Socialism As It Is

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[282] George R. Kirkpatrick, "War--What For?" (Preface).

[283] Bernard Shaw, "John Bull's Other Island," pp. xxxix-xliv.

CHAPTER VIII

POLITICAL AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION

"The legal constitution of every period," says Rosa Luxemburg, "is
solely a product of revolution. While revolution is the political _act
of creation_ of class history, legislation is the continued political
_growth_ of society. The work of legal reform has in itself no
independent driving force outside of the revolution; it moves during
each period of history only along that line and for that period of time
for which the impetus given to it during the last revolution continues,
or, to speak concretely, it moves only in the frame of that form of
society which was brought into the world through the last overturn....
Therefore, _the person who speaks for the method of legal reform instead
of the conquest of political power and the overthrow of_ [_present day_]
_society is not as a matter of fact seeking, in a quieter, safer, and
slower way, the same goal, but a different goal altogether_; namely,
instead of bringing about a new social order, merely the accomplishing
of unessential changes in the old one."[284]

It is not that Rosa Luxemburg or any other prominent Socialist
underestimates the importance to the Socialist movement of universal
suffrage, and of the utilization of our more or less democratic
governments for the purpose of reform. She realizes that such democracy
as we have to-day is useful to-day, and that in a future crisis it may
serve as a lever for overturning the present social order. "Democracy is
indispensable," she says, "not because it makes the conquest of
political power by the working class superfluous, but, on the contrary,
because it makes this seizure of power not only necessary, but the only
remaining alternative."

From Kautsky and Bebel, who have always been known as strong believers
in the possibilities of political action, to the somewhat skeptical
revolutionary Socialists of France, the ballot has thus far remained the
weapon of first practical importance, even for revolutionary purposes.
Bebel expects some day a great crisis which will go far beyond the
power of any merely political means to solve. Kautsky looks forward to
more than one great conflict, in which other means will have to be
employed, as does also his Socialist critic and opponent, Jaures. But
for the present all these men are occupying themselves with politics.

Even those Socialists who are most skeptical of the revolutionary
possibilities of political action by no means turn their back upon it.
The French advocate of economic action and revolutionary labor unionism,
Lagardelle, who recently surprised some of his French comrades, as I
have already pointed out, by running as a candidate for the French
Chamber, claimed that he did this in entire consistency with his
principles. And even the arch-revolutionary, Gustave Herve, has declared
that in spite of all the faults and limitations of political action,
revolutionary Socialists must cling to the Socialist Party. Herve had
looked with a favorable eye on the formation of a revolutionary
organization which was to consist only in part of Socialists and in part
of revolutionary labor unionists, but he declared at the last moment
that such an organization ought to be only a group within the Socialist
Party. A bitter critic of Jaures and also of the orthodox "center" of
the party on the ground that their methods are too timid to achieve
anything for Socialism in view of the ruthless aggressions of the
capitalists, Herve nevertheless said that it was only very exceptional
circumstances that could justify revolutionary Socialists acting against
the party organization, even though it seemed to be doing so little
effective fighting against the capitalist enemy.

There could be no stronger evidence of the powerful hold of political
action even on the most revolutionary Socialists than the summary in
which Herve reviews his reasons for this conclusion:--

"_First_: That the only manner of agitating for
anti-parliamentarism that succeeds, and is without danger, is
before and after electoral periods--showing constantly to the elite
of the proletariat the insufficiency and dangers of parliamentarism
in general and parliamentarist Socialism in particular;

"_Second_: During electoral periods all propaganda disparaging the
possibilities of politics unaided by other forms of action should
cease, 'in order not to embroil ourselves with the Socialist masses
who must be handled carefully at any cost, in the interest of the
revolutionary cause';

"_Third_: While the revolutionary Socialists' discontent with the
party's moderation and exclusive absorption in the details of
politics or reform ought not to lead them to oppose the
organization during election periods, it does not follow that
revolutionary Socialists can not even at such times continue to
preach their principles and proclaim their hatred to the
conservative parties and their attitude towards the Parliamentary
Socialist Party 'of sympathy mixed with distrust';

