International Rosa Luxemburg Conference

In March 2023 Nord Universitet, the International Rosa Luxemburg Society, and the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, suppported by Fritt Ord, will host the International Rosa Luxemburg Conference at Nord Universitet, Bodø, Norway.

International participants will meet and discuss the role of Rosa Luxemburg and her works in the 21st century, especially from perspectives that could be considered topical or geographical peripheries. The participants will also have the chance to discuss current trends and debates in international research related to the life, works, and impact of Rosa Luxemburg.

DAY 1: 6 MARCH

14:00 Welcome Notes

14:30 Panel 1: Rosa Luxemburg and the Periphery: Latin America
A Red Witch Is Haunting Latin America (Selene Aldana Santana and Amada Vollbert Romero, Mexico City)
Rosa Luxemburg and the International Women’s Strike (Alex Adamson, Wellesley, MA, USA)
Cultural Heritage in the Periphery: A Luxemburgian Analysis (Rosa Rosa Gomes, Sāo Paulo)

16:00 Break

18:00 Public Event, Stormen, Bodø: Roundtable Discussion on “The Role of Rosa Luxemburg in the 21st Century”
(Evelin Wittich, Tanja Storløkken, Florian Wenninger, and Steinar Aas)

DAY 2: 7 MARCH

10:00 Panel 2: Rosa Luxemburg and the Periphery: Other Regions
Reception of Rosa Luxemburg in the Balkans during the World Revolution, 1917–1923 (Stefan Gužvica, Belgrade)
Walking on the edges: Rosa Luxemburg in Yugoslavia (Ankica Čakardić, Zagreb)
Rosa Luxemburg and the Norwegian Labour Movement (Steinar Aas, Bodø)

11:30 Lunch Break

13:00 Panel 3: Rosa Luxemburg and Her Perception in Scandinavia
“But we well brawl, I can promise we do.” Bruno Kreisky Discusses Luxemburg’s Ideas in Swedish
Exile (Christian Dietrich, Frankfurt/Oder)
Luxemburg in Canada (Swen Steinberg, Ottawa/Ontario, Canada). Online via Zoom

14:00 Break

14:30 Panel 4: The Impact of Rosa Luxemburg’s Ideas on Contemporary Progressive Mass Movements and Socialist Democracy (Part 1)
Luxemburg and the Relevance of Republican Democracy (Ben Lewis, Leeds)
Rosa Luxemburg as a Republican Agitator: Shaping Social Democracy in Imperial Germany (David Guerrero and Andrea Pérez-Fernández, Barcelona)

16:00 Panel 5: Projects and Sources
Let Rosa Luxemburg Speak Chinese: The Project of Issuing The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg in Chinese (WU Xinwei, Wuhan)
“Which Institution Will Take Over the Papers of Narihiko Ito?” Short information by Wako Asato (Kyoto)

DAY 3: 8 MARCH

10:00 Panel 6: The Impact of Rosa Luxemburg’s Ideas on Contemporary Progressive Mass Movements and Socialist Democracy (Part 2)
Railroad Luxemburg: Luxemburg’s Theory of Infrastructure and Its Consequences for Competing Models of Internet Ownership (Charlie Muller, New York)
Rosa Luxemburg: Economics & Experience (Ingo Schmidt, Athabasca, Canada)
Rosa Luxemburg, Imperialism and the Socialist Challenge in South Africa (Gunnett Kaaf, Bloemfontein)

11:30 Lunch Break

12:30 Panel 7: New Insights into Rosa Luxemburg’s Life, Work, and Impact
Willy Brandt’s View of Rosa Luxemburg (Uli Schöler, Berlin)
Rosa Luxemburg and Literature: Literature Effects on Rosa Luxemburg’s Social Theory (Marc Ortmann, Munich)
The Portrayal of Rosa Luxemburg in the Films of the GDR and the FRG (Julia Killet, Munich)
Rosa Luxemburg: Nature, Botany, and Politics (Evelin Wittich, Berlin)

15:00 Concluding Session