Socialism and Democracy in EuropeOrth, Samuel Peter
History
Socialism and Democracy in Europe
Orth, Samuel Peter
Democracy; Socialism
But the more this social division widens, the stronger grows the
revolt--more conscious abroad than here--of the proletariat against
the capitalist system of society in which this division and all that
accompanies it have originated, and find such fruitful soil. The
capitalist mode of production, by massing the workers in large
factories, and creating an interdependence, not only between various
trades and branches of industries, but even national industries,
prepares the ground and furnishes material for a universal class war.
That class war may at first--as in this country--be directed against
the abuses of the system, and not against the system itself; but
sooner or later the workers must come to recognize that nothing short
of the expropriation of the capitalist class, the ownership by the
community of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, can
put an end to their abject economic condition; and then the class war
will become conscious instead of unconscious on the part of the
working-classes, and they will have for their ultimate object the
overthrow of the capitalist system. At the same time, since the
capitalist class holds and uses the power of the State to safeguard
its position and beat off any attack, the class war must assume a
political character, and become a struggle on the part of the workers
for the possession of the political machinery.
It is this struggle for the conquest of the political power of the
State, in order to effect a social transformation, which International
Social Democracy carries on in the name and on behalf of the
working-class. Social Democracy, therefore, is the only possible
political party of the proletariat. The Social Democratic Federation
is a part of this International Social Democracy. It, therefore, takes
its stand on the above principles, and believes--
1. That the emancipation of the working-class can only be achieved
through the socialization of the means of production, distribution,
and exchange, and their subsequent control by the organized community
in the interests of the whole people.
2. That, as the proletariat is the last class to achieve freedom, its
emancipation will mean the emancipation of the whole of mankind,
without distinction of race, nationality, creed, or sex.
3. That this emancipation can only be the work of the working-class
itself, organized nationally and internationally into a distinct
political party, consciously striving after the realization of its
ideals; and, finally,
4. That, in order to insure greater material and moral facilities for
the working-class to organize itself and to carry on the class war,
the following reforms must immediately be carried through:--
IMMEDIATE REFORMS
_Political_
Abolition of the Monarchy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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