A history of socialism

by Thomas Kirkup

‘3. Agricultural labourers and servants to be placed on the same footing as industrial workers; abolition of servants’ regulations.

‘4. The right of combination to be placed on a sure footing.

‘5. Undertaking of the entire working men’s insurance by the Empire, with effective co-operation of the workmen in its administration.’

If we consider the above programme we shall see that collectivism is set forth as the goal of a long process of historical evolution. But this goal is to be attained by the conscious, intelligent, and organised action of the working class of Germany in co-operation with the working classes of other lands. This is the twofold theme of the first part of the programme. The second part is a detailed statement of the social-political arrangements and institutions, by which on and from the basis of the existing society the German Social Democracy may move towards the goal. The goal, collectivism, is therefore the central point of the programme.

The programme, it will be observed, is a lengthy one about which many treatises might be written, and indeed it sums up a world of thought, on which the Social Democratic mind has been exercised for more than a generation. It will be seen that the materialistic conception of history and the theory of surplus value of Marx are not expressed in the programme, though they may be taken as underlying it by those who emphasise those two leading principles of Marx. The Social Democracy of Germany, therefore, is not committed to the special theories of Marx to the extent that is commonly supposed, though the general lines on which the programme is constructed owe their elucidation greatly more to him than to any other man. The various points of the programme will, we may be assured, be subjects of discussion and of education for the industrious and intelligent working class of Germany for many a year to come. It embodies their thoughts and interests, their aspirations and ideals, in the social economic and political sphere, but it represents no fixed system of dogma. It is meant to be a living creed, mirroring a living movement.

We have thus briefly sketched the rise of the German Social Democratic party from 1863 to 1890. It is a short period, but full of change and trouble. The party has come victoriously through a very hard school. We have seen how low and feeble were the beginnings of the party. We have seen also how hard at every step of its career has been its experience of the German police. Indeed the Prussian and German executive has left no means untried to suppress and destroy the movement.

Looking back on the development of the party we cannot doubt that at certain decisive stages greater wisdom and insight might have been shown by its leaders. The ascendency of Prussia should have been recognised as an inevitable fact which unquestionably made for progress in the unification of Germany. In this aspect at least the work of Bismarck was profoundly progressive. We may safely assume that the unification and regeneration of Germany would never have been accomplished by a talking apparatus like the Frankfort Parliament of 1848; and we can see no other force that could have succeeded except the military power of Prussia. And we may further add that the present policy of the Social Democratic party in refusing to vote for the budgets, if it were seriously to weaken the German executive, would in the existing state of Europe be disastrous in the last degree. That men like Liebknecht should hate the Junker party as the hereditary oppressors of the poor was natural; but the Junkers have had and still have a great historic function as the heads of the forces political and military which have again made Germany a nation. Their way of making the new Germany has not been the ideal way, let us say; but it has been the way of fact, and no exercise of revolutionary impatience of Marx or Liebknecht has been able to arrest or reverse the fact.

Trained in the school of adversity, the German Social Democratic party has been obliged to learn circumspection and to acquire all the virtues of discipline, patience, sobriety, and self-control. Some of its members, among whom Most and Hasselman were prominent, strongly urged a policy of anarchic resistance to authority, but this tendency was strenuously opposed by the vast majority. Most and Hasselman, on refusing to submit to the party discipline, were eventually expelled. Every attempt to encourage the theory or practice of anarchism in the German Social Democratic party has been sternly and almost unanimously suppressed by the party. It succeeded only to a slight degree in cases where it was promoted by the agents of the German police for their own evil ends.

A most wholesome effect of the adverse experience of the Social Democratic party was that it sifted from their ranks all who were not thoroughly in earnest in the cause of the working man. It is a grave misfortune of new movements like socialism that it attracts from the middle and upper classes all manner of faddists and crotchety enthusiasts and adventurers, vapid and futile talkers, acrid and morbid pessimists, who join the movement, not from real love of the cause, but because it gives them an opportunity to scheme and harangue, and to lash out at the vices of the existing society. From this dangerous class the German Social Democratic party was saved by the anti-socialist legislation at a time when socialism was becoming fashionable.

It is a most significant feature in the development of the German Social Democracy that it has attained to its present advanced position without the help of any leader of commanding talent. It has had many loyal chiefs. For over fifty years, during which exile, privation, discouragement, prosecution, and imprisonment were followed by a season of comparative triumph, Liebknecht was at all times the consistent and unflinching champion of the revolutionary cause. Bebel’s service for the working man now extends to about forty years, and has been not less consistent and courageous. Many others, such as Hasenclever, Auer, and Vollmar, have served with ability for many years. But none of those named can be considered men of remarkable gifts. Bernstein and Kautsky, who may be described as the leading theorists of the party in recent years, have shown wide knowledge, judgment, and clearness of vision, but they would be the last to lay claim to the endowments that give Marx and Lassalle their high place in the history of the working class. These things being so, we must regard the German Social Democracy as a movement which owes its rise no doubt to the initiative of two men of original force, but which in its development finds its basis in the minds and hearts of the proletariat of the Fatherland.