Convictions on World War I: The War and The Workers by Rosa Luxemburg

The atmosphere clogging Europe in 1914 was not congenial, at least not for the socialists. The assassination of the archduke of Austria-Hungary and the commencement of World War I spelled untold misery for socialists. Many socialists capitulated to nationalist fervor and voted for war credits despite their allegiance to the dictums of Marxian Socialism. Rosa Luxemburg, in her essay The War and the Workers, gave astounding reasons why she did not support the Great War. Luxemburg was a far sighted socialist who objected to World War I based on accurate predictions about the war’s consequences.

Rosa Luxemburg’s objections about WWI arose from an excellent understanding of the Great War. Her first objection states WWI was an imperialist venture leading to annihilation. As a socialist, she did not believe the propaganda of a defensive war espousing feverish nationalism, but championed international worker unity to prevent destruction. Luxemburg recognized imperialism was the forerunner of capitalism. Thus her second objection states WWI is about mature capitalist countries competing for “world domination and exploiting remain zones of the world that are not yet capitalistic.” Her third objection states war time production of essentials such as arms, food and clothes would make large businesses thrive. Her fourth objection states proletarian slavery to the bourgeoisie is evident because they support the war. She was aggravated that the working classes and even many socialists succumbed to the bourgeoisie’s ploy of a defensive war instead of staying truthful to Marxist doctrine. Her fifth objection states victory or defeat is meaningless to the working classes because gains or losses are measured in annexations, colonies and military predominance which do not serve working class aspirations but imperial cravings. She deduced the onslaught of war as catastrophic for all working classes because of the deaths and crippling of millions and post war economic hardships.

Luxemburg objected to the war based consequences that were likely to happen. The first consequence she saw was WWI would end not in a decisive military victory but because of mutual exhaustion. The second consequence she saw was WWI would lead to economic ruin of all belligerents and neutral nations. She foresaw that the victorious states could not expect reparations to immediately heal the wounds inflicted by the war, because she knew the economic regression of the losers would seriously affect the victors’ economy because of interdependence. The third consequence she predicted had two scenarios. The first is if the central powers were victorious, Germany would acquire some useless territories ravaged by war.  These would include Belgium, French colonies, Turkey and Middle Eastern provinces. The Habsburg monarchy would continue with additional lands. She predicted a second world war would begin under English leadership to throw off German hegemony and a “feverish arms race” would commence after WWII. The second scenario is an Anglo-French victory would lead to Germany losing her colonies and Alsace-Lorraine. Austria-Hungary would be partitioned and the Ottoman Empire would be liquidated. Also, the Balkan, Persian and Chinese people would be subject to Russia, England, France and Italy. An allied victory would force Germany to spearhead WWII and a post war arms race. The fourth consequence she saw was the capitalist world order would cease to promote societal progress. The fifth consequence she saw was capitalism could continue only with military hegemony, imperialism, secret alliances and multinational states.