Christian Klar’s Message to the 2007 Rosa Luxemburg Congress

First published in junge Welt on January 15, 2007; republished in Spiegel 9/2007; February 26, 2007 (http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,468710,00.html).

Dear Friends,

The theme of this year’s Rosa Luxemburg Congress, “Things Can Be Different,” means – to my understanding – critically assessing the inspiring developments in a number of Latin American countries of late.  There, after two decades of the propertied classes’ socially destructive measures, the rights of the masses are again being taken into consideration, with a perspective being developed on that basis.

But what’s happening in Europe?  Here, the imperialist alliance continues to roll forward feeling that it can legitimately rain fire on any country on earth that opposes its plans for a new division of profits, reducing its society’s entire way of life to a pile of rubble.  To do so governments and major PR agencies disseminate an ideology glorifying everything that reduces humans to useful tools.

Nonetheless, it must be pointed out:  “Things Can Be Different.”  Where else can the strength to struggle come from?  The particular focus has to be on wresting the large European social sectors that have already experienced economic collapse from the hands of chauvinist “saviors.”  Otherwise, it won’t be possible to completely defeat capital’s plans and open the door to a different future.

It is always bears repeating:  ultimately the world is historically ripe for a future where new generations will have a life that allows for the full development of their human potential, and where the specter of human alienation from social concerns has been dispelled.