2005-02-08,+Rosa+Luxemburg+2005+Seminar,+3-5+March+flyer


 * Forthcoming!!! All Activists Welcome!!!**


 * The Rosa Luxemburg Seminar, 3-5 March 2005, Workers Library and Museum, Newtown**


 * "The Left - Participation & Engagement with Bourgeois Institutions"**

There are basically two aspects to this question, namely:

i) The issue of participation in elected institutions at all levels (local and national) and

ii) The issue of engagement with organs of the state

=Motivation=

1. During the national elections in South Africa in 2004, the social movements were divided in their attitude to the elections, whether to participate or not.

2. The forthcoming local government elections are scheduled for this year (2005). What attitude should the Left, (especially the social movements), take to these elections; and what positions should they advocate for their members and the broader public?

=Role of Rosa Luxemburg Seminar=

The Rosa Luxemburg Seminar is an opportunity for activists and militants from the broad Left in South Africa to engage in much needed political education and debate on the concrete issues of the day. The last seminar in 2004 was a great success in the numbers who attended, the participation and the engagement with the issues. This is also one of few spaces for important non-sectarian debate, within the broad Left.

Most importantly, this is a forum to enrich debate on contemporary issues facing the broad workers movement or broad Left, drawing on the work and ideas of Rosa Luxemburg. This is a tribute to the relevance of Rosa's work, even today.

Specifically with regard to the topic being proposed, Rosa Luxemburg was perhaps the leading polemicist on the attitude to, and the role of bourgeois institutions. This includes the debate on the entry of the Social Democratic Party into parliament, and the questions related to participation in bourgeois elected institutions at whatever level. This debate also includes her polemics with Bernstein, on 'reform and revolution'. The debate on participation in bourgeois institutions also influenced Lenin's participation in the Duma, in Russia in February/March 1907. Later this debate was taken in the Comintern or Third International. The Comintern together with many other communist parties then advocated the concept of 'revolutionary parliamentarianism.'

This theoretical discussion - based on concrete struggles in Europe, should therefore frame our discussion. At the same time we should also review past experiences in our own history of struggle in South Africa related to the issue of participation/engagement with bourgeios institutions. Here too we will be drawing valuable lessons and insights. This Seminar is meant to stimulate and deepen debate on contemporary issues, adding an important dimension, the ideas of Rosa Luxemburg and the historic struggles of working people who faced similar situations in Europe and Russia. It will still be up to activists present to continue the debate within their organisations, and within the Left as a whole.

=Outline for the Rosa Luxemburg Seminar 2005=


 * Part 1**: Opening Session: Thursday, 3 March afternoon/evening

4.00pm: Registration

4.30pm: Welcome: Rosa Luxemburg Foundation

5.00pm: "Rosa Luxemburg and the social democratic concept of politics" Tanja Storløkken (Norway)

6.00pm: Film and light supper


 * Part 2**: Friday 4 March: Historical and Theoretical Background

Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin & The Comintern - The Concept of 'Revolutionary Parliamentarism'
 * Session 1**:

A historical overview on the attitude to, and participation in, bourgeois elected institutions

Historical Experiences from South Africa
 * Session 2**:


 * controversies on the participation in various forms of apartheid-parliaments in the 1960s to the 1980s;
 * the experiences of the Apartheid judicial courts during the liberation struggle;
 * the Registration Debate and participation in Industrial Councils;
 * the debate on the nature of the South African civil society during the 1980s


 * Part 3**: Sat, 5 March 2005: Contemporary debates on participation and engagement

Panel discussion on 'Participation in elections and in parliaments'
 * Session 3**:


 * experiences and views of the new social movements to elections, the State and governments.
 * experiences of left parties in bourgeois governments (PDS and SACP)

Panel Discussion on 'Challenging politics - new developments in the relationship of government, the state and civil society'
 * Session 4**:


 * Social movements' engagement with the state and government
 * Participatory democracy and alternatives to neo-liberalism

=Closure=