Editing Rosa Luxemburg (section)

==== Before World War I ====
When Luxemburg moved to Germany in May 1898, she had settled in Berlin. She was active there in the left wing of the SPD in which she sharply defined the border between the views of her faction and the [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionism theory]] of Eduard Bernstein. She attacked him in her brochure ''[[Social Reform or Revolution?]]'', released in September 1898. Luxemburg's rhetorical skill made her a leading spokesperson in denouncing the SPD's [[Reformism|reformist]] parliamentary course. She argued that the critical difference between [[Capital (economics)|capital]] and [[Labour economics|labour]] could only be countered if the [[proletariat]] assumed [[Power (social and political)|power]] and effected [[revolution]]ary changes in [[methods of production]]. She wanted the revisionists ousted from the SPD. That did not occur, but Kautsky's leadership retained a Marxist influence on its programme.<ref>Weitz, Eric D. (1994). "'Rosa Luxemburg Belongs to Us!'". German Communism and the Luxemburg Legacy. ''Central European History'' (27: 1), pp. 27–64.</ref>

From 1900, Luxemburg published analyses of contemporary European socio-economic problems in newspapers. Foreseeing war, she vigorously attacked what she saw as German [[militarism]] and [[imperialism]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Kate Evans, ''Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg'', New York, Verso, 2015</ref> Luxemburg wanted a general strike to rouse the workers to solidarity and prevent the coming war. However, the SPD leaders refused and she broke with Kautsky in 1910. Between 1904 and 1906, she was imprisoned for her political activities on three occasions in [[Barnimstrasse women's prison]].<ref>Weitz, Eric D. (1997). ''Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref> In 1907, she went to the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social Democrats]]' Fifth Party Day in [[London]], where she met Lenin. At the socialist [[Second International]] Congress in [[Stuttgart]], her [[Resolution (law)|resolution]] demanding that all European workers' parties should unite in attempting to stop the war was accepted.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Luxemburg taught Marxism and economics at the SPD's Berlin training centre. Her former student [[Friedrich Ebert]] became the SPD leader and later the [[Weimar Republic]]'s first President. In 1912, Luxemburg was the SPD representative at the European Socialists' congresses.<ref name="ReferenceB">Paul Frölich, ''Rosa Luxemburg'', London: Haymarket Books, 2010</ref> With French socialist [[Jean Jaurès]], Luxemburg argued that European workers' parties should organise a general strike when war broke out. In 1913, she told a large meeting: "If they think we are going to lift the weapons of murder against our French and other brethren, then we shall shout: 'We will not do it!{{'"}} However, when nationalist crises in the [[Balkans]] erupted into violence and then the war in 1914, there was no general strike and the SPD majority supported the war as did the [[French Section of the Workers' International|French Socialists]]. The [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] unanimously agreed to finance the war. The SPD voted in favour of that and agreed to a truce ({{lang|de|[[Burgfriedenspolitik|Burgfrieden]]}}) with the Imperial government and promised that SPD-controlled [[labour union]]s would refrain from [[strike action]] for the duration of the war. This led Luxemburg to contemplate suicide as the revisionism she had fought since 1899 had triumphed.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

In response, Luxemburg organised anti-war demonstrations in [[Frankfurt]], calling for [[Conscientious objector|conscientious objection]] to [[Conscription|military conscription]] and the refusal of soldiers to follow orders. On that account, she was imprisoned for a year for "inciting to disobedience against the authorities' law and order."