📕 Node [[20210523160231 the_class_struggle_karl_kautsky]]
📄 20210523160231-the_class_struggle_karl_kautsky.md by @ryan

The Class Struggle | Karl Kautsky

source : kautsky_class_struggle_ch_5

tags : [[Karl Kautsky]]

Notes

Kautsky believes that only the [[working class]] will benefit from socialism.

[[Kautsky]] believes that beggars and servants have no interest in seeing the end of [[capitalism]].

[[Kautsky]] believes that [[capitalism]] has only expanded the [[slums]].

[[Kautsky]]’s attitude towards classes seems to be one very much in line with classic [[Marxism]]: that the [[working class]] are noble in their own right, by virtue that they are laborers, and anyone else broadