Rosa Luxembourg and Social Democracy

Rosa Luxemburg was an activist and intellectual whose theories of freedom motivated her insightful critiques both of capitalism and of Bolshevik authoritarianism, as well as of racism, colonialism, and even liberal feminism. She was a crucial figure in the “social democratic” movement of the twentieth century, one that has important, albeit contested, legacies to this day. And she believed that “freedom is always the freedom of those who think differently.” But is thinking “differently” always a good thing? Do the ills of society need radical remedies, or just incremental fixes? And either way, what’s the best way to bring about necessary change?

Part of the Jewish Thinkers series.