THE COMMUNIST Five MASS ACTION AND REVOLUTION spokesmen only again promptly tion The proletariantutions, the Kautsky has emphasized in and again the could (CHAPTER FROM SOCIAL DE MOCRACY AND COMMUNISM. Social Revolution according to the Marcat con.
a tong historical process. Capital was not By HORNER ripe for an industrial revol the proletarian this would mean that (Translated from German)
In other words, Editorial Note. The article printed below re.
the last half century or comparatively peaceful revolution took place, the proletariat would do presents only one chapter of a pamphlet dealing development could the fllusion be created that itself to be exploited, and then by degrees with the question of mass action in its entirety, leaders were the would be tonalized their superior to direct the descricials Or, in plainer beings who could, through well as other tactical problems confronting.
ministers at the head of the government, there Communist parties and the of peoples: The memberi letariat in general revolutionary pro of the Central Executive in various countries.
exploitation remains. That is the real measing fore, this article is necessarily incomplete, touchTherebelieve that of the Social Democratic conception after a single and resoluof events, proletarian revolutionary wprising there must masses superfically, in a very general way, without enter their appearance when they are called for the their deeds speeches, SC follow in longer certain questions at all. Moreover, this pamphlet the oppos of socialization, Come takes of lending emphasis to the words of their view. point maintaining that the profrom which this article 18 reprinted, having been letarian revolution the conguest of the state published in Germany, in response to a certain from the political The mass is to play passive role meretico: has to elect particular situation on certain questions, created power and industry is a long process of us who then act as the effective force of readers, action, during which time the proletariat becomes in the course of the revolutionary working class mature and attaine wisdom to govertituitand movement in that particular It this viewpoint has any real value in regard the old stae machinery is destroyed. At the by necessity. been narrowed in country, has to former revolutions in history. It is even thus turning point of this struckte, when the power its application and even in its political Illustraits scope and in is in the hands of the workers, there will be tions) to the specific needs and requirements of burgeois and proletarian revolutions is taken into short work made of exploitation, the recta of that country, consideration. In bourgeois revolutions the mass of workers and the petty Dople took an and on this new and just foundation will be con all claims to unearned revenue will be its. title, needs a great idea in order to justify active part but once (as in deal of elaboration and structed a new machinery industrial machinery in February 1848) or only then, when as in the great French an organized, systematic mechaninm of producHowever, leaving this and a more elaborate Revolution, for the purpose of overthrowing an treatment of the problem in question, to future old empire or a new untenable power like the articles on Mass Action and allied problems which Girondists. When they had performed their task, then the representatives of the bourgeoisie would shall limit this editorial note to a few remarks have appeared as new individuals, as a new PROBLEMS OF THE THIRD absolutely essential and indispensible, in our sovernment, in order to recutitution, the IWS.
and renew opinion.
the State 1) It should be noted that the article reprinted Inass power was needed to overINTERNATIONAL below, does not tackle the question of Mass Action throw the old order but not to build up the in its entirety, does not analyze new one. Continued from page different the organized use the new System of society was of a new class.
ing of thieves they are a gathering of dastardiy demonstrations, general strike. armed insurrecAccoding to this model the radical Social Demo.
murderers crats a 180 concelved the proletarian revolution, They cannot evade the tribunal of the revolu, hele melection, The article takes only one aspect mass action which they contrary to the reformers considertionary workers.
namely. its directness, or direct character. RS ed necessary. In their opinton, a tremendous against the Indirect character of parliamentary uprising of the paople was to remove the old Ramsay MacDonald gets away from the quesor any other action where the masses do not absolutist military domination, put the tion of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat with act directly, but through the medium of some Democrats into power, and the Social Democrats a few words, as from the subject for a discussion inepromatic representatives, and leaders tarthus, will do the rest and through the enactment of about freedom an democracy.
new No. It is high time to act.
the scope of this article may be formulated as: Discussions are too they conceive the proletarian revolution. But late.
direct vs. Indirect action.
2) Even this, more limited problem is not treatthing. The proletarian revolution is the this revolution is an entirely doneration of the The most dangerous coming from the Berne ed exhaustively, being mainly confined to parallels masses from all class domination and exploitation. Intestatorshy the 1p service recognition of taken from the history of the German working the That means that they themselves take the reins of the Proletariat. Italics ours.
class movement, between the attitude of the old of destiny into their own creation. But of the Ed. These men are apt to recognize anything Social Democratic leaders and the present Comold race of narrow minded slaves who only think to sign anything, in order to remain at the head of themselves and cannot see further than their munist attitude.
of the working class movement. Kautsky already workshop, new beings must evolve defiant, ready says that he is not opposed to the Dictatorship (represented by Scheidemanns, Kautskys, for the conflict, of independent spirit, filled with of the Proletariat. French social patriots and Centrists also sign under the resolution for the Donaldo, Snowdens, Longuets, etc. act, as if to supplant the masses without any attempt or even the strengereicherus bourgeois teachinga, and by of solidarity, no longer confused Dictatorship of the Proletariat an idea to call upon the masses for action to capable of independently adjusting themselves to They do not deserve any confidence whatsoever.
