Socialist Quotes for Sunday Reflection pt 69

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"The history of capitalism and the history of secularism are not two accidentally contemporaneous tales, after all; they are the same story told from different vantages. Any dominant material economy is complicit with, and in fact demands, a particular anthropology, ethics, and social vision. And a late capitalist culture, being intrinsically a consumerist economy, of necessity promotes a voluntarist understanding of individual freedom and a purely negative understanding of social and political liberty. The entire system depends not merely on supplying needs and satisfying natural longings, but on the ceaseless invention of ever newer desires, ever more choices. It is also a system inevitably corrosive of as many prohibitions of desire and inhibitions of the will as possible, and therefore of all those customs and institutions—religious, cultural, social—that tend to restrain or even forbid so many acquisitive longings and individual choices."

- David Bentley Hart

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"What is the dictatorship of the proletariat according to Trotsky? The dictatorship of the proletariat is a power, which comes ‘into hostile collision’ with ‘the broad masses of the peasantry’ and seeks ‘the solution of its ‘contradictions’ only ‘'in the arena of the world proletarian revolution’.

What difference is there between this ‘theory of permanent revolution’ and the well-known theory of Menshevism which repudiates the concept of dictatorship of the proletariat?

Essentially, there is no difference.

‘Permanent revolution’ is not a mere underestimation of the revolutionary potentialities of the peasant movement. ‘Permanent revolution’ is an underestimation of the peasant movement, which leads to the repudiation of Lenin’s theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Trotsky’s ‘permanent revolution’ is a variety of Menshevism. . . .

Trotsky’s ‘permanent revolution’ means that the victory of socialism in one country, in this case Russia, is impossible without direct state support from the European proletariat’, i.e., before the European proletariat has conquered power.

What is there in common between this ‘theory’ and Lenin’s thesis on the possibility of the victory of socialism ‘in one capitalist-country taken separately’?

Clearly, there is nothing in common.

What does Trotsky’s assertion that a revolutionary Russia could not hold out in the face of a conservative Europe signify?

It can signify only this:

firstly, that Trotsky does not appreciate the inherent strength of our revolution;
secondly, that Trotsky does not understand the inestimable importance of the moral support which is given to our revolution by the workers of the West and the peasants of the East; thirdly, that Trotsky does not perceive the internal infirmity which is consuming imperialism today.

Trotsky’s ‘permanent revolution’ is the repudiation of Lenin’s theory of proletarian revolution; and conversely, Lenin’s theory of the proletarian revolution is the repudiation of the theory of ‘permanent revolution’. . . .

Hitherto only one aspect of the theory of ‘permanent revolution’ has usually been noted -- lack of faith in the revolutionary potentialities of the peasant movement. Now, in fairness, this must be supplemented by another aspect -- lack of faith in the strength and capacity of the proletariat in Russia.

What difference is there between Trotsky’s theory and the ordinary Menshevik theory that the victory of socialism in one country, and in a backward country at that, is impossible without the preliminary victory of the proletarian revolution in the principal countries of Western Europe?

Essentially, there is no difference.

There can be no doubt at all. Trotsky’s theory of ‘permanent revolution’ is a variety of Menshevism . . . .
Honeyed speeches and rotten diplomacy cannot hide the yawning chasm which lies between the theory of ‘permanent revolution’ and Leninism."

- J. V. Stalin: "The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists", in: ‘Works’, ibid.; p. 385-6,389, 392, 395-96, 397

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Party Programme
of theGerman Workers’ Party in AustriaConcluded at Trautenau, 15th August 1904

The German Workers’ Party seeks the uplift and liberation of the German working-classes from their present condition of economic, political, and cultural oppression. It begins from the conviction that only within the natural limits of his folkdom [Volkstums] can the worker achieve full value for his labor and intelligence in respect to the other classes of the cultural community.

We reject international organization because it weighs down the advanced workers by those of lower standing, and must completely prevent any real progress for the German working class in Austria.

The German Workers’ Party affirms the position that an improvement in economic and social conditions is only attainable through organization via professional associations [berufsgenossenschaftliche], that purposeful, positive reform work can overcome today’s unsustainable societal conditions and safeguard the social advancement of the working-class.

We do not constitute a narrow class party. The German Workers’ Party represents the interests of all honest, productive labor in general, and strives for the complete elimination of all disparities and the bringing about of fairer conditions in all areas of public life.

We are a liberal [freiheitliche] national party which combats with absolute severity all reactionary ambitions, all feudal, clerical and capitalist privileges, as well as all racially-foreign [fremdvölkischen] influences.

The advancement of work and skill [Wissen] in state and society is our goal – and the economic and political organization of the working German Volk is the German Workers’ Party’s means to this end.

I.

The fulfilment of the cultural tasks of the Austrian state is consistently rendered impossible by the so-called questions of state [Staatsfragen]. The resolution of these questions is only possible in such a way that Austria becomes a uniformly organized state, and is thus made viable.

