Ben Lewis is a translator and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Leeds. He publishes previously untranslated works of German Marxism at Marxism Translated.
Clara Zetkin was one of the leading figures in German Marxism during the early 20th century, yet her political legacy is largely forgotten today. Zetkin deserves to be remembered, especially for her advocacy of the revolutionary emancipation of women.
Lenin’s famous denunciation of Karl Kautsky as a “renegade” has long discouraged Marxists from actually engaging with the German-Austrian socialist’s writings. But if the Bolshevik leader sharply criticized Kautsky’s retreats, this was also because of his great admiration for his earlier work — a revolutionary Marxism that lay decisive stress on the battle for democracy.