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2021 brought us highs and lows, successes and disappointments. We began full of hope and with great elan — the one-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday of our namesake, Rosa Luxemburg, in our sights. Numerous activities for the year had been planned well in advance. The high point was to be the Rosa150 festival on 4 and 5 March at Berlin’s Volksbuhne. We had organized and hoped to the last moment, but in the end everything had to be rescheduled to take place online. On our YouTube and
Facebook channels, we live-streamed two days’ discussion of Luxemburg’s work, under the title Eine Ermutigung in Zeiten der Pandemie und anderer Katastrophen (Taking Courage in Times of Pandemic and Other Catastrophes). We followed traces of her life, read citations from newly discovered letters, and broadcast feature reports, city tours, and contributions from artists. It was a diverse and multifaceted programme, which was only able to be implemented through the tremendous dedication of many colleagues, and which will be of use for subsequent political education work.
Yes, the pandemic again had us firmly in its grasp over long stretches of time. For the second time we had to hold our general meeting digitally, as well as numerous other events. We were constantly having to adapt to new hygiene regulations and requirements to continue doing the work of the RLS and to be able to host events. Educational seminars were planned well in advance, prepared as offline events, and then had to take place digitally.
The urgent need to reposition ourselves was brought home by the disastrous performance of Die Linke in the last federal election. The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is taking responsibility for researching its causes. Through social analysis, political education, and networking, and through the promotion of projects and dialogues, we wish to contribute to the strengthening of left-wing and socialist forces in Germany, Europe, and internationally, thus bringing about a socio-ecological, peace-oriented change of direction in politics, towards democratic socialism.