Important Points from Rosa Luxemburg's 'Reform or Revolution?'

 

Rosa Luxemburg wrote 'Reform or Revolution?' as an article for the LVC party newspaper. The first part was printed in 1898 in response to another article by Edward Bernstein, and the second was printed in 1899 in response to Bernstein's book 'Evolutionary Socialism' (English title) published that same year.  A description of the revisionist dispute is given in Paul Frölich's wonderful biography of Luxemburg:

The Bernstein controversy revolved around the fundamental character of the socialist working-class movement. Disputes on this point had existed since the very beginning of the movement and were finally the reason for its disintegration into two camps. Bernstein's book ended with the advice to Social Democracy to summon up the courage 'to emancipate itself from an outworn phraseology and to display its true colours as a democratic-socialist reform party'. That raised the question: reform or revolution? Or more correctly, the question of the relationship between reform and revolution. That is the theme not only of the little pamphlet with which Rosa Luxemburg made her debut in the German social-democratic movement, but of all her more important works for half a decade of intellectual struggle. The reformists praised the policy of striving to achieve more and more reforms by legal means as realist politics, as the slow but certain method by which society gradually grew towards socialism whereas they regarded revolution as a means which was perhaps necessary under absolutism, but which, under democratic rule, was likely to be preached only by dangerous fanatics. Against this view Rosa Luxemburg posed her own: both reform and revolution! 

Frölich continues with a short description of Luxemburg's position:

Rosa Luxemburg was thus by no means an opponent of reforms. She regarded the struggle for reforms - for the improvement of living standards, for the protection of labour, and for the extension of democratic rights within the framework of the bourgeois state - as the very means of preparing the working class for the revolution, of educating and organising it, and of making it realise through practical experience that the capitalist state had to be overthrown if the proletariat were ever to be freed from the bonds of wage-slavery

The working class political party (in the language of the times: Social Democracy) fights for democracy under capitalism in order to strengthen the position of the class in battle. In so doing, the existing capitalist state is both weakened and brought into increasing conflict with Social Democracy. Eventually, the contradictions become such that a rupture occurs and provides the opportunity for the socialist party to seize state power and introduce the socialist republic in order to oversee the transition to communism. In Luxemburg's time, that rupture was World War One. However, the various parties of Social Democracy (with the exception of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, the Socialist Party of America, and the Italian Socialist Party) reneged on their pre-war platforms and supported their ruling classes in the global slaughter (a moment described by Luxemburg in her 1915 'Junius Pamphlet'). 

The following is a chapter-by-chapter list of important points from 'Reform or Revolution?'

Introduction:

• Reforms and revolutions cannot be counterposed. Social democrats engage in the class struggle through reforms and look to strengthen the working class through those advances. The final goal is never forgotten: the conquest of political power and the suppression of wage labor. Social democrats never forget that "the struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aims.
• This is not the case with Edward Bernstein, who severs the connection between means and ends by declaring that the movement is everything and the ends are nothing: “The final goal, no matter what it is, is nothing; the movement is everything.”
• Bernstein continues to use the language of Marxism and this should be expected. But make no mistake: he has disowned the revolutionary doctrine of Marxism. 
• The question of reform or revolution can also be described as a question of whether the working class or petty bourgeois elements within the party will win out. The workers will win if they take up the weapon of scientific socialism, i.e. a clear analysis of society that points towards the decay of capitalism. 

The Opportunist Method:

• Bernstein's assertion that reforms in Germany can change from quantity to quality is absurd on its face given recent events (it's clear we live in a police state). What's more interesting is his statement that capitalist society will not break down as Marx predicted and therefore revolution is off the table. 
• Bernstein claims the development of the credit system, the presence ("tenacity") of the middle classes, and the strength of trade unions. The priority should be the betterment of the conditions of the working class, not the conquest of political power. There will be no crisis, thus there will be no point of departure for socialism. The scientific character of Marxism is torn asunder and we are thrown back into utopian idealism, i.e. socialism will come about because it is a good idea that can be essentially whatever one wants it to be.