rely upon their organized support, without taking This change cannot come The.
about Not lip service recognition 18 necessary, but the masses into their confidence whatsoever, and want. bitter disappointment, occasional the actual with the policies of reformism.
always, against the interests of victories and repeated defeats, gradually gain the with the prejudices quite often, if noure leaders who want their bourgeois freedom. bour.
the mannen.
power, the firm unity, and the ripe understanding geois democracy, the actual carrying on of the army the masses to perform only one action, for freedom and power. This long process of policies of the revolutionary class struggle.
namely, to elect them into office, and then to dissruggle the proletarian revolution They attempt to recognize the Dictatorship of appear. They do not want their army to fight, they expect to accomplish everything through their The duration of this process will differ accordthe Pruletariat in words, in order secretly to read into it the Will of the majority. general sufwisdom and diplomatic manipulations.
ing to countries and conditins, and will depend mainly upon the power of the resistance put The latter the true leaders, are those who act frage (Kautsky precisely is doing this thing)
bourgeois parliamentarism, the refusal for the together with the masses; who prepare them for forth by the dominant class. The reason that complete destruction of the bourgeois state machimnm action, and when the time comes they lead the process was terminated with comparative nery.
speed in Russia was due to the fact that the We should guard ourselves against these the masses in their assaults upon the enemy.
new tricks, against these new lackeys of These leaders are repsented by Lenin, Trotsky, etc.
bourgeoisie there was weak, and that its com ism more than anything else We often hear cries raised against leaders bination with the landed aristocracy drove the The Dictatorship of the Proletariat Would be leaders are this and that we must get rid of peasants on the side of the working class. The impossible if the majority of the population did leaders they cannot be trusted, etc. etc. In great institution of power of the bourgeoisie is of proletarians and semi proletarians, intricately the State Power that all potent, not consist this Colon we should remember the old proKantsky Co. attempt to falsify this truth by verb should not throw out the child branched organization of domination with all the presenting the necessity of the Vote of he Matogether with the dirty water. In throwing away means for exerting power at its command legis jority. in order to necept the Dictatorship of the lation, the schools, the police, the courts. the Proletariat. Italics ours. Ed. from the working class movement, such leaders as Scheidemann, Nooke and Kautsky, we should army and the bureaucracy that has all the direct. Comical pedants. They did not understand that ing power of all the channels of public life in not also throw out such leaders as Lenin and generally not through the ballot, but through civil its hands.
Trotsky, whose role and importance in the revoluwar are all the serious problems of polities decided tionary proletarian movement cannot be overestiat that time. when the Dictatorship of the ProRevolution is the combat of the proletariat eturint has been placed on the order of the day mated.
The antagonism between Communism and Socclass, and it can only attain their liberation by by history.
tal Democracy had already become evident before confronting this hostile organization by a more They did not understand that the Dictatorship the war, although not under this name. At that formidable and powerful organization. The State of the Proletariat is the power of one class taking time it related to tactics. Under the name of power and the bourgeoisie seek to keep the into its hands the whole apparatus, the whole Left Radicals. Linksradikale. an opposition workers powerless. divided and intimidated in machinery of the new state, conquering the bourmanifested itself in the ranks of the Socialtoward order to crush the slightest strivings geoisie and neutralizing the whole petty bourDemocracy (out of which originated the older unity by force ani deception and divide their geoisie, peasantry, philistines and intelligenzia adherents of the present day Comadicals and forces in The Kautskys and MacDonalds give lip service who all directions. In opposition to this In spite of the opposition of the order. In power the working class applies mass action, recognition to the class struggle, in revisionists proved the necessity of mass action. which paralyzes the state machinery and causes reality to forget about it in the next decisive it to crumble.
In this fight, the radical spokesmen, such as As long as the state remains moment in the history of the struggle for the Kautsky, were forced to reveal the anti revoluintact the proletariat cannot be victorious, for emancipaion of the proletariat: When the proletariat, having moment the state tionary character of their views and tactics.
over and over again will it see the State rise and supported by the semi proletariat, and against it.
