Matthew Mercer
This session explores Rosa Luxemburg's classic 1906 text 'The Mass Strike', which remains an invaluable study into the dynamics of general strikes as they occur in the course of revolutions. Using the 1905 Russian Revolution as her case study, Luxemburg argued sharply against contemporary opponents and proponents of the mass strike alike, as both shared the same artificial, unhistorical conception of how such a strike could be employed as a revolutionary tactic. Her text is an "objective investigation of the sources of the mass strike from the standpoint of what is historically inevitable" in the course of revolutionary workers' movements, drawing out key questions like the interaction between economic and political struggles, the importance of socialist and trade-union organisation, and the overall historical role general strikes play in revolutionary situations. Mass strikes remain essential components of all modern revolutions which feature working-class involvement, making it essential for socialists to understand how they emerge and the potential they hold in advancing the struggle to destroy capitalism.