A Study Of Rosa Luxemburg’s Theory Of Imperialism

Rosa Luxemburg is one of the most famous women revolutionaries and Marxist theorists in the history of the international workers’ movement.In 1915,she completed her Theory of Capital Accumulation.In this book,she explores the roots and essence of imperialism by exploring the interrelationship between capitalism and non-capitalism and elucidating the question of how capital accumulation is achieved.At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century,capitalism showed many new phenomena,such as the formation of monopoly capitalism,the rapid development of the international workers’ movement,and the rise of imperialist wars.It was in this context,and at the same time under the guidance of Marx and Engels,in the struggle against the "revisionist" faction represented by Bernstein,and in the debate of the imperialist theory of the Second International,Rosa Luxemburg put forward her own imperialist theory,interpreting the imperialist phenomenon and its roots from an economic point of view.Rosa Luxemburg believed that Marx’s theory of reproduction could not explain the realization of surplus value because he ignored the role of the non-capitalist environment and thus proposed his own theory of capital accumulation to explain the roots of imperialism.She believes that capital accumulation cannot be sustained only within capitalism,relying only on the bourgeoisie and the proletariat,that the realization of capital accumulation must depend on the non-capitalist environment,and that the realization of capital accumulation depends on the market,labor force and means of production for which non-capitalist societies and strata provide surplus production.Rosa Luxemburg characterizes the imperialism she describes from two perspectives: in her view,imperialism is,on the one hand,the way and means by which capitalism encroaches on non-capitalism,a competitive policy of capitalism encroaching on the non-capitalist environment for the sake of capital accumulation on the world stage,and on the other hand,it is also the final stage of capitalism’s path to extinction.Rosa Luxemburg argues that when capitalism is in the imperialist stage,the capitalist powers further invade the non-capitalist environment on the world stage in order to achieve capital accumulation,and engage in fierce competition for colonies,expansion of spheres of influence and investment opportunities,in addition to militarism,international loans,tariff barriers,monopolies play a dominant role in world politics and economy.And these external phenomena and characteristics will inevitably make this period a period of disaster,thus bringing capitalism to its demise.She believes that imperialism is the last chapter of capitalism and that capitalism will eventually be replaced by socialism,which is her prediction of the development trend of the imperialist stage.We should look at Rosa Luxemburg’s theory of imperialism dialectically.Rosa Luxemburg’s theory of imperialism has made a certain contribution: it interprets the roots of imperialism from a new perspective on the relationship between capitalism and non-capitalism,opens up a new perspective on imperialism,and at the same time its exploration of "primitive accumulation of capital" has a certain value,emphasizing the cruelty of capitalism to non-capitalist exploitation.In addition,her inheritance of Marx’s dialectic of history also influenced the construction of Lukács’ s theory of totality.However,her theory of imperialism also has shortcomings: first,her theory of capital accumulation lacks objectivity because of her inadequate understanding of Marx’s theory of reproduction.Second,her imperialist theory lacks an in-depth study of monopoly.Third,she ignores the agency of non-capitalist societies and classes,thus taking on the color of historical determinism and Eurocentrism,so Rosa Luxemburg’s theory of imperialism also has great theoretical limitations.