Therefore we demand:

1. Personal union with Hungary.
2. Special status for Galicia and Bukovina within the Cisleithanian federation, for which the name ‘Austria’ is designated.
3. Legal declaration of German as the state language of Austria; the German language is therefore the exclusive language of the army, representative bodies, and public offices; appointment of German officials and judges in German-speaking areas.

II.

In the political sphere the German Workers’ Party demands the free development of the peoples’ nature [Volkswesen]:

1. Introduction of universal, equal, and direct suffrage; the national demarcation of electoral constituencies; statutory compulsory voting; a proportional electoral system; severe penalties for electoral abuses; abolition of the House of Lords [Herrenhauses].
2. Thoroughgoing expansion of political self-government.
3. Stipulation of three-year legislative periods.
4. Laws for free association and free assembly; laws for freedom of speech and freedom of the press; the abolition of objective procedure1; deregulation of colportage.2
5. Protection against any interference in the exercise of political rights, in particular against the utilization of wage conditions and terms of employment to restrict personal rights of self-determination.
6. Basic Laws [Staatsgrundgesetze] may in no way be modified by decree; §14 of the Basic Law is to be abolished.3
7. Individual ministers are to be selected from the Imperial Council [Reichsrat] and held liable, under severe penalty, for the upkeep of the constitution and for the just implementation of the law.

III.

The economic policy of the state has to tailor itself to the interests of the great masses of the Volk. In particular, the development of labor-protection legislation is a pressing need.

In the economic and socio-political spheres the following should be primarily be strived for:

1. Creation of a common customs territory with the German Reich.
2. Transfer of capitalist large-scale enterprises, in which private property is injurious to the common good, into the possession of the Reich, province, or municipality, in particular the nationalization of the mining industry and railways.
3. Reform of the entire tax system; abolition of all indirect taxes and introduction of a progressive income tax; fixation of a tax-free living wage [Existenzminimums]; scheduling of higher taxation rates for retirement pensions and lower rates for earned income; reform of the inheritance tax; elevation of the stock-exchange tax; introduction of luxury taxes; strict penalties for tax evasion.
4. Full and unlimited freedom of association [Koalitionsfreiheit]; legal recognition of labor unions; full freedom of association for agricultural laborers.
5. Creation of Chambers of Labor for the promotion of the economic interests of the working-classes.
6. Fixation of minimum wage rates for each occupation and municipality; adoption of legal regulations which enable public authorities and municipal self-governing bodies [Selbstverwaltungskörpern] to prevent the engagement of foreign workers of a different nationality for the purposes of wage pressure.
7. Organization of a public employment office [Arbeitsnachweises] through the repeal of the private employment agencies [Arbeitsvermittlung].
8. Regulation of home-work, with the end-goal being its abolition.4
9. Legal regulation of working-hours on the basis of the eight-hour-day, with shorter working-hours set for hazardous industries; international labor protection legislation.5
10. A ban on nightwork in all industries, where this is not unfeasible due to technical reasons; a complete ban on nightwork for women and young workers.
11. General implementation of a 36-hour weekly rest period [36stündigen Sonntagsruhe]; female workers to have Saturday afternoons free.
12. Prohibition on female labor in health-hazardous enterprises and in mining; introduction of maternity leave; total prohibition of gainful employment for children under 14 years of age and the establishment of a shorter working-period for young workers.
13. Establishment of qualification certificates as a requirement for highly-skilled work; stricter legal provisions covering accident prevention and the condition of workplaces.
14. Development of the Trade Inspectorates and expansion of their scope of powers;6 appointment of factory-inspection auxiliaries, who are to be drawn from the working-classes; appointment of female inspectors for companies with female labor; maintenance of labor statistics.
15. Establishment of industrial courts [Gewerbegerichten] in all major industrial locations; the industrial courts to be structured as arbitration agencies for all labor and wage disputes.
16. Establishment of a Workers’ Housing Act; introduction of housing inspections; scheduled facilitation of land reform.
17. Uniform reform of the entire labor insurance system; expansion of health and accident insurance; introduction of general old-age and invalid insurance, as well as widow and orphan benefits; insurance against unemployment through supporting the free unions’ efforts towards it, furthermore by structuring this branch of insurance within workers’ insurance.
18. Establishment of a Ministry of Labor, to which all trade inspection and mining inspection, as well as the social insurance system, are subordinate.

IV.

The German Workers’ Party demands in the cultural field:

1. Complete separation of church and state.
2. Improvement in the legal status of women and reform of the Marriage Law.7
3. Reform of the school system in the spirit of the modern Volksgeist;8 complete separation of school and church; complimentary learning materials and public education; regulation of further education and technical education; for teachers, an income appropriate to their education and responsibility; free election of teachers’ representatives to all school board bodies.
4. Simplification of the administration of justice [Rechtspflege] and free legal representation; compensation for those wrongly arrested and convicted; nationalization of the medical profession.
5. Pursuant to general conscription, the restructuring of the army into a people’s army [Volksheer], in which anyone capable can rise to the highest positions; reduction in the active term of service; restrictions on the retirement of the more capable officers; public hearings for court martials.

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