Marx and Luxemburg in an age of crisis and war
A talk for “Marx Matters: Socialism or Barbarism”
Helen Scott delivered this talk in June 2026 as part of the series “Marx Matters: Socialism or Barbarism,” hosted by Arise: A Festival of Ideas. In the talk, Scott lays out the significance of Rosa Luxemburg and her organizing and writing for socialists today. A proponent of the mass strike, Luxemburg refused both reformism and Stalinism to focus on socialism from below in international workers’ struggles. Until her murder by the forces of reaction in 1919, Luxemburg was a champion of ordinary people and the principles of socialism from below. Readers are encouraged to read her book Reform or Revolution. A volume of the complete works of Rosa Luxemburg is forthcoming from Verso Press.
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Helen Scott is a professor of English at the University of Vermont, a member of the faculty union, United Academics: AFT/AAUP, and a member of the Tempest Collective.