"_Fourth_: An exception should be made against certain Socialist
candidates who may have taken a scandalously conservative
anti-labor and anti-revolutionary position in the legislative
session just gone by, and that against the latter there should be a
fight to the finish, certain as we are of having with us almost the
entire support of the parliamentary Socialist Party."[285]

In a word, Herve proves his democracy by respecting the opinion of the
majority of the Socialist Party, because he hopes and believes that it
will become revolutionary in his sense of the word. With a strong
preference for "direct action," strikes, "sabotage," boycotts, etc., he
yet allows his policies to be guided very largely by a political
organization.

But Socialist politics are not politics at all in the ordinary sense of
the word. They are directed primarily to prepare the people for a great
struggle to come. "Situations are approaching," said Bebel at the
Congress at Jena, in 1905, "which must of physical necessity lead to
catastrophes unless the working class develop so rapidly in power,
numbers, culture, and insight, that the bourgeoisie lose the desire for
catastrophes. We are not seeking a catastrophe,--what use would it be to
us? Catastrophes are brought about by the ruling classes." Bebel was
referring particularly to the possibility and even the probability that
the German government might try to destroy the Socialist Party by
limiting the right of suffrage or to crush the unions by limiting the
right of labor to organize. If he predicted a revolutionary crisis, it
was to come from a life-and-death struggle of the working people in
self-defense, in a desperate effort to protect economic and political
rights, but especially _political_ rights, which, as the labor unionist,
von Elm, said at this congress, were "the key to all." A revolutionary
conflict was anticipated, to be fought out by economic means, but only
as part of a political crisis--in which the majority of the people would
be on the side of the Socialists and the labor unions. Similarly, in
America, Mr. Victor Berger stated at the Socialist Convention of 1908
that he had no doubt that "in order to be able to shoot even, some day,
we must have the powers of the political government in our hands, at
least to a great extent."

While neither the political revolution involved in the capture of
government by Socialist voters, nor the economic revolution that would
follow a wholly successful general strike would lead necessarily to
revolution in its narrow sense of a great but relatively brief crisis,
or to revolutionary violence; while either political or economic
overturn, or both, combined in a single movement, might be accomplished
peacefully and by degrees, capitalist governments are just as likely to
seize the one as the other, as the occasion for attempts at violent
repression. A complete political victory would thus lead to the same
crisis and violence as a victorious general strike.

As Bebel says, Socialists are not trying to create a revolutionary
crisis. But they have little doubt that the capitalists themselves will
precipitate one as soon as Socialism becomes truly menacing, as may
happen within a few years in some countries. "The politicians of the
ruling class have reached a condition where they are ready to risk
everything upon a single throw of the dice," says Kautsky, on the
supposition that Socialism is _already_ a real menace in Germany. "They
would rather take their chances in a civil war than endure the fear of a
revolution," he continues. "The Socialists on the other hand, not only
have no reason to follow suit in this policy of desperation, but should
rather seek by every means in their power to postpone any such insane
uprising [of the capitalists] even if it be recognized as inevitable, to
a time when the proletariat will be so powerful as to be able at once to
whip the enraged [capitalist] mob, and to restrain it, so that the one
paroxysm shall be its last, and the destruction that it brings and the
sacrifice it costs shall be as small as possible."[286]

The majority of Socialists have no inclination towards violence of any
kind at the present time, whether domestic or foreign, and will avoid it
also for all time if they can. But they fear and expect that the present
ruling class will undertake violent measures of repression which will
inevitably result in a conflict of physical force.

