Papers > By author > Mota Filho Antonio

Rosa Luxemburg was an important Polish socialist militant who became an uncompromising defender of the socialist revolution from the end of the 19th century onwards, who was murdered in 1919. Her works articulate a fine understanding of capitalist development and its contradictions with political aspects of the class struggle in order to draw useful conclusions to the working class. As several of her interpreters point out, historical materialism is the basis of Rosa's theoretical perspective. However, there are important nuances as to how it appears throughout the author's work. One notices in her work a tension between an economistic interpretation of historical materialism, in which socialism appears as a consequence of the inevitable collapse of capitalism, and another dominated by political aspects, in which the revolutionary action of the working class is more relevant. The present work aims to analyze how this theoretical methodological tension appears in the initial texts of Rosa Luxemburg on the national question written between 1893 and 1903. In these texts, the author polemizes with sectors of the Polish left that defended the political independence of the country in relation to the Russian Empire. Contrary to this position, Rosa points out that capitalist development in Poland had profoundly connected the Polish economy and the Russian economy, which in her view would render political independence unfeasible. Several authors point out strong economism in the conclusions formulated by Rosa in these texts. Our hypothesis is that economism is only one of the present perspectives: there is in reality an irresolute tension between economism and expectation of the revolutionary action of the working class. This is evidenced by the author's conclusion in different texts of the period under review that the Polish working class should work together with the Russian working class and suggests as a political tactic the convening of a Constituent Assembly to broaden workers' rights. We have chosen to divide the text into four sections that summarize the main elements of the analyzed theme: a small introduction; the Marxism of the Second International and economism; Rosa Luxemburg and the national question: the methodological tension; and the conclusion.