pitalist development, and therefore the socialist transformation of society becomes a utopia, or socialism is no impractical utopia, and capitalism is incapable of saving itself." 2 Luxembourg tackles revisionism head on and draws the practical political conclusions. She makes the telling observation that it is not a question of revisionism defending capitalist relations. For: "Its theory is based on the presupposition of the existence of these contradictions, just like the Marxist conception. But, on the other hand, what constitutes precisely the essential kernel of revisionism and distinguishes it fundamentally from the attitude taken by social democracy up to now is that it does not base its theory on the suppression of these contradictions as a result of their logical internal development. The theory of revisionism occupies an intermediate place between two extremes. Revisionism does not want to see the contradictions of capitalism mature, [nor to] suppress these contradictions through a revolutionary transformation. Rather, it wants to lessen, to attenuate the capitalist contradictions." 3 For Luxembourg, it was not only certain abuses of capitalism but also mostly the relations of capitalism as a whole that needed to be transformed.
             The first half of Social Reform or Revolution examines aspects of recent economic and social development, which Bernstein had cited in support of his view that revolutionary Marxism was outdated. She then restates Marxist orthodoxy, emphasizing for example, the literal scientific truth of the labor theory of value (in her view the only theory that satisfactorily explained money). The best part of Rosa Luxembourg's argument consisted in her insistence on the necessity of social revolution. "Only the hammer blow of revolution, that is, the conquest of political power by the proletariat could break down the barriers to socialism created by the political and juridical relations of capitalist society." ...