This graphic novel biography of socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg was one of many Christmas gifts from Geoff. My first impression was that, with its historical background and its extensive end notes providing context on an almost page-by-page basis, it seemed reminiscent to me of Chester Brown's comic biography of Louis Riel.
From an artistic perspective, I was not surprised to learn that Kate Evans was solicited to create this text, and had not previously even heard of Rosa Luxemburg. Nor had I, so I am not critiquing ignorance. There is simply something about the artistic rendition of a text when it appears to be a passion project borne of genuine interest and the absolute need to tell a story that differs from one crafted because one has been commissioned. Some aspects appear to be included, despite artistic difficulties, because it would not be sensible without. I feel that this is reflected in the excess of words over images, the plain backgrounds, the tendency of certain faces to feel inconsistent, the forewarned conflation of characters, and what must be the author's predisposition toward visual imagery - no matter how trite the metaphor needs to be to suit the narrative.
That being said, as I will detail later, some of the visual imagery is necessary and helps to illuminate very complex topics. Also, some pages are exceptionally beautiful, which seems to me (incorrect as I could be) to illustrate the moments in Luxemburg's life that must have most resonated with Evans. For instance, scenes of imprisonment where Luxemburg pens many gorgeous, poetic letters about nature and wildlife are represented as equally aesthetically in text and image. Moreover, most notably, the scenes of Luxemburg's capture and untimely murder are as profound visually as textually.
I appreciate this graphic novel most on an historical level, for how simply it could represent Marxist ideas I have read in Capital. Also, I tend to understand much better through the use of visuals and tangible examples. As such, Red Rosa is a valuable complement to my reading of that text, and this is the focus on which I will choose to centre the rest of this post (hence the blog title), through a combination of words and images.
"'Rosa, what's the book about?'
'Das Kapital? Mm, interesting question. It's about things - about everything we have. Take this salt, for example. It has two properties. It has a use-value. I can use it. I can sprinkle it on my food... and it also has an exchange-value. Say I've had enough salt -- I don't want my food too salty -- I could take my salt and swap it with you for some pepper. Everything has a use-value and an exchange-value, but these intrinsic properties are mutually incompatible. [...] If I want to use my salt by eating it, then I can't exchange it with you. And if I want to exchange it, then I can't eat it.'
'Two sides of the same coin?'
'We're coming to coins in a minute. Different use-values have different qualities. We use salt for its saltiness and pepper for its pepperiness. Different exchange-values have different quantities. It doesn't matter what it is, only how much you have. If I had enough salt I could swap it for your pocket watch.'
'I'm not sure I want that much salt, Rosa.'
'Aha! That's where money comes in. Once money is involved, anything can be exchanged for anything and everything becomes a commodity. [...] I want a watch. Do you want a massive pile of salt?'
'No.'
'Oh. Now let's introduce money. [...] I'll sell my salt to someone else. Would you like to buy some salt?'
'Yes. I'll give you one gold coin for it.'
'How much for the watch?'
'One gold coin.'
'Here it is.'
"'Here is Marx's phrase: We have "material relations between persons and social relations between things." We treat objects like people. We desire them. We fetishise them. We treat them as valuable. We expect them to make us happy. [...] We treat people like objects. A person isn't a person anymore. He's a jeweller... or a miner... or a beggar... or a boss. It's money that makes inequality possible. In fact, it makes it inevitable. I have a lovely bowl of soup. Look! There's a starving person -- that's their fault for not having enough money -- they should work harder. [...] Once money is involved, people can exchange goods in order to make more money. This guy bought my salt not because he wanted salt, but so he could sell it again... for profit. Money is power -- it really is. It's the embodiment of all the effort that all the people put into making all those things. And now one person owns it. And he wants more. He can't really make money by buying and selling things -- sometimes he'd win and sometimes he'd lose. There's only one commodity he can buy that always creates a profit. Human labour power.'"
"'Those eight kopeks of surplus value are unpaid labour. It's exploitation. Slavery. That's what capital is. Poor worker spoons. Your jobs are so boring. Instead of skilled trades and crafts, you're doing shift-work, night-work, piece-work. You'll die young from overwork and you'll die poor. But look! There are so many of you! You can join together, realize your strength and overthrow your oppressors! And this is how capitalism will crumble!'" (Evans 17-22)
"One of the strengths of Marxist analysis is that it recognizes the contradictions inherent in complex systems. Marx took Hegel's theory of dialectics -- the idea that everything contains its opposite -- and applied it to the world around us. One cannot have light without dark. There cannot be a bourgeoisie without a proletariat to break its back. And most importantly, and fundamentally, capitalism creates the forces that tend toward its own destruction. As of a result of its own inner contradictions, capitalism moves towards a point when it will be unbalanced, when it will become simply impossible. (History has not yet proven the validity of this theory. That doesn't mean it isn't true.) This isn't just because building factories brings the workers together so that they recognize their common class interest and start to resist exploitation. It is inherent within capitalist economics. The continual pursuit of profit is, by definition, unsustainable. The quest for surplus value runs away from itself and the system swings from boom to bust. Fueled by the progressive socialisation of the process of production, the growing class consciousness of the proletariat, and the ungovernable chaos of the capitalist economy, the market outlet will begin to shrink because the world market has been extended to its limit and has been exhausted by the competition of capitalist countries. Sooner or later, this is bound to occur." (54-5)
"'Let us examine the ancient German village commune. For whom does this labourer work?'