The Civic Federation, of which so many conspicuous Americans have been
members (including Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, August Belmont,
Seth Low, Nicholas Murray Butler, and other prominent philanthropists,
educators, statesmen, publicists, and multimillionaires), had its
earliest origin, to the author's personal knowledge, partly in an effort
to divert the energies of the working people from Socialism and
revolutionary unionism to the conservative trade unionism of the older
British type. It was natural that this organization should give more and
more of its attention to an organized warfare against the Socialist
movement as the latter continued to grow, and this it has done. Its
members have attacked the movement from every quarter, accusing it of a
tendency to undermine religion, the family, and true patriotism. But the
most direct and important accusation it has made has been that the
Socialists are working toward revolutionary violence. In its official
organ it has quoted Mr. Debs as saying: "When the revolution comes we
will be prepared to take possession and assume control of every
industry." The quotation is fairly chosen, and represents the Socialist
standpoint, but if it is to be thoroughly understood it must be taken in
connection with other positions taken by the party. No revolution is
contemplated, other than one of the overwhelming majority of the people,
nor is any violence expected, other than such that may be instigated by
a privileged minority in order to prevent the majority from gaining
control of the government and industries of the country.

That the Civic Federation writers also understand that the violence may
come from above rather than from below is clearly shown in the context
of the article in question. The Federation organ also attacks Mrs. J. G.
Phelps Stokes for having said, at Barnard College, that the present
government would probably be overturned by the ballot. In answer to
this, the Federation's organ said, "Mrs. Stokes is a woman of
intelligence and doubtless knows that States are not overturned by
ballots." Here is a categorical denial on the part of an organ
representing the most powerful privileged element in the country, of the
possibility of _peaceful_ political revolution, which can only mean that
if a majority desires such a peaceful revolutionary change, the minority
now in power will use violence to prevent it. An article by one of the
Federation's officials, Ada C. Sweet, in the same number, makes still
further disclosures. Among the "fantastic projects and schemes of
Socialism," she says, are the demand "that the Constitution be made
amendable by a majority vote," and the demand for the abolition of that
feature of our government "which makes the Supreme Court the final
interpreter and guardian of the federal Constitution." These demands, of
course, are becoming common outside of the Socialist Party, and would
simply move the United States up to the semi-democratic level of
constitutions made during the last half century. Indeed, the judicial
precedents that have created an oligarchy of judges in this country,
though they have existed for a century, have never been imitated by any
country on earth, civilized or uncivilized, with the single exception of
Australia. It is these demands, which would not be held even as radical
in other countries, which Miss Sweet says cannot be accomplished without
violence. If this is so, it means that violence will come from above,
and the Socialists would be cowards indeed if they were not ready to
resist it.

Miss Sweet contends that "to bring about the first practical
experiments" demanded by Socialism "would start such a civil war as the
world has never yet seen in all its long history."[287] No doubt the
writer, who has held a responsible position with the Civic Federation
for years, represents the opinions of her associates. Her prediction may
be correct, and if so it would indicate that the people who at present
control this country and its government, and who have the power to
initiate such a civil war, are determined to do so.

While Socialists have no desire for revolutionary violence, being
convinced, as they are, that the present generation will see the
majority of the voters of every modern country in their ranks, and
Socialists by right in possession of the legal powers of government,
they nevertheless have never been blind to the readiness of the
plutocratic and militaristic forces in control of governments to proceed
to illegal _coups d'etat_, to destroy all vestiges of democracy, if
thought necessary, and to use every form of violence, as soon as they
feel that they are beginning to lose their political power. The evidence
that this is already the intention is abundant.

