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The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program)

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The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) The Class Struggle (ERFURT PROGRAM) By KARL KAUTSKY Translated by WILLIAM E. BOHN. on, re- •ate cial ;un- pro- still CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & (.^)MPANY CO-OPERATIVE CbPYBIGHT, 1910. By Charles H. Kekr & Cqmpany Inst. Indus. Ret. H /- /.- • - TRANSLATOR'S NOTE. At Erfurt, in 1891, the Congress of the German Social Democracy adopted a new program. The following year Karl Kautsky published Das Er- furter Program. This work turned out to be more than a mere exposition of the new state- ment of principles. In his preface the author ex- plained that it was designed to fill the gap be- tween propaganda pamphlets on the one side and special monographs on the other. It was at once scientific and popular ; it contained a system- atic survey of Socialist thought and was, never- theless, of sufHciently modest dimensions to be available for the average person's use. In 1904, in the introduction to the fifth edition, the author stated that the Erfurt Program re- mained in all essential particulars an accurate statement of the principles of the German Social Democracy. Hence, his work demanded no fun- damental revision. It may be added that the pro- gram adopted at Erfurt nineteen years ago is still valid, not only for the German Social Democ- racy, but, with comparatively unimportant modi- fications, for the international Socialist move- ment. Therefore, this book of Karl Kautsky's 4 THE CLASS STRUGGLE remains in a sense the most authoritative expo- sition of the principles underlying that move- ment. The following translation is based on the eighth German edition (1907). It is as exact a rendering in English as could be compressed into two-thirds of the space occupied by the original. The passages omitted consist chiefly of illustra- tive material. The author's argument, his state- ment of principles, has nowhere been tampered with. W. E. B. CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. The Passing of Small Production 1. Small Production and Private Property. 9 2. Commodities and Capital 10 3. The Capitalist Method of Production.. 13 4. The Death-Struggle of Small Produc- tion 16 II. The Proletariat 1. From Apprentice to Proletarian 18 2. Wages 23 3. Dissolution of the Proletarian Family. 26 4. Prostitution 27 5. The Industrial Reserve Army 29 6. The Increase of the Proletariat; Mer- cantile and Educated Proletariat.... 35 III. The Capitalist Class 1. Commerce and Credit 43 2. Division of Labor and Competition 48 3. Profit 52 4. Rent 53 $. Taxes 55 6. The Falling Off of the Rate of Profit. 58 7. The Growth of Large Production ; Syn- dicates and Trusts 62 8. Industrial Crises 71 9. Chronic Over-Production 81 IV. The Commonwealth of the Future L Social Reform and Social Revolution.. 88 2. Private Property and Common Prop- erty 93 CONTENTS. 3. Socialist Production 95 4. The Economic Significance of the State. 104 5. State Socialism and the Social Democ- racy 109 6. The Structure of the Future State 112 7. The "Abolition of the Family" 124 8. Confiscation of Property 139 9. Division of Products in the Future State 13^5 10. Socialism and Freedom 148 V. The Class Struggle 1, Socialism and the Property-Holding Classes 159 f 2. Servants and Menials 165 3. The Slums 168 4. The Beginnings of the Wage-Earning Proletariat 170 ' 5. The Advance of the Wage-Earning Proletariat 170 6. The Conflict Between the Elevating and Degrading Tendencies which Affect the Proletariat 172 7. Philanthropji and Labor Legislation * 174 8. The Labor Union Movement f 179 9. The Political Struggle 184 10. The Labor Party 188 11. The Labor Movement and Socialism... 191 12. The Socialist Party—Union of the Labor Movement and Socialism..... 199 13. The International Character of the So- cialist Movement 302 14. The Socialist Party and the^ People ... 2M) The Class Struggle. I. THE PASSING OF SMALL PRODUC- TION. 1. Small Production and Private Property. The program adopted by the German Social- Democracy at Erfurt in 1891 divides itself into two parts. In the first place it outlines the funda- mental principles on which Socialism is based, and in the second it enumerates the demands which the Social Democracy makes of present day society. The first part tells what Socialists believe ; the second how they propose to make their belief effective. We shall concern ourselves only with the first of these parts. This again separates itself into three divisions: (1) an analysis of present day society and its development; (2) the objects of the Social Democracy; (3) the means which are to lead to the realization of these objects. The first section of the program reads as fol- lows: "Production on a small scale is based on the ownership of the means of production by the laborer. The economic development of bour- geois society leads necessarily to the overthrow of this form of production. It separates the worker from his tools and changes him into a propertyless proletarian. The means of produc- tion become more and more the monopoly of a comparatively ^mall number of capitalists and landhokler^:. 