Herman Gorter Quotes
You should not do this, Comrade. We are only in the introductory stage yet, here in Western Europe. And in that stage it is better to encourage the fighters than the rulers.
Gorter, Herman. Open Letter to Comrade Lenin. Wildcat, 1989.
The Menshevik Party was the Communist Opposition to the Bolshevik Party. Unlike the Mensheviks, the Bolsheviks seized as much power as they could and then denied anyone else a share.
There was an attempt by some Libyans to attack a Libyan student at an American University who was an outspoken critic of the Qaddafi regime.
Rival to Mao. This quotation is historically important because it shows how intensively the Chinese Communists concentrated on organizing the fringe and unpopular groups of society to the point where the struggle was between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists and everybody else. The Chinese Communist coalition included many who had not idea of what communism was but knew that Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists were not very good for them or the people they knew.
Germany, after its defeat in WWI was going through massive demonstrations and strikes. The government kept issuing bulletins that “Order Prevails” and the like. Luxemburg’s rhetoric and writing was so damaging to the government that they had her assassinated shortly after this statement.
Herman Gorter was a Dutch poet and socialist. He was a leading member of the Tachtigers, a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, centered on De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide).