There is no one who has recognized more clearly than the recent
"Socialistic" Prime Minister of France (Briand) that the ruling classes
force the people to fight for every great advance. In the French
Socialist Congress of Paris, in 1899, Briand said: "Now I must reply to
those of my friends who through an instinctive horror of every kind of
violence have been brought to hope that the transformation of society
can be the work of evolution alone.... Such certainly are beautiful
dreams, but they are only dreams.... In a general way, in every
instance, history demonstrates that the people have scarcely obtained
anything except what they have been able to take for themselves.... It
is not through a fad, and much less through the love of violence, that
our party is and must remain revolutionary, but by necessity, one might
say by destiny.... In our Congress we have even pointed out forms of
revolt, among the first of which are the general strike." In the
International Congress at Paris in 1900, Briand again advocated the
general strike on the ground that it was "necessary as a pressure on
capitalistic society, indispensable for obtaining continued
ameliorations of a political and economic kind, and also, under
propitious circumstances, for the purposes of social revolution." Nor
can there be any doubt as to the revolutionary meaning of Briand when he
advocated the general strike. In 1899 he had said, "One can discuss a
strike of soldiers, one can even try to make ready for it ... our young
military Socialists busy themselves in making the workingman who is
going to quit his shop, and the peasant who is going to desert his
fields to go into the barracks, understand that there are duties higher
than those discipline would like to impose upon them." I have already
quoted his recommendation, made on this occasion, that in the case of a
social crisis the soldiers might fire, but need not necessarily fire in
the direction suggested by the officers. As late as 1903 he took up the
defense of Gustave Herve, when the latter was accused of
anti-militarism, and said before the court: "I am glad to declare that I
am not led here by a chance client, I am not here to-day as an advocate
pleading for his clients. I am here in a complete and full community of
ideas with friends, for whom it is less important that I should defend
their liberty, than that I should explain and justify their thought and
their writings."

There can be no question that the opinions expressed by Briand at this
time are approximately those of the majority of the European Socialists
to-day. Some of the leading spokesmen of the Socialists are no doubt
somewhat more cautious of the form of their statements. But the
modifications they would make in Briand's statement would be due, not to
any objection in principle, but to expediency and the practical
limitations of such measures as he advocates in each given case.

The great majority of Socialists feel that a premature revolutionary
crisis at the present moment would endanger or postpone the success of a
political revolution, peaceful or otherwise, when the time for it is
ripe. The position of Kautsky will show how very cautious the most
influential are. The movement has become so strong in Germany that it
might be supposed that the German Socialists would no longer fear a test
of strength. But this is not the case. They feel, on the contrary that
every delay is in their favor, as they are making colossal strides in
their organization and propaganda, while the political situation is
becoming more and more critical.

"Our recruiting ground," says Kautsky, "to-day includes fully three
fourths of the population, probably even more; the number of votes
that are given to us do not equal one third of all the voters and
not one fourth of all those entitled to vote. But the rate of
progress increases with a leap when the revolutionary spirit is
abroad. It is almost inconceivable with what rapidity the mass of
the people reach a clear consciousness of their class interests at
such a time. Not alone their courage and their belligerency, but
their political interest as well, is spurred on in the highest
degree through the consciousness that the hour has at last come for
them to burst out of the darkness of night into the glory of the
full glare of the sun. Even the laziest become industrious, even
the most cowardly become brave, and even the most narrow gains a
wider view. In such times a single year will accomplish an
education of the masses that would otherwise have required a
generation."[288]

Kautsky's conception of the probable struggle of the future shows that,
together with the millions of Socialists he represents, he expects the
great crisis to develop gradually out of the present-day struggle. He
does not expect a precipitate and comparatively brief struggle like the
French Revolution, but rather "long-drawn-out civil wars, if one does
not necessarily give to these words the idea of actual slaughter and
battles."

"We are revolutionists," Kautsky concludes, "and this is not in the
sense that a steam engine is a revolutionist. The social transformation
for which we are striving can be attained only through a political
revolution, by means of the conquest of political power by the fighting
proletariat. The only form of the State in which Socialism can be
realized is that of a republic, and a thoroughly democratic republic at
that.

"The Socialist Party is a revolutionary party, but not a
revolution-making party. We know that our goal can be obtained only
through a revolution. We also know that it is just as little in our
power to create this revolution as it is in the power of our opponents
to prevent it."[289]

The influential French Socialist, Guesde, agrees with Kautsky that a
peaceful solution is highly improbable, and that the revolution must be
one of an overwhelming majority of the people, not artificially created,
but brought about by the ruling classes themselves.