The Adaptation of Capitalism:

• Bernstein claims that the credit system ameliorates the contradictions of capitalism by extending production and facilitating increased exchange. In fact, credit only makes the crises more intense by extending these very things. In eliminating the remaining rigidity of the capitalist system, it aggravates crises. Credit "reproduces all the fundamental antagonisms of the capitalist world."
• Employer organizations (cartels and trusts) are supposedly another way to overcome the crises of capitalism. In fact, cartels realize profits by suppressing them in other sections of industry and so their success cannot be generalized. They create increased competition between and aggravate contradictions between nations land and international capital. Bernstein's theory is again proven false on its face as evidenced by the latest crisis (1907-8) which was most violent in countries with developed credit systems and trusts. 
• Finally, Marx never said that all midsized industries had to be absorbed before capitalism would fall into crisis.

The Realisation of Socialism through Social Reforms:

• Trade union struggles and political struggles will give the working class progressively more control over the means of production. The transformation will take place through a long line of reforms. 
• Bernstein misunderstands the purpose of trade unions which is to create the best conditions of exploitation possible under capitalism in particular sections of industry. They are not vehicles for the qualitative transformation of society. Furthermore, they remain subordinate to the buying and selling of labor power on the market; as the market changes, so must the unions adapt. 
• Bernstein fundamentally misunderstands the class nature of the state. The expansion of the state in society - even the democratization of that very state - does not bring socialism any closer. What matters is the consciousness of the working class. Democracy can be a tool to an end but not an end in itself. 
• Social reforms enacted by the state are a means of regulating exploitation and not ending exploitation. 

Capitalism and the State:

• The state becomes capitalist with the triumph of the bourgeoisie. It becomes dependent on capital (i.e. the exploitation of labor power) for finance and survival. 
• Tariff barriers (which impede industrial development at home) and militarism (which destroy entire nations) are an example of the ways in which capital's need to realize profit clashes with the social need to maintain stability and order. The interests of an individual section of capital clash with the overall functioning of capitalism within the home nation. 
• While the economy develops towards increased socialization, the state grows strong as a phalanx against revolution. The barrier of the state cannot be overcome incrementally but only by a total seizure of power by the working class. 

The Consequences of Social Reformism and the General Nature of Reformism:

• Bernstein’s theory doesn’t change what the party does (it does the same things as usual) but rather how they go about doing it. Currently, the work being done is seen as a means to an end: trade union struggles and parliamentary activity are a tool to guide, train, and educate the workers in preparation for taking political power. The end result is what’s key. For the revisionists, the day-to-day activities are ends in themselves; reforms for the sake of getting reforms, trade union work for the sake of having better working conditions, etc.
• The working class is the agent of change, not the parliament or trade unions. You engage in those institutions only to strengthen the fighting power of the working class and spread the good news of socialism. Bernstein wants to use those institutions as the agents of change, not the working class. Revolutionaries understand that the final aims cannot be won through the existing institutions. In the process of realizing this impossibility, the working class will be pushed into greater conflict with the existing state and the necessity of revolution will be put on the table.
• The revisionists have a linear view of history. They think that the working class will content itself with reforms until socialism appears. They also think the state will continue to allow itself to be changed (along with the capitalists) until they merely step aside in indignation.
• The revolutionary viewpoint “It is not true that socialism will arise automatically from the daily struggle of the working class. Socialism will be the consequence of (1), the growing contradictions of the capitalist economy and (2), the comprehension by the working class of the unavoidability of the suppression of these contradictions through a social transformation.
• The revisionist viewpoint: “We may say that the theory of revisionism occupies an intermediate place between two extremes. Revisionism does not expect to see the contradictions of capitalism mature. It does not propose to suppress these contradictions through a revolutionary transformation. It wants to lessen, to attenuate, the capitalist contradictions. So that the antagonism existing between production and exchange is to be mollified by the cessation of crises and the formation of capitalist combines. The antagonism between Capital and Labour is to be adjusted by bettering the situation of the workers and by the conservation of the middle classes. And the contradiction between the class State and society is to be liquidated through increased State control and the progress of democracy.”
• Bernstein sees crisis as an abnormal event in capitalism. In fact, crises are the norm as a vital part of the regeneration of the system. The greatest crisis is the tendency for the rate of profit to fall. Revisionism, like the individual capitalist, doesn't see the larger picture; it is nothing but a theoretic generalization made from the angle of the isolated capitalist.

