  This then, is the essence of what has been labelled her theory of the role of “spontaneity” in political organisation, which is not so much a theory as an effort to understand the dynamic of political action grounded in the belief that, in the course of political mobilisation and activity, oppressed groups are themselves able to develop the epistemic insight, political tools and collective motivation required to change the course of history. The lesson for political parties, Luxemburg argued, was not to focus on the “technical side”, with the “mechanisms of the mass strike” but to ensure that “they never fall below the level demanded by the actual relations of forces, but rather rise above it” (Luxemburg 1905 [RLR: 199]). Reforms, she explained, provided crucial learning platforms through which the mass of oppressed people would develop a capacity for autonomous decision-making, and prepare for the conquest of political power. Yet such reforms were trials of freedom, they were not freedom itself.