8 THE CLASS STRUGGLE "Along with this monopolizing of the means of production goes the crowding out and scattering of small production, the development of the tool into the machine, and a marvelous increase in the productivity of labor. But all the advantages of this transformation are monopolized by cap- italists and landholders. For the proletariat and the disappearing middle class—the small busi- ness men and farmers—it means increasing un- certainty of subsistence ; it means misery, op- pression, servitude, degradation and exploitation. "Forever greater grows the number of prole- tarians, more gigantic the army of superfluous laborers, and sharper the opposition between ex- ploiters and exploited. The class-struggle be- tween the bourgeoisie and proletariat is the com- mon mark of all industrial countries ; it divides modern society into two opposing camps and the warfare between them constantly increases in bit- terness. "The abyss between propertied and property- less is further widened by industrial crises. These have their causes in the capitalist system and, as the system develops, naturally occur on an increasing sca'e. They make universal uncer- tainty the normal condition of society and so prove that our power of production has got be- yond our control, tliat private ownership of the means of production has become irreconcilable with their effective use and complete develop- ment." * * * Many a man thinks be has given pro'jf of wis- dom when he says. "There is nothing new under THE PASSING OF SMALL PRODUCTION y the sun." There is nothing more false. Modern science shows that nothing is stationary, that in society, just as in external nature, a continuous development is discoverable. On the nature of this social development is based the theory of Socialism. No one can un- derstand the one without study of the other. We know that primitive man lived, like the animals, on whatever nature happened to offer. But in the course of time he began to devise tools. He became fisher, hunter, herdsman, finally farmer and craftsman. This development was constantly accelerated, until today we can see it going on before our eyes and mark its stages. And still there are those who solemnly proclaim that there is nothing new under the sun. A people's way of getting a living depends on its means of production—on the nature of its tools and raw materials. But men have never carried on production separately ; always, on the contrary, in larger or smaller societies. And the varying forms of these societies have depended on the manner of production. The development of society, therefore, corresponds to a develop- ment of the manner of production. The forms of society and the relations of its members are intimately connected with the forms of property which it maintains. Hand in hand with the development of production goes a de- velopment of property. So long as labor was performed with comparatively simple tools which each laborer could possess, it went without saying that he owned the product of his toil. But as the means of production have changed, this notion of property right has passed away. 10 THE CLASS STRUGGLE We shall examine the course of development which has brought this about. 2. Commodities and CapitaL The beginnings of capitalist society are to be found in agriculture and handicraft. Originally the agricultural family satisfied all of its own needs. It produced all the food, clothing and tools for its own members and built its own house. It produced as much as it needed and no more. With the advance in the methods of farming, however, it came about that more was produced than enough to satisfy the imme- diate needs of the family. This_plat,e d tlt»JEaQiily in a position to purchase WSSpoiTs,'~footg~ or -a rtic les o f • luxury",' whicTT it could not produce itself. Through"this exclian^e products became - —eommodities. ^ "~"~^ commodity is a product designed for ex- change. The wheat the farmer produces for his oWnxonsumption is not a commodity; the wheat be p rodu ces to_selLJs a commodity. Selliiig Is nothing more nor less than trading a commodity for another which is. acceptable toalI^_gold^ for --example. Now the craftsman working independently is a producer of commodities from the beginning. He does not sell merely his surplus products ; pro- duction for sale is his main purpose. Exchange of commodities implies two_CQiidi- tions : first, a division of sociaLJabor ; serond, private ownership of the tjiingslexchanged. The more-tWs divisiufrdevelops and the more private property increases in extent and importance, the THE PASSING OF SMALL PRODUCTION 11 more general becomes production for exchange.
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