The parliamentary and trade. union struggle power, The conflict ther if the world is under the rule of the young and vigorous capital.
not to go down in utter ruin through capitalism with the assistance of this power, the class strug must end so, that finally, the repeated mighty gle bring ism had slightly ameliorated the conditions of it eventually to the abolition of classes the workinkg class, and, at the same time, had actions of the proletariat crushes the bureau. Like true philistines, the leaders of the Berne cratic state machinery and it breaks down power. International are repeating the bourgeois demoerected a bulwark against the ever lasting tencratic phrases about liberty, equality and demo the deney of capitalism to impoverish them. But in Karl Kautsky this cracy, not noticing, that they are repeating took exception to interideas of free and equal aid organization, broke down. Imperialism strength pretation of the proletarian revolution even before obsolete nderstand that the proletariat needs failing to ened the power of capitalism and of militarism, He maintained that the proletariat the war.
the state not for freedom, but for the suppresweakened the power of parliament, forced trade.
should not be guided by the tactics which would sion of enemy, the exploiter and the capital unions to take a defensive position, and prepared Lea Wohan has destrose this state owchinbecause int. Italics OUTS Ed. the world war. It became clear that the old of the merchant weapons of waging the class struggle had become proletariat in order to enact the laws in the The libert and the equather the Kautskys obsolete. The masses felt this instinctively. In its own purposes. All the ministers of the present died, as died capitalism all countries they were actually seen to be enState were niso needed under the rule of the nor MacDonalds will be able to resurreet it gaged in activities, often against the will of Interests of the workers. The aim of the pro The proletarian needs the abolition of classes their leaders, now in tremendous trade unlon starbata. sa conflicts, now in transportation strikes that parathis is the real meaning of proletarian demo the State question was raised in this con cracy, proletarian freedom (freedom from system) prolyzed industrial life, or else, in demonstrations nection as to how the state machinery of the capitalist and from the unity of classes of a political nature very often the eruption of the victorious would be created. whether letarian equality (not the proletarian revolt and the show of its power so It would be continuation of the bourgeois a commonplace into which the Kautskys and Mac shakes the self assurance bourgeoiste that state, as Kautsky maintained, or a newly con Donalds fall, but the quality of workers the capitalista)
it granted concessions. Oftimes, too, these out.
structed But the Social Democratie are overthrowing capital breaks were throttled by, masca these movements theories were formulated and propagated So long as classes exist, the freedom and equal The proby Kautsky for thirty years, had always spoken which ity of classes is a bourgeois deception for the furtherance of their own political aims.
of the economics of eapitalism out of letariat takes the power becomes the ruling class Socialism would necessarily ndo riferimentat renser destroys bourgeois parliamentarism and strikes for definite purposes to be tolerated only democracy, suppresses the bourgeoisievergeois the question of the State and the revolution all attempts of the other classes to return back on the condition tha they be waged within pre could not be answered. It was only later exto capitalism. gives real freedom and scribed limits to be initiated terminated at plained. The difference between the Communist with the which can be uality to the tolling the command of the leaders. hove all, in and Social Democratie interpretations had, how of private ownership of the tactical questions to be subordinated to the inmeans of production) tives them not simply Junction of the leaders. In this prescribed manner For the social Democrats, the sole act. the rights, but the real use or what has been taken strikes have been waged at times. But of no uprising of the people, which overthrows tho away from the bourgeoisie.
and places the Social Democrats in The one who does not understand this meaning the leaders usually paralyses the powerful force (or what BOVrant positions at the head of the State of the Dictatorship of the. to be subordinate to this policy of compressed of the instinctive outbreaks, for it is amounts to the same the Soviet Power or Moreover, the menace of danger which inspires of the Hohenzollerns in Germany on November 1918. was for them real proletarian revolu vain.
the reigning bourgeoisie the feeling of ul: certainty as to the proportions such mass actions cannot develop here in more detail these ideas tion, which, due to the peculiar circumstances that the old regime in the State and Revolution had been disorganized by expounded by me Proletarian Democracy and can take on and grow into a revolutionary moveentand in the absent fror both of the disciplined warfare, made the vie. ory attainable without dir.
ficulty. For the Communists this revolt could the Renegade kautsky. may conclude by de mass actions whose harmlessness had been proto the delegates to the Luonly be the bestough the abolition of the card dicating these claimed in advance.
zerne Congress of August 10, 1919, of the Berne The revolutionary Marxists, the present Com oppression opened the way for the working class. Internationala July munista. saw even then the narrowness of the so that they could through the creation of their prevailing views of the ranks of the SocialDemocrats. They knew that throughout all histo. In reality. the workers.
the leadership of We call especial attention of our comrades to ry the masses. even the classes, were the driving the Social Democrats allowey and even aided, a remarkably deep thought contained in this para and active power in all revolutions; that revolu. the building up of the old state power upon a Kautaky They mer Left Wingerthogether with paraldssle.
tions never came about through tho reasoned and firmer basis, after a moment Co assumed the same false position. The wise counsels and procedure of the acknowledged are still facing a period of hard whole position of the so called michiganites and leaders. When conditions became unendurable, Kautsky and his friends Germany is a true Social.
broke 100se.
the masses, for any cause whatsoever, Democratic republie Noske and his Imperii their followers, for instance, is based on the of beauty misconception. Editer.
wiped out the old powers and called into power Guard (Reichswehr) are simply defects aid in Russian word. sinifying intellectual a new class or stratum capable of erecting a a republie in which the working and professional people as a separate social group state or society to suit their needs. Only during governing even if they do not rule. Most certain.
less, of the only old For