[Marxism] Source of Rosa Luxemburg Quote?

[Ian Angus]

'The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what
is happening.'

That sentence, attributed to Rosa Luxemburg, appears in many places on the
net, but none that I've found gives an actual source.

Can anyone tell me where it can be found in her works?


----
Ian Angus

[Charles Faulkner]

thanks for this.? great exercise.



i'm sure you've seen the attribututions on the interenet to the rosa luxemburg reader.? i don't have that.



i've searched most but not all (yet) from the links at this website: http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/ .



i used both the search engine and opened almost all of the links.? nothing.



i'm thinking that if she said it, it was in a letter.



if it's a ruse, it's clever.? a simple search of her works shows she likes the word "loudly".? but the idea doesn't really sound like her at all.? proclaiming the truth seems more to her a duty than the most revolutionary thing.? the quote almost undermines her.



----- Original Message -----


From: "Ian Angus" <ecosocialism at gmail.com>
To: "Charles Faulkner" <lacenaire at comcast.net>
Sent: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 5:49:36 PM
Subject: [Marxism] Source of Rosa Luxemburg Quote?

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'The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim loudly what
is happening.'

That sentence, attributed to Rosa Luxemburg, appears in many places on the
net, but none that I've found gives an actual source.

Can anyone tell me where it can be found in her works?


----
Ian Angus
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[Richard Menec]

Or perhaps it was a mistranslation. Have you checked for Rosa quotes in the original German?



thanks for this. great exercise.

[Vince Garton]

The original German quote seems to be slightly different, 'Wie Las?salle
sagte, ist und bleibt die revo?lu?tio?n?rste Tat, immer ?das laut zu
sagen, was ist?.' (literally 'As Lassalle said, it is and remains the
most revolutionary act to always "say loudly what is"').I've found two
places which trace it to the 1906 essay 'In revolution?rer Stunde: Was
weiter?', in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2, p. 36, but I have no means of
checking that at the moment. Hope that's of some help at any rate.

Yours

Vincent

[Einde O'Callaghan]

Post by Charles Faulkner
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The original German quote seems to be slightly different, 'Wie Las?salle
sagte, ist und bleibt die revo?lu?tio?n?rste Tat, immer ?das laut zu
sagen, was ist?.' (literally 'As Lassalle said, it is and remains the
most revolutionary act to always "say loudly what is"').I've found two
places which trace it to the 1906 essay 'In revolution?rer Stunde: Was
weiter?', in Gesammelte Werke, vol. 2, p. 36, but I have no means of
checking that at the moment. Hope that's of some help at any rate.

I can confirm that this is the source of the quote - I have the volume
in front of me as I write. There is no note to the text saying where
Lassalle said it.

Einde O'Callaghan

[Ed George]

Is this - 'Wie Lassalle sagte, ist und bleibt die revolution?rste Tat,
immer ?das laut zu sagen, was ist?.' ('As Lassalle said, it is and
remains the most revolutionary act to always "say loudly what is"') -
then not the same as what Trotsky referred to in the 1933 'It is
Imposssible to Remain in the Same International with the Stalins,
Manuilskys, Lozovskys & Co.' when he said: 'Ferdinand Lassalle, who was
no stranger to opportunism or adventurism, nevertheless expressed
perfectly well the fundamental requirement of revolutionary politics:
?Every great action begins with the statement of what is.?'?

The question then, I suppose, is where Lassalle said it.

http://readingmarx.wordpress.com/

[RKOB]

I hope I can help a bit.This should be the quote which has slightly been
altered by Luxemburg and Trotsky.

?Alle gro?e politische Aktion besteht im Aussprechen dessen, was ist,
und beginnt damit. Alle politische Kleingeisterei besteht in dem
Verschweigen und bem?nteln dessen, was ist.?

in English: ?All great political action consists of and begins with,
speaking out about that which is. All political petty-mindedness
consists of being silent and covering up that which is.?


Source: Ferdinand Lassalle: Was nun? Zweite Rede ?ber Verfassungswesen,
19.11.1862; in: Ausgew?hlte Reden und Schriften, Dietz-Verlag, Berlin
1991, p.127

I am quoting from the book in front of me.

Michael

Post by Charles Faulkner
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Is this - 'Wie Lassalle sagte, ist und bleibt die revolution?rste
Tat, immer ?das laut zu sagen, was ist?.' ('As Lassalle said, it is
and remains the most revolutionary act to always "say loudly what
is"') - then not the same as what Trotsky referred to in the 1933 'It
is Imposssible to Remain in the Same International with the Stalins,
Manuilskys, Lozovskys & Co.' when he said: 'Ferdinand Lassalle, who
was no stranger to opportunism or adventurism, nevertheless expressed
?Every great action begins with the statement of what is.?'?
The question then, I suppose, is where Lassalle said it.
http://readingmarx.wordpress.com/
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[Ian Angus]

For me this sort of thing is what makes Marxmail
a great resource. Thanks to everyone who replied.

Summing up:

Lasalle in 1862 wrote:

"Alle gro?e politische Aktion besteht im Aussprechen dessen,
was ist, und beginnt damit. Alle politische Kleingeisterei
besteht in dem Verschweigen und bem?nteln dessen, was ist."

Which translates into English as:

?All great political action consists of and begins with,
speaking out about that which is. All political petty-mindedness
consists of being silent and covering up that which is.?

Luxemburg in 1906 paraphrased Lasalle. Possibly she didn't have
the original available and was quoting from memory? She wrote:

"Wie Las?salle sagte, ist und bleibt die revo?lu?tio?n?rste Tat,
immer ?das laut zu sagen, was ist."

Which translates into English as

"As Lassalle said, it is and remains the most revolutionary
act to always 'say loudly what is'".

Part of that appears to have been translated in the Rosa Luxemburg
Reader as the sentence I originally asked for help identifying:
"The most revolutionary thing one can do is always to proclaim
loudly what is happening."

And just to complicate things, in 1933 Trotsky also paraphrased
Lasalle: "Ferdinand Lassalle, who was no stranger to opportunism
or adventurism, nevertheless expressed perfectly well the
fundamental requirement of revolutionary politics: 'Every great
action begins with the statement of what is.'"


Thanks again

Ian Angus