#03-24 Red Rosa (MayDay Special – but good any day)

Rosa Luxemburg was one of the most influential political theorists of her day. She lived from 1871 until 1919, when she was assassinated by the newly-elected socialist government of Germany. Luxemburg had written that socialism by gradual reform of the capitalist-oriented system would never provide for the needs of workers, that only revolution could do the job. She was strongly in favour of the innovation of May First as International Labour Day. In many countries, it’s still a national holiday – but it originated as a day for workers across the globe to stop work and show their collective power.

Luxemburg’s life was complicated, but one author boiled it down to a popular book, Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg. Here are excerpts from an interview with the author/illustrator of that book, cartoonist Kate Evans – courtesy of Mitchel Cohen of community radio WBAI in New York City.

http://www.radio4all.net/files/wingsradionews@gmail.com/WINGS-03-24RedRosa1915-28_55-128kbps.mp3