Rosa Luxemburg’s The Junius Pamphlet ¹ is “essential reading to make sense of the Ukraine situation and the deprived betrayal of “progressives.” ” — Norman Finkelstein.

The following are my personal notes on interesting passages in random order as I go through the original german version of the pamphlet. This is work in progress…

Introduction

The Junius Pamphlet “… begins by describing how quickly the scene has been transformed, from the wild joy and celebration at the outbreak of [world] war [I], to the sullen acceptance at the slaughter in the trenches a few months later. And as the soldiers die in their thousands, companies make fortunes from providing the food, clothing and weapons for the war “while profits are springing, like weeds, from the fields of the dead”.” ².

In my search for the real causes of the Russia-Ukraine conflict Norman Finkelstein pointed out that Luxemburg’s Junius Pamphlet entails that it makes no sense to ask the question “who’s guilty, who started the war?”. Rather, the war must be interpreted within the framework of capitalist-imperialist relations, that lead inexorably to the breakout of war at some point.

This all seemed a bit abstract at first. However, after refreshing my memory on the official history of World War I, in particular its prelude, coupled with a review of the US budget breakdown with a focus on the gargantuan military spending ^{3 4 5} and U.S. imperialist ambitions ⁶, it is very hard to deny that capitalism coupled with imperialism, taken to its extreme, is the root cause of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

This realisation also reminded me of one of my favourite quotes in Norman Finkelstein’s new book on cancel culture, identity politics, and academic freedom:

“A consensus might currently exist on the evil of violent genocide and the inhumanity of chattel slavery, but no such consensus exists on the evil of capitalism, which arguably causes millions to perish each year from hunger and preventable diseases.” — Norman Finkelstein (p.408).

In light of The Junius Pamphlet and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the above could be amended as follows:

“…, but no such consensus exists on the evil of capitalism, which arguably causes millions to perish each year from war, hunger, and preventable diseases.”.

Note that the translation of The Junius Pamphlet by the The Socialist Publication Society from 1919 ⁷ is not as close to the original as the translation by Dave Hollis ¹. Consider this example from chapter 1 paragraph three ⁸ as an illustration of the differences in translation:

“Die Regie ist aus. Die deutschen Gelehrten, die »wankenden Lemuren«, sind längst zurückgepfiffen. Die Reservistenzüge werden nicht mehr vom lauten Jubel der Jungfrauen begleitet,…”

Translation by the The Socialist Publication Society from 1919 ⁷:

“The show is over. The curtain has fallen on trains filled with reservists, as they pull out amid the joyous cries of enthusiastic maidens.…”

Translation by Dave Hollis ¹:

“The spectacle is over. German scholars, those »stumbling lemurs«, have been whistled off the stage long ago. The trains full of reservists are no longer accompanied by virgins fainting from pure jubilation.…”

Select Passages and Personal Notes

Rosa Luxemburg quotes from the Bergische Arbeiterstimme in chapter 2:

“Österreich will den Konflikt mit Serbien und benutzt das Attentat von Sarajewo nur als Vorwand, um Serbien moralisch ins Unrecht zu setzen.…”

“Austria demands a conflict with Serbia, and uses the assassination at Sarajevo as a pretext for putting Serbia morally in the wrong.…”

… can directly be transferred to the Ukraine-Russia war by simple substitutions of the actors and the crime:

The U.S. demands a conflict with Russia, and uses the invasion of the Donbass region as a pretext for putting Russia morally in the wrong.

The reason the U.S. and its allies appear to succeed in this exercise of apparent moral superiority is because they skillfully manage to erase all context from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Despite the pride we take in our western democratic institutions and our free press, there is next to no critical reporting on the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the media. One finds critical comments on sanctions against Russia, military spending and tactics, however, there is virtually no discussion in the main stream media openly critisising the war and its support by the west, nor is any main stream media outlet calling for negotiations as an alternative to war. It would be an interesting exercise to research if the propaganda model described by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in their book “Manufacturing Consent — The Political Economy of the Mass Media” ⁹, also applies to western Europe.

The following passage in chapter 4 resonates in the context of the western narrative of the Ukraine-Russia war depicting Vladimir Putin as a maniacal insatiable Hitler-like expansionist:

“… An der Spitze der russischen Politik stehen abgefeimte Schurken, aber keine Irrsinnigen, und die Politik des Absolutismus hat bei aller Eigenart das mit jeder anderen gemein, daß sie sich nicht in der blauen Luft, sondern in der Welt der realen Möglichkeiten bewegt, wo sich die Dinge hart im Raume stoßen. …”

“… Russia is ruled by desperate criminals, but not by maniacs. And after all, the policies of absolutism, in spite of all their characteristic differences, have this similarity in all nations, that they live not on thin air but upon very real possibilities, in a realm where concrete things come into the closest contact with each other.…”

This statement was accurate when Luxemburg wrote it in 1915, and it is accurate today in 2022; Vladimir Putin acted criminally, however, it is a bit of a stretch to denounce him as a maniac if we apply the same standard to Putin and Russia as we do to the leaders of the U.S. and its allies.

Remember how the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 because the Taliban refused to hand over suspects without evidence? Now actually they (the Taliban) had a right to do that, you are supposed to provide evidence if you want extradition. Remember how the U.S. invaded Iraq claiming it had weapons of mass destruction…

If the consensus is that the perpetrators of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, namely the U.S. and its allies, are not maniacs, we have no right to call Vladimir Putin a maniac without being hypocrites. In an interview Noam Chomsky describes “ a hypocrite [as] a person who focuses on the other fellas crimes but refuses to look at his own.… If people can not rise to the level of applying to ourselves the same standards we apply to others, they have no right to talk about right and wrong, or good and evil.” This is not a radical position, instead it is a position that is just elementary morality.

In a recent interview published in Germany’s Zeit magazine, former German chancellor Angela Merkel said that the Minsk agreements had been an attempt to “give Ukraine time” to build up its defences ^{10 11}. Note that the Minsk international agreements were drafted in 2014, 8 years before the breakout of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. With that in mind, consider the following passage from chapter 4:

“Derartig hing der heutige Weltkrieg seit acht Jahren in der Luft. Wenn er immer wieder verschoben wurde, so nur deshalb, weil jedesmal eine der beteiligten Seiten mit den militärischen Vorbereitungen noch nicht fertig war.…”

“Thus the world war has been hanging fire for eight years. It was postponed again and again only because always one of the two sides in question was not yet ready with its military preparations.…”

The following part of a recent interview on substack by Aaron Maté and Katie Halper with Anna Soroka, the former Deputy Foreign Minister of the Luhansk People’s Republic, discusses Angela Merkel’s comment on the Minsk agreements:

Random Observations

The Junius Pamphlet is the first time I read Rosa Luxemburg. It was Norman Finkelstein’s book I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It that made me cognizant of Luxemburg. While reading her expose on capitalist imperialism I couldn’t help but think of Noam Chomsky’s writings on U.S. capitalism and imperialism. It seems to me that Rosa Luxemburg was not only a role model for Norman Finkelstein but also for Noam Chomsky.