Today, Rosa Luxemburg’s faith in the ultimate success of highly class-conscious proletariat creating a revolution by their mass action appears as a grave misreading of the real class dynamics, where the so-called working masses are divided among innumerable trades, working conditions, and local aspirations.To me, it seems that the gentle and much-loved (within the SPD) Eduard Bernstein had the better argument:… But we can’t deny that the ever brilliant, provocative Rosa Luxemburg is much more exciting to read. One of her German comrades warned the others to beware of her in debate, because she was blitzgescheit, lightningbolt-clever. And very courageous.

The first question is: How much democracy can capitalism tolerate?  We saw the limits in Florida in the last presidential election — when the wrong candidate had the votes, capital found a way to unelect him. …

The other question is: How much capitalism can democracy tolerate?  …  (2002.04.23)