KARL KAUTSKY: SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS

KARL KAUTSKY: SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS

Also by Patrick Goode KARL KORSCH: A Study in Western Marxism Edited and translated by Patrick Goode, with T. B. Bottomore AUSTRO-MARXISM READINGS IN MARXIST SOCIOLOGY

KARL KAUTSKY: SELECTED POLITICAL WRITINGS Edited and translated by Patrick Goode

Selection, translation and editorial matter Patrick Goode 1983 Chapter I J. H. W. Dietz 1899 Chapter 2 J. H. W. Dietz 1899 Chapter 3 J. H. W. Dietz 1906 Chapter 4 Buchhandlung Vorwarts 1914 Chapter 5 Buchhandlung Vorwarts andj. H. W. Dietz 1909, 1914, 1915 Chapter 6 Wiener Volksbuchhandlung 1918 Chapter 7 Wiener Volksbuchhandlung and Verlag Neues Vaterland 1919, 1921 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-28384-4 ISBN 978-1-349-17269-6 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-17269-6 Typeset in Great Britain by WESSEX TYPESETTERS LTD Frome, Somerset

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction I THE AGRARIAN QUESTION 2 THE REVISIONIST CONTROVERSY 3 MARXISM AND ETHICS Ethics and the materialist conception of history Life, science and ethics 4 THE MASS STRIKE 5 IMPERIALISM The road to power Accumulation and imperialism The necessity of imperialism The social democracy in wartime 6 DICTATORSHIP AND DEMOCRACY The dictatorship of the proletariat 7 THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM Capitalism and socialism Terrorism and communism Bibliography Index VI VII 15 15 32 33 46 53 74 75 82 89 93 97 98 126 127 136!51 160 v

Acknowledgements I owe a profound debt of gratitude to Professor John H. Kautsky for giving permission for the publication of Kautsky's work, and for his invaluable advice on selection and translation. Without his extremely generous assistance this book could not have appeared. I would also like to thank William Geldart, Kathleen Llanwarne and Vivien von Schelling for their assistance with translations. The library staff at the London School ofeconomics have also been particularly helpful. Brighton Patrick Goode VI

Introduction At his death in 1938 Karl Kautsky had virtually no influence on the working-class movement. Yet even at the height of their disputes, as bitter an opponent as Trotsky had conceded that 'Kautsky was without doubt the most outstanding theoretician of the Second International and over the major part ofhis conscious life he represented and generalised the better sides of the Second International. ' 1 In the twenty years before the outbreak of the first imperialist war Kautsky was indeed recognised by all trends of opinion within the socialist movement as the leading authority on Marxism. He translated and edited Marx's works (such as The Poverty of Philosophy and Theories of Surplus Value); he wrote prolifically on all aspects of Marxism, not only on its analysis of politics and economics; and from 1883 onwards he edited Die Neue Zeit, the first major periodical aiming to establish Marxism as a materialist science of society. During this period his writings were translated into every major European language and were frequently published in the United States. Kautsky himself seems to have been more interested in establishing Marxism as a general scientific method, rather than in its application to particular political questions. Although he helped to write the Hainfeld programme ( 1888) of the Austrian Social Democratic Party and wrote the theoretical section of the German SPD's Erfurt Programme (1891), it was only with considerable reluctance that he involved himself in political polemics about the immediate questions facing the revolutionary movement. Yet, paradoxically, he is chiefly remembered today, not for his exposition ofmarxism as a science of society, but as the protagonist in some of the most crucial political debates in the history of Marxism - his opponents being, successively, Bernstein, Otto Bauer, Rosa Luxemburg, Lenin and Trotsky. While the writings ofhis opponents are for the most part readily accessible- particularly those of Lenin- Kautsky's contribution to these debates often remains untranslated or, if previously translated, now out of print. Thus for every 100 readers of Lenin's The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky it is doubtful if one Vll

Vlll Introduction has read Kautsky's The Dictatorship of the Proletariat which Lenin was attacking. This selection from Kautsky's writings aims to make accessible to English readers his side in these controversies so that the controversies themselves may be more properly evaluated. About half of the material presented here has not been translated into English before; the greater part of the remainder has long been unavailable. It is limited to Kautsky's political writings; the reader interested in his more general theoretical works on the scientific basis of Marxism should consult the definitive statement of his views, Die materialistische Geschichtsauffassung. 2 For a detailed outline of Kautsky's life and work, I refer the reader to Gary P. Steenson's Karl Kautsky 1854-1938: Marxism in the Classical Years (Pittsburgh, 1979). Instead of duplicating Steenson's work in a lengthy introduction, I have decided to preface each chapter, which deals with a specific controversy involving Kautsky, with a brief analysis of its political context. The bibliography contains a selection of Kautsky's work; for background reading on the period, I recommend Carl E. Schorske's classic work, German Social Democracy 1905-1917: The Development of the Great Schism (Harvard, 1955). Notes to Introduction I. Trotsky, L., 'Karl Kautsky', in Political Prrifiles, trans. R. Chappell (London, 1972) pp. 65-9 (here p. 69), first published 1919. See also 'Karl Kautsky', in Writings of Leon Trotsky 1938-39 (New York, 1974) pp. 98, 99, written 8 November 1938. 2. Berlin, 1927, 2 vols. My translation of the section 'Class, Occupation and Status', vol. 2, pp. 3&-42 will appear in Bottomore and Goode (eds), Readings in Marxist Sociology (Oxford, 1983). See also Goode, P., 'The Materialist Conception of History', ch. 6, pp. 114--35 of Karl Korsch: A Study in Western Marxism (London, 1979).