Revolutionary And Reformist Socialists Splitting Around 1900

The second international was the major organization for socialist parties around 1900. The first international had collapsed with struggles for leadership between Marx and anarchists. The German Social Democratic Party, headed by Karl Kautsky, seemed to be the most successful socialist party in the second international. After Engels, Kautsky became the literary executor for Marx. He edited and put out volume 4 of Capital, that is, Theories of Surplus Value.

Eduard Bernstein was Engels' literary executor and therefore a prominent member of the German Social Democratic Party. He had been the editor of Der Sozialdemokrat, the party's newspaper. Perhaps Bernstein was influenced by his acquaintance with members of the Fabian society when he was in exile in London. He looked at the growing wealth of the German workers; the apparent strength of working-class organizations, such as unions; and the SDP representation in the Reichstag. Economic development was not concentrating wealth in a smaller and smaller capitalist class. These trends did not seem to him consistent with the revolution that Marx foresaw. And he said so.

The Preconditions of Socialism and the Tasks of Social Democracy (Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus) is the major statement of Bernstein's views, and was published in 1899. It started as articles in Die Neue Ziet, the SDP paper for more theoretical work. Bernstein was called a revisionist, which has ever after been a pejorative among more radical socialists. His theses were argued about at the SDPss Stuttgart Conference, held in October 1898.

Bernstein argued for legislation and peaceful reform in favor of the workers. Socialists should be a parliamentary party. They should agitate for universal suffrage. They should leave businesses, for the most part, in private hands. Socialists should support the development of civil society.

Rosa Luxemburg saw an opportunity to raise her stature in the German SDP. She had already participated in the Stuttgart conference. Others, including Kautsky, also argued against Bernstein. Luxemburg's Reform or Revolution is a classic statement of the radical, anti-revisionist view. She argued against idealism, against petty bourgeois moralism, and against opportunism. Idealism, in this sense, means basing political views purely on intellectual arguments. Emphasizing universal citizenship loses a working-class standpoint. According to Luxemburg, capitalism will inevitably break down. Socialism is a scientific standpoint, given its historical necessity. I do not know that this is in this pamphlet, but Luxemburg famously said that our choice is socialism or barbarianism.

This controversy was echoed in other countries. In France, Jean Jaurès led the reformists. I think of Georges Sorel as an intellectual leader of the revolutionaries. His 1908 book, Reflections On Violence does not strike me as particularly Marxist. You maybe should read 'violence' in the title as what is today called direct action. Sorel, at the time, was an advocate of syndicalism. He was kind of mystical in his emphasis on non-rational motives for mass movements. Hence, his myth of the general strike.

In Italy, Filippo Turati, a founder of the Italian socialist party (PSI), was a reformist. The radicals were called maximalists. They seem to me more positivist than Marx would ever be. They saw the revolution as inevitable, not something to be brought about by political action in the here-and-now. Socialists should organize and educate, holding themselves back until the revolution comes.

In Russia, the split was between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks. Apparently, these names mean 'the minority' and 'the majority'. Bolsheviks were only the majority because some supporters of the Mensheviks had walked out of the Second Congress of the RSDLP (Russian Social Democratic Labor Party), at which the split occurred. Julius Martov was an important leader of the moderates, while Lenin headed the Bolsheviks. Lenin's pamphlets, What is to be done? (1902) and Two steps forward, one step back (1904) are essential primary sources here.

Lenin argued for agitation on all fronts, not just for economic improvements for the workers. He wanted an organization of professional revolutionaries, and developed the idea of democratic centralism. The Bolsheviks should have the freest discussion in deciding on policy and tactics. But once a vote has decided the issue, the comrades follow the party line. The establishment of an all-Russian newspaper, Iskra, is the immediate implementation called for in What is to be done?

I ought to say something about Austria.

I have said nothing about Sweden, Denmark, Norway, or Finland. Bernstein provided the intellectual structure for what became democratic socialism and social democracy. I do not know historical details about Scandinavia. He said, "The final goal, no matter what it is, is nothing; the movement is everything."