Scott Kerlin <skerlin@teleport.com> writes:
"One of the core topics we discussed in my
sociology seminar in the U.S. last term was
the question of whether 1968 should be
considered *the* turning point year of the
last half of the 20th century, and whether
the election of Nixon was ultimately the
beginning of the end of the illusion of
democracy that had for so long pervaded
American political ideology. "
I think one of the big turning points of the
century happened in Germany during January
1919.
German communists were on the verge of
conducting a revolution in that country, and
were even occupying the capitol.
They were smashed by a campaign of violence
led by the Frei Korps, the nucleus of which
was the same gang of thugs who later formed
the leadership of the Nazi SA (Storm Troopers).
The Frei Korps murdered Rosa Luxemburg.
Imagine what the 20th Century would have been
like if Luxemburg and her comrades had been
successful: a Berlin-Moscow alliance, no
Hitler, no World War II, and perhaps no Stalin.
SOcialist movements all over the world would
have been given a boost by such an event.
~Michael Wright
Norman, Oklahoma
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