Karl Barth. Paul S. Chung
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Название: Karl Barth

Автор: Paul S. Chung

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Религия: прочее

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isbn: 9781498270311

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СКАЧАТЬ gained considerable support among the workers. A new party, the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei was organized in 1869 at Eisenach under the leadership of August Bebel (1840–1913) and Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826–1900).

      In 1875 the Lassalle and Eisennach parties were united at Gotha to form the Socialist Worker’s party. However, the Gotha Program, which was a compromise between Marxism and Lassalle’s revisionist orientation, was severely criticized by Marx himself. In 1878 Bismarck enacted an emergency law prohibiting socialist meetings and publication, under the pretext of forbidding an environment that could cause an attack on the emperor’s life. The local party organization was dissolved, and many party leaders were forced to emigrate. The crucial issue in the first phase of the International was controversy with the anarchists. In the early 1880s an anarchist association (the Alliance Internationale Ouvriere) came into being; Kropotkin, Malatesta, and Elisee Reclus were included in this group. According to Marx, socialism would restore human individual life in all its fullness, remove political organisms, and thus replace institutionalized oppressive forms of social organization and community with a direct association of individuals.

      The last years of the Second International were overwhelmed by the war issue. The question was closely related to nationalism and self-determination. The International had condemned militarism at Brussels in 1891 and at London in 1896. If a war broke out, a large part of the proletariat was to be mobilized and thus fall into the general slaughter. If necessary, they allowed for the possibility of rebellion. However, if the fatherland was attacked, they argued it is the duty of socialists to take part in the defense. The call to strike and rebel was within the reformist policy. The left wing (including Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, and Karl Liebknecht) put forward a more radical position: In the case of the outbreak of war, no attempt must be made to stop it; rather the war must be used to overthrow the capitalist system. At the Basel Congress in 1912—while the First Balkan War was breaking out—an antiwar resolution was passed. The delegates dispersed with the slogan “war on war” and in the conviction that the socialist movement was strong enough to prevent the danger of the imperialist war.

      The collapse of the International occurred in the face of the 1914 war. German social democrats surrendered to the fatherland’s call to arms. The great majority of socialists in every country of Europe adopted a patriotic attitude in favor of the war policy. The opponents of war were expelled and in April 1917, the Independent German Socialist party (USPD) was formed. Among their membership was Karl Kautski, Hugo Haase (chairman of the SPD since Bebel’s death in 1913), and even revisionists like Eduard Bernstein. In addition, the left wing, which had formed itself into the Spartacus League at the beginning of 1916, joined the USPD.

      When the war split the SPS into various fractions, three different groups emerged: the social chauvinists, the left wing of socialists, and the centrists. The social chauvinist group was represented by Gruetliverein, and its direction was under the leadership of people such as Herman Greulich, Paul Pflüger, Gustav Müller, and Johann Sigg. This right wing supported the unconditional defense of the fatherland and Burgfrieden, whereas the left wing struggled against the war and their opponents in Switzerland. Centrists took an opportunistic attitude between the two opposing trends. The left-wing group was represented under the leadership of Münzenberg, Fritz Platten, and people of Revoluzzer. Robert Grimm was one of the most important leaders among leading centrists, who were a majority within the socialist workers’ movement in Switzerland.

      Although the SPS officially sent its delegates to the Zimmerwald Conference (September 5 to 8, 1915), some of its representatives, such as Grimm, Platten, and Naine, also freely participated in the conference. The manifesto of Zimmerwald leftists and their resolution Weltkrieg und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie were underwritten by Platten from the Swiss side. Zimmerwald leftists argued that the imperialist war was conditioned by the economic system of capitalism, and the war must be regarded as a necessary result of this economic system. Therefore, Marxism should be further applied and developed toward the stage of late capitalism. Furthermore, the imperialist war must be transformed into a revolutionary civil war through an internationally led class struggle against the bourgeois of all countries. Lenin and Zimmerwald leftists blamed the collapse of the International on treachery and opportunism on the part of the social-democratic leaders. Through this position, Bolshevists and Zimmerwald leftists distanced themselves sharply from all pacifist attempts. In fact, the 1915 Zimmerwald conference paved the way for the foundation of the Third International.