Of course a peaceful revolution might be accomplished gradually and by
the most orderly means. If, however, these peaceful and legal means are
later made illegal, or widely interfered with, if the ballot is
qualified or political democracy otherwise thwarted, or if the peaceful
acts of labor organizations, with the extension of government ownership,
are looked upon as mutiny or treason,--then undoubtedly the working
people will regard as enemies those who attempt to legalize such
reaction, and will employ all available means to overthrow a
"government" of such a kind.

From Marx and Bebel none of the most prominent spokesmen of the
international movement have doubted that the capitalists would use such
violent and extreme measures as to create a world-wide
counter-revolution, and began to make their preparations accordingly.
This is why, half a century ago, they passed beyond mere "revolutionary
talk," to "revolutionary action." This practical "revolutionary
evolution," as he called it, was described by Marx (in resigning from a
communist society) in 1851: "We say to the working people, 'You will
have to go through ten, fifteen, fifty years of _civil wars and wars
between nations_ not only to change existing conditions, but to _change
yourselves and to make yourselves worthy of political power_.'" (My
italics.)

"Revolutionary evolution" means that Socialists expect, not a single
crisis, but a long-drawn-out series of revolutionary, political, civil,
and industrial conflicts. If we substitute for the insurrectionary civil
wars of Marx's time, _i.e._ of the periods of 1848 and 1870, the
_industrial_ civil wars to-day, _i.e._ the more and more widespread and
successful, the more and more general, strikes that we have been
witnessing since 1900, in countries so widely separated and
representative as France, England, Sweden, Portugal, and Russia and
Argentine Republic, Marx's view is that of the overwhelming majority of
Socialists to-day.[290]

The suppression of such widespread strikes will become especially costly
as "State Socialism" brings a larger and larger proportion of the wage
earners under its policy of "efficiency wages," so that their incomes
will be considerably above the mere subsistence level. A large part of
these increased wages can and doubtless will be used against capitalism.
Socialists believe that strikes will become more and more extended and
protracted, until the capitalists will be forced, sooner or later,
either to repressive violence, or to begin to make vital economic or
political concessions that will finally insure their unconditional
surrender.

Already many non-Socialist observers have firmly grasped the meaning of
revolutionary Socialism. As a distinguished American editor recently
remarked, "Universal suffrage and universal education mean universal
revolution; _it may be--pray God it be not--a revolution of brutality
and crime_."[291] The ruling minority have put down revolutions in the
past by "brutality and crime" under the name of martial "law."
Socialists have new evidences every day that similar measures will be
used against them in the future, from the moment their power becomes
formidable.

FOOTNOTES:

[284] Rose Luxemburg, "Social-Reform oder Revolution."

[285] "La Guerre Sociale" (Paris), April 20, 1910.

[286] Kautsky, "The Road to Power," Chapter V.

[287] The organ of the Civic Federation, Nov. 15, 1909.

[288] "The Road to Power," Chapter VI.

[289] "The Road to Power," p. 50.

[290] A leading article of the official weekly of the German Socialist
Party on the eve of the elections of 1912 gives the strongest possible
evidence that the German Socialists regard the ballot primarily as a
means to revolution. The article is written by Franz Mehring, the
historian of the German movement, and its leading argument is to be
found in the following paragraphs:--

"The more votes the Social-Democracy obtains in these elections, the
more difficult it will be for the Reaction to carry out exceptional laws
[referring to Bismarck's legislation practically outlawing the
Socialists], and the more this miserable weapon will become for them a
two-edged sword. Certainly it will come to that [anti-Socialist
legislation] in the end, for no one in possession of his five senses
believes that, when universal suffrage sends a Social-Democratic
majority to the Reichstag, the ruling classes will say with a polite
bow: 'Go ahead, Messrs. Workingmen; you have won, now please proceed as
you think best.' Sooner or later the possessing classes will begin a
desperate game, and it is as necessary for the working classes to be
prepared for this event as it would be madness for them to strengthen
the position of their enemies by laying down their arms. It can only be
to their advantage to gather more numerous fighting forces under their
banner, even if by this means they hasten the historical process [the
day when anti-Socialist laws will be passed], and indeed precisely
because of this.