, for beauty, and for freedom traverses the whole world—perchance the whole Universe —and belongs to all, even as it em- braces all. Not because she fell, a martyr in the struggle*, but because she lived and fought and suffered and kept her courage and her spirit, does Rosa Lix- emburg take her place among the heroes and heroines of life. Not only because she saw clearly and pointed the way, but because she visioned beauty and love along the way, does her figure stand as a guide post and an imspiration. The struggles of the working class are and must be bitter always, dark sometimes, hopeless ap pearing often, but now and then a gleam from the torch that Rosa Lax. emburg carried so high must light the path for a moment, must bring new hope and new strength, *Rosa Luxemburg was seized murdered by the monarchists in De- cember, 1918, in Berlin, A friendly caricature of certain tendencies among the Russian youth. The Ppalr Is challenging the world with the slogan, “We Are Not Bourgeois.” The cartoon Is taken from the official paper of the Young Communist League of the Soviet Union, It reflects the deep process that Is taking place among the youth of the Soviet Union of revalueating old conceptions of Iife and crystallizing new ones,