Economic Development and Socialism:

• The spread of shareholding actually proves Marx’s point about the concentration and socialization of industry. More capitalists are involved in fewer enterprises. There is no longer one capitalist but many capitalists at the head of a firm. The category of “capitalist” has become socialized.
• Bernstein denies the scientific basis of socialism. He denies the reality of surplus value. In reality, "It is only because Marx looked at capitalism from the socialist’s viewpoint, that is from the historic viewpoint, that he was enabled to decipher the hieroglyphics of the capitalist economy. And it is precisaly because he took the socialist viewpoint as a point of departure for his analysis of bourgeois society that he was in the position to give a scientific base to the socialist movement."
• Bernstein accuses Marx of trying to make reality point toward revolution. This is exactly what Marx does! Except it is not his invention, but rather his observation of what exists independent of any individual's desire.

Co-operatives, Unions, Democracy:

• Bernstein thinks that socialism will be realized through labor unions (which will suppress industrial profit) and worker cooperatives (which will do away with commercial profit). Cooperatives are small units of socialized production within a larger system of exchange. As we know, exchange dominates production, so the coopts will always need to survive by exploiting their workers in competition on the market (but in a cooperative the workers exploit themselves). cooperatives only work if there’s also a consumer cooperative, but this limits the size and impact of the whole enterprise ensuring that it can only appear in small and local markets for immediate needs.
• Trade unions determine neither the dimensions of production nor the technical progress of production. They do not change the law of wages and do not impact the rate of profit. They only express the defense of workers and in this sense, they do the labor of Sisyphus.
• Asks Bernstein: “Why represent socialism as the consequence of economic compulsion...Why degrade man’s understanding, his feeling for justice, his will?” This is a perfect example of Bernstein's idealism.
• Luxemburg states that “We must conclude that the socialist movement is not bound to bourgeois democracy but that, on the contrary, the fate of democracy is bound up with the socialist movement.” The socialist movement alone champions democracy. The fate of democracy is bound up with the fate of the labor movement. Contrary to what Bernstein thinks, the bourgeoisie hasn't championed democracy since 1789 and plays nothing but a reactionary force in society. They are not allies of the working class and the workers should not cow toe to their interests in illusionary hopes of making them less reactionary.

Conquest of Political Power:

• The development of democracy puts the question of a proletarian revolution further on the table by bringing the class struggle into greater relief. The contradictions are only heightened! Democracy strengthens the power of the working class, undermines the existing state, and further proves the inability of the working class to realize full democracy without taking political power. "Democracy is indispensable to the working class because only through the exercise of its democratic rights, in the struggle for democracy, can the proletariat become aware of its class interests and its historic task...democracy is indispensable not because it renders superfluous the conquest of political power by the proletariat but because it renders this conquest of power both necessary and possible."
• The domination of the working class is not based on law like previous regimes of accumulation; therefore, it cannot be legislated away. "No law obliges the proletariat to submit itself to the yoke of capitalism. Poverty, the lack of means of production, obliges the proletariat to submit itself to the yoke of capitalism. And no law in the world can give to the proletariat the means of production while it remains in the framework of bourgeois society, for not laws but economic development have torn the means of production from the producers’ possession."
•  The proletariat learns from past failures of coming to power. In this sense, it always comes to power "too early." But the idea of coming to power too early is also a misconception. The socialist revolution is not a coup behind the back of the working class. The opportunity - the necessity - of taking power presents itself at a certain period when the pitch of ferment in society is immensely high! Everything will have been thrown into the air prior to the working class taking power, and the extension of democratic rights furthers this great upheaval. 

Collapse:

• The logical conclusions to Bernstein's assertions lead him from abandoning the theory of capitalism's collapse; to rejecting socialism; renouncing expropriation and the socialization of production; abandoning the materialist conception of history and the theory of Marxist economics; and abandoning the recognition of classes in society. The present state of affairs thus seems satisfactory; things are on the whole getting better in Germany. By renouncing the final aim he ends up renouncing the entire movement. Everything becomes abstract and general; "bourgeois" is a "social notion" and society is composed of "citizens." 

Opportunism in Theory and Practice:

• Bernstein's book is important because it seeks to create a theoretical basis for the currents of opportunism existing in Social Democracy - currents that can come into their own following the ending of the anti-socialist laws in 1890.  But opportunism has to stable theoretical basis; all it can do is exist by attacking various parts of Marxism. 
• We can expect opportunism to arise as the working class movement grows in size; the only surprising thing is its feebleness.  Opportunism is a momentary weakness that the working class throws aside as it moves forward.