The Communist Manifesto and the Last 100 Years
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Following is a discussion on the page titled: The Communist Manifesto and the Last 100 Years.
Below is the discussion so far. Feel free to add your own comments!"[A]mong the reforms that follow are a number that could not be of any interest to the workers and are obviously aimed at enlisting the support of the peasant and small proprietor."Which part of the Erfurt Program is the text referring to?(Link to the Erfurt Program from MIA: The Erfurt Program 1891)Also:"An examination of this programme will reveal the disappearance of all pretence to revolutionary action and an understanding of why the Social Democratic Party lost their way in the bog of reform."But isn't this statement below revolutionary?"The German Social Democratic Party therefore does not fight for new class privileges and class rights, but for the abolition of class rule and of classes themselves, for equal rights and equal obligations for all, without distinction of sex or birth."
The Social Democratic Party is and it will be a reformist party which will always try to extend the death of capitalism
jondwhite wrote:Contrary to this claim at the start, this doesn't appear to include The Communist Manifesto.It does not have to include it. It is like an updated preface for the Communist Manifesto. The last article written in the Socialist Standard on the Communist Manifesto,, it is also an update of the history of the Communist Manifesto which was also known as the German Manifestohttps://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2017/no-1354-june-2017/communist-measures
What reforms mentioned in the Erfurt Program are "obviously aimed at enlisting the support of the peasant and small proprietor"? I've read the Erfurt Program and I can't say I see any reform that's "obviously" an attempt to enlist small proprietors or peasants.Is it "prohibition of the truck system"? (in case someone who doesn't know what a "truck system" is: Truck system – Wikipedia)
The only one that could bear this interpretation is point 10 of the general reform demands that calls for a reform of the tax system:
Quote:Progressive income and property taxes to meet all public expenditure, so far as these are to be covered by taxation. Duty of making one’s own return of income and property. Succession duty to be graduated according to amount and relationship. Abolition of all indirect taxes, customs, and other financial measures which sacrifice the collective interest to the interests of a privileged minority.In the online version of the Party's pamphlet there is a misprint as in the last part the words "interest to the" after the word "collective" do not appear, rendering the sentence meaningless. No doubt this can be corrected. (Incidentally, the version on the Marxists Internet Archive omits point 3 in ours about universal military training and a people's army to replace a standing army (as in Switzerland). I am not sure why.)Apart from that point, all the other reform demands are either to extend political democracy or intended to protect the industrial working class. The Party's first three pamphlets in fact were Kautsky's first three sections of the theoretical introduction he wrote to the Erfurt Programme (translation with his permission and approval: see http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/pamphlets/handicraft-capitalism-karl-kautsky-1906). In 1899 Kautsky wrote a book on The Agrarian Question.In the first decade of the 20th century there was a controversy within the SPD over whether and to what extend to appeal to small peasants with the Revisionists around Bernstein advocating this and the party moving in this direction.
ALB wrote:"The only one that could bear this interpretation is point 10 of the general reform demands that calls for a reform of the tax system"The person who wrote this pamphlet seems to exaggerate a bit when he implies that there's more than one that "aimed at enlisting the support of the peasant and small proprietor".He also has a big problem with the fact that the programme says that the SPD fights "against every kind of exploitation and oppression, whether directed against class, party, sex, or race". Why is that so bad?"Incidentally, the version on the Marxists Internet Archive omits point 3 in ours about universal military training and a people's army to replace a standing army"No, it's there:3. Education of all to bear arms. Militia in the place of the standing army. Determination by the popular assembly on questions of war and peace. Settlement of all international disputes by arbitration. What's your opinion on the Erfurt Programme? Should it not be referred to as socialist because it has reforms in it? I mean, it does advocate for Socialism.
You are right. The MIA version doesn't omit point 3 but there is still something wrong with it as it only has 9 points whereas the one in our pamphlet has 10 (as do other versions on the internet as here: http://home.wlu.edu/~patchw/His_213/spd_program.htm ). The whole text is there but points 5 and 6 have become a single point, changing the numbers of what follows to 6, 7, 8, 9 (instead of 7,8, 9, 10). Someone should tell them.
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