50 Years Ago: Socialists in Peace and War

(Kautsky and others had argued that while Socialists should oppose the outbreak of war, if war comes they should remain silent. Rosa Luxemburg answered this. The following are extracts from her article).

‘But now “war is a fact” and, as it turns out, after the outbreak of war Socialists are to be guided by entirely new principles . . . In plain language this means: The Proletariat has not one fundamental principle as scientific Socialism hitherto maintained, but two, one for peace and another for war. In time of peace we are to suppose, the workers are to take cognizance of the class struggle within the nation and of international solidarity in relation to other countries; in time of war, on the other hand, class-solidarity becomes the dominant feature of international affairs and the struggle against the workers of other countries dominates the proletarian view of foreign relations. To the great historic appeal of the Communist Manifesto is added an important amendment, and it reads now, according to Kautsky’s revision: “Workers of all lands unite in peace and cut one another’s throats in war!” Today Down with the Russians and French!”, tomorrow, “We are brothers all!”

‘This convenient theory introduces an entirely novel revision of the economic interpretation of history. Proletarian tactics before the outbreak of war and after must be based upon exactly opposite principles. This presupposes that social conditions, the basis of our tactics, are fundamentally different in war from what they are in peace. According to the economic interpretation of history as Marx established it, all history is the history of class struggles. According to Kautsky’s revision we must add: except in times of war.’

From the SOCIALIST STANDARD, September,1915