What is the Spartacist League and why is it controversial?
The Spartacist League is considered particularly notorious by some groups for its defense of the North American Man/Boy Love Association and Roman Polanski, and defending North Korea from capitalist restoration. The Spartacist League has also criticized the bombing of Islamic State targets by the US military.
What is the League of Sparta?
The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and others.
What is the meaning of Spartacist?
Definition of Spartacist. : a member of a revolutionary political group organized in Germany in 1918 and advocating extreme socialistic doctrines.
Why was the Spartacist League formed in Germany?
Why was it formed in Germany? The Spartacist League was a revolutionary socialist group which was formed in Germany during the First World War. Gradually, it became a movement as many workers joined this movement demanding the formation of the Soviet-styled government.
What was Spartacist League Class 9th?
The Spartacist League was another political party in Germany that opposed the Weimer Republic. They supported Soviet style governance. They were opposed by the Socialists, Democrats, Catholics and were crushed by the Free Corps.
What was the purpose of Spartacist League?
Spartacus LeagueMotivesOpposition to German involvement in the Great War Anti-monarchism and spread of socialism Russian RevolutionIdeologyCommunism Marxism Revolutionary socialismPolitical positionFar-leftNotable attacksSpartacist uprising9 more rows
What was Spartacist League in Germany?
Spartacist UprisingCouncil of the People's Deputies FreikorpsCommunist Party of Germany Spartacus League Independent Social Democratic Party of GermanyCommanders and leadersFriedrich Ebert Gustav NoskeKarl Liebknecht Rosa LuxemburgStrength8 more rows
What happened to the Spartacist League?
They left the WWP in 1971, and reconstituted themselves as the Revolutionary Communist League (Internationalist).
How do you pronounce Spartacist League?
Break 'Spartacist' down into sounds: [SPAA] + [TUH] + [SIST] - say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them.
What was the most important result of the Spartacist League uprising in Germany?
The Weimar Republic crushed the uprising with the help of a war veterans organisations called Free Corps. The Spartacist founded the Communist Party of Germany.
What was the Spartacus League?
Communist Party of Germany. The Spartacus League ( German: Spartakusbund) was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic.
What was the Spartacus League's government?
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Spartacus League began agitating for a similar course: a government based on local workers' councils, in Germany. After the abdication of the Kaiser in the German Revolution of November 1918, a period of instability began, which lasted until 1923.
Who were the Spartacus soldiers?
Spartacus soldiers defending Berlin railroad station. Liebknecht (the son of SPD founder Wilhelm Liebknecht ) and Luxemburg became prominent members of the left-wing faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
What was the name of the group that split from the Social Democratic Party?
It called itself the "Spartakusgruppe" (Spartacus Group) from 1916, and joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and split off from the SPD.
I. As immediate measures to protect the Revolution
Disarmament of the entire police force and of all officers and nonproletarian soldiers; disarmament of all members of the ruling classes.
II. In the political and social realm
Abolition of all principalities; establishment of a united German Socialist Republic.
IV. International tasks
Immediate establishment of ties with the fraternal parties in other countries, in order to put the socialist revolution on an international footing and to shape and secure the peace by means of international brotherhood and the revolutionary uprising of the world proletariat.
V. That is what the Spartacus League wants!
And because that is what it wants, because it is the voice of warning, of urgency, because it is the socialist conscience of the Revolution, it is hated, persecuted, and defamed by all the open and secret enemies of the Revolution and the proletariat.
Overview
The Spartacist League is a Trotskyist political grouping. They are the United States section of the International Communist League (Fourth Internationalist), formerly the International Spartacist Tendency. This Spartacist League named themselves after the original Spartacus League of Weimar Republic in Germany, but the current League has no formal descent from it. The League self-identifies as a "revolutionary communist" organization.
Background
The origins of the Spartacist League go back to a left-wing tendency within the Young Socialist League, which was linked to the Independent Socialist League led by Max Shachtman, in the 1950s. This group objected to Shachtman's plans to merge the ISL into the Socialist Party-Social Democratic Federation and the YSL into the Young People's Socialist League. This "left wing caucus" was then persuaded to join the Socialist Workers Party's youth group, American Youth fo…
Setbacks
Following founding of the Spartacist League the small group found itself isolated and failed to recruit new members. This resulted in a degree of demoralisation on the part of some members including the group's leading West Coast figure, Geoff White, who resigned in 1968. By this time another leading figure, Shane Mage, had also quit the group.
Meanwhile, the New York branch was developing work in the unions through the Militant Labor C…
Early activities and expansion
Initially the Spartacists sought to intervene in the Civil Rights protests, on the basis of their support for the idea of revolutionary integrationism, but as small as they were, this activity floundered. They also developed a small presence in the Students for a Democratic Society; within the SDS they opposed all the major factions that developed from that body as these factions turned more and more towards Maoist ideas by 1969.
Fragmentation
The late 1970s saw the growth of the league stalled as the radical tide of the 1960s began to ebb. Major internal factional struggles in the group have developed from time to time. These tended to lead to the departure of the dissenting minority.
In 1972, the life of the organization was punctuated by the loss of several leading cadres. Dissatisfied with the group's regime, some senior members gathered around Moore, Stewart, Da…
Later splits
In 1996, Workers Vanguard editor Jan Norden and other founders of the League for the Fourth International were expelled, allegedly for maneuvering with a group from Brazil involved in bringing law suit against a trade union.
Controversy
The Spartacist League is considered particularly notorious by some groups for its defense of the North American Man/Boy Love Association and Roman Polanski, and defending North Korea from capitalist restoration. The Spartacist League has also criticized the bombing of Islamic State targets by the US military.
Footnotes
1. ^ "PublicEye.org - The Website of Political Research Associates". www.publiceye.org. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
2. ^ "The Labor Committee: Crackpot Social Democracy," Part I: Workers' Vanguard, no. 5 (Feb. 1972), pp. 8,5; Part II: no. 6, (March 1972), pp. 2, 6.
3. ^ "Scientology for Social Democrats," Workers' Vanguard, no. 19 (April 27, 1973), pg. 4.
Overview
The Spartacus League (German: Spartakusbund) was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and other members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who were dissatisfied with the party's official policies in support of the war. In 1916 it renamed itself the "Spartacus Group" and in 1917 joined the Independent Social Democra…
History
At the 1907 congresses of the Second International in London and Stuttgart, it was decided that the European workers' parties would oppose the threat of war between the major European powers. At the 1912 Basel conference, additional antiwar measures were decided on, including that the working classes should "exert every effort to prevent the outbreak of war by the means they considered most effective". The SPD had explicitly and repeatedly opposed an imperialist war in …
Reception
The Spartacus League had advocated the solidarity of all revolutionary forces and a permanent commitment to the goals of the Communist Manifesto. Until the founding of the KPD, it saw itself as part of a class-conscious international social democracy which rests on the shoulders of the working mass of the people, meaning that working class organizations needed to express and enforce its will. The Spartacus League's founders had therefore criticized both the reformism of …
English language sources
• Ottokar Luban, The Role of the Spartacist Group after 9 November 1918 and the Formation of the KPD, in: Ralf Hoffrogge and Norman LaPorte (eds.), Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2017, pp. 45–65.
• Bill Pelz, The Spartakusbund and the German working class movement, 1914-1919, Lewiston [N.Y.]: E. Mellen Press, 1988.
External links
• On the Spartacus Programme by Rosa Luxemburg