'Himself.'
'Yes. This corn, these geese, these shoes -- are they commodities?'
'No, they are neither bought nor sold.'
'Exactly. They are made for the people, by the people.'
'One cannot imagine something simpler and more harmonious than this, the life of the so-called primitive. The immediate needs of everyday life and the equal fulfillment of everyone -- this is the starting point and endpoint of the economic system. Everyone works for everyone else and collectively decides on everything. Why? Because we have communism of the land and the soil. The common possession of the means of production on the part of those who work. Urkommunism truly is a global form of production. One can find examples of it on every inhabited continent.'" (95)
"'The same village, but now we see it in modern times. Common property ceases to exist, and, along with it, the common labour and common will that regulates this. We have the money economy. All interactions are based upon exchange. What does this mean? Each person is now on his own: the farmer, the shoemaker, the gooseherd, etc. The community no longer has anything to say to him, no one can order him to work for the whole, nor does anyone bother about his needs. Each person's share of the social labour is dictated by the market. Whatever he can sell, he labours at. Whether he can sell it determines whether he is rewarded. If he is lucky he can buy dinner. If not, he can go hang himself, for all society cares. Social wealth is no longer distributed according to need. It matters not to the market whether the labourer has two mouths to feed, or ten.'"
"'Perhaps you will ask, is not submission to the vagaries of the market a small price to pay for individual freedom? Alas, how unfree is this worker here. The distinctive feature of capitalism is the precariousness of the worker. The capitalist controls the means of production. The worker has nothing. The only commodity he can sell is his labour power... and the entire process revolves around the exploitation of that labour. The worker may think himself free. But what choice does he have other than to sell his labour? Jobs are scarce and insecure, for the capitalist keeps a reserve army of the unemployed ready at his bidding. The capitalist certainly considers himself free. But what other choice does he have but to press his workforce ever harder, driving up his profit? For if he doesn't swim ahead of the competition he will sink. All humanity groans with frightful suffering under the yoke of a blind social power, capital, that it has itself unconsciously created. The underlying purpose of every social reform of production, the satisfaction of society's needs, is turned completely on its head. Production is no longer for the sake of the people. Production for the sake of profit becomes the law all over the earth.'" (97-8)
"'Imagine a world where capitalism is complete. This is what Marx envisaged when writing Kapital: "treat the whole world as one nation and assume that the capitalism is everywhere established." So, everyone is a worker or a boss. The bosses own the means of production and employ workers, from whom they extort an ever-increasing amount of surplus-value, who produce commodities which must be sold and the resulting profits reinvested in the process. The accumulation of capital. That is the aim of the game. But, in order for this to take place, an ever-increasing supply of products must be sold to an ever-expanding market of consumers. There must be a demand for the product. But from whom? Who buys these goods? It is not the workers who consume the commodities, for they barely earn enough to keep body and soul together. The capitalist class, when viewed as a single entity, cannot buy up all the surplus produce, for to do so would be to squander the profit. "Aha!" You may reply, "In our society, not everyone is a worker or a boss. We have other occupations: poet, parson, prostitute. These people buy the products." But from whence do they obtain their income? From tending to the workers and the bosses. They are parasitic upon the capitalist process. They have no income that is independent from it.'" (100-1)
"'New Year's Resolution?'
'You know as well as I do, Leo. History is not making things easy for us. A bourgeois revolution could simply overthrow the official power and replace it with a couple of new men. But we must work from the bottom to the top. We can only come to power with the clear and explicit will of the great majority of the proletarian masses. Who knows how long that will take? And what does that matter, so long as our lives are long enough to bring it about?'"
---
I am reminded in that last quotation, of both Orwell's 1984 ("'If there is hope,' wrote Winston, 'It lies in the proles') and anti-Nazi activist Sophie Scholl of the White Rose, only 21 years old, who on her day of execution for high treason due to distributing political pamphlets, said: "How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?"
These are strange times. I am reminded of my Grade 11 Ancient Civilizations teacher, who used to talk about tempocentrism, or the idea that every successive generation believes itself to be at the pinnacle of human and technological development. I thought us to be beyond a world where leftist ideas are dangerously radical - where people are persecuted for desiring equality in a world system that wants anything otherwise. These times feel less safe. This feels like a regression.
I've been reading more articles about revolution.
