60 THE CLASS STRUGGLE KARL LIEBKNECHT AND ROSA LUXEMBURG 61 all ranks came out with counter revolutionary sentiments and proposals under the spiritual protection of the government that retained them in power in spite of all protests, showed the hopelessness of such an alliance, and finally led the representatives of the Independents to resign from the Socialist Cabinet, During the entire period of indecision and concessions Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and with them the Spartacus group, remained in the Independent Social Democratic Party. On the Sunday before Christmas the Independents held a convention at Berlin in response to a demand made by the Spartacus group for a clarification of its position.
At this conference Haase defended the action taken by the Independent leaders in trying to come to some kind of an understanding with the majority Socialists. The position of the Spartacus group was defended by Rosa Luxemburg, who attacked the government (at that time the Independents were still in office) and maintained that the present rulers of Germany were doing nothing to prevent the growth of a counter revolutionary movement. The Spartacus group then presented a resolution containing the following demands: The immediate resignation of the Independent representatives from the government. That the conference repudiate the calling of a National Assembly which can only strengthen the counterrevolution and cheat the revolution of its Socialist aims. The immediate assumption of all political power by the Workmen and Soldiers Councils, disarmament of the social revolution, armament of the working class population, the creation of a Red Guard for the protection of the revolution, dissolution of the Ebert Council of People Plenipotentiaries and the placing of full political control into the hands of an Executive Council of the Workmen and Soldiers Councils. resolution by Hilferding was finally adopted with 485 against 195 votes.
The most important task of the at the present time is the organization of the campaign for the National Assembly. We must now muster the supreme power of the proletariat to assure the victory of Socialism over the bourgeoisie.
On the 30th of December a National Conference of the Spartacus group was then held that finally severed all connection with the Independents and organized its forces into the Revolutionary Communist Labor Party by an unanimous vote.
From this we see that Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacus group by no means rushed rashly and madly into the revolutionary uprising that followed.
They left no stone unturned to secure the support of their comrades of the Independents, and far from being prompted by motives of self aggrandizement, actually remained in the background of events until the situation showed that only by independent action could they hope to prevent the overthrow of the proletarian revolution that threatened. Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg made one mistake. But they erred, not on the side of rashness, but, on the contrary, on the side of the great hopefulness, to create confidence in the steadfastness of principle of the Independent Social Democracy. Had they struck at once, while the whole country was still aglow with the excitement of the first revolutionary uprising, had they taken advantage of the socialistic spirit that dominated the first days and weeks of the revolution to firmly establish the power of the Workmen and Soldiers Councils, the German proletariat would not be facing to day a National Assembly in which the combined bourgeoisie can and will wrest from the hands of the Socialist movement the power to control the destinies of the new Republic.
The Martyrdom of Liebknecht and Luxemburg When the Spartacus revolt set in, the proletariat of Germany had already accepted the new conditions, and resented the reawakening of the revolutionary excitement that, in the