The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program)
The Social Democratic Party of Germany gathered in the city of Erfurt during 1891 to adopt a new platform. This event followed the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Laws two years prior. Karl Kautsky drafted the theoretical section while Eduard Bernstein wrote the practical demands. Wilhelm Liebknecht had submitted a competing draft that lost the party commission vote. The executive committee then commissioned Kautsky to write a commentary explaining these principles. That task grew into a full-length book published in 1892.
Kautsky blended historical determinism with human agency to define Marxist theory for modern audiences. He argued that economic laws made social revolution inevitable yet required conscious political action. Friedrich Engels did not directly guide this specific work, marking it as Kautsky's first major independent formulation. The text asserts that irresistible economic forces lead to the shipwreck of capitalistic production. Men are not puppets but beings endowed with wants and impulses they seek to use. Objective conditions set the stage while political struggle brings about the result.
The book describes the necessary tendency of capitalist development toward concentration of capital. Wealth monopolizes in the hands of few capitalists and large landlords. This process intensifies exploitation and misery among the growing proletariat and decaying middle layers. Crises become increasingly severe and widespread within the capitalist mode of production itself. These features provide the objective basis for the inevitable socialization of means of production. Capitalist society has failed according to Kautsky, and its dissolution is now only a matter of time.
Section four discusses the transition to a socialist society known as the commonwealth of the future. Kautsky offered general predictions regarding property confiscation and family structures despite his usual hesitation on such topics. Large-scale private property would be confiscated while protecting small artisans and peasants. Wages would trend toward equalization across the new system. The goal became freedom from labor rather than simply freedom of labor. Traditional family structures were predicted to decay under this new order.
Kautsky emphasized economic organization and political participation to advance worker interests without immediate violence. He argued that no amount of reform could delay the inevitable social revolution coming with industrial maturation. A great modern state could only be administered through a representative parliament. Direct legislation was dismissed as technically unworkable and politically sterile. Conquest of a parliamentary majority by the SPD served as the content of dictatorship of the proletariat. Ruling classes might abdicate voluntarily if clever enough or weak and craven enough.
Das Erfurter Programm quickly became Kautsky's most influential and widely translated book after 1892 publication. It appeared to European socialist parties as a sort of new Manifesto for their movements. Popular works by Kautsky and August Bebel were read and distributed more widely than Marx's own writings. By 1914, The Class Struggle had been translated into sixteen languages globally. Vladimir Lenin praised the program in 1899 as a model for other socialist parties to emulate. Robert C. Tucker later described it as one of the minor classics of Marxist thought.
Eduard Bernstein led a revisionist movement challenging the orthodox Marxism defined by this work. His critique attacked what he saw as flawed collapse theory and pauperization thesis. Kautsky responded that the Erfurt Program contained not a single word on the theory of collapse. He clarified that Marxists referred to political and organizational maturation of the proletariat instead. This process would bring an end to bourgeois society through economic laws. The debate reshaped how future generations understood the relationship between economics and revolution.
Common questions
Who wrote the theoretical section of The Class Struggle Erfurt Program?
Karl Kautsky drafted the theoretical section of The Class Struggle Erfurt Program. Eduard Bernstein wrote the practical demands for the same document.
When was The Class Struggle by Karl Kautsky published?
The book was published in 1892 after being commissioned by the executive committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. This publication followed the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Laws two years prior to 1891.
What did Karl Kautsky argue about economic laws and social revolution?
Karl Kautsky argued that economic laws made social revolution inevitable yet required conscious political action. He asserted that irresistible economic forces lead to the shipwreck of capitalistic production while objective conditions set the stage for this result.
How many languages had The Class Struggle been translated into by 1914?
By 1914, The Class Struggle had been translated into sixteen languages globally. Vladimir Lenin praised the program in 1899 as a model for other socialist parties to emulate.
Why did Eduard Bernstein challenge the orthodox Marxism defined by The Class Struggle?
Eduard Bernstein led a revisionist movement challenging the orthodox Marxism defined by this work because he attacked what he saw as flawed collapse theory and pauperization thesis. Kautsky responded that the Erfurt Program contained not a single word on the theory of collapse.
All sources
4 references cited across the entry
- 1bookKarl Kautsky and the Socialist Revolution, 1880–1938Massimo Salvadori — NLB — 1979
- 2bookOne Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth CenturyDonald Sassoon — The New Press — 1996
- 3bookNot One Man! Not One Penny!: German Social Democracy, 1863-1914Gary P. Steenson — University of Pittsburgh Press — 1981
- 4bookKarl Kautsky, 1854–1938: Marxism in the Classical YearsGary P. Steenson — University of Pittsburgh Press — 1991