Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of “justice” but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when “freedom” becomes a special privilege.

— The Russian Revolution, by Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg speaks to our time, having raised vital questions about organization, including its relationship to spontaneity and consciousness, and the nature of socialist democracy after the revolutionary conquest of power. These questions, brought to the forefront again with the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street Movement, became altogether new when Dunayevskaya took them up in relationship to how they had been approached by post-World War II movements, and in the context of the discovery of the new moments of Marx’s last decade. Luxemburg’s concept of organization is measured against Marx’s, as integral to his philosophy of revolution, and against the dilemmas faced by revolutions today. This discussion focuses on these questions, which were part of Dunayevskaya’s process of writing the book Rosa Luxemburg, Women’s Liberation, and Marx’s Philosophy of Revolution.

Speakers: Terry Moon, Managing Editor, News & Letters; Suzanne Rose, Medicaid rights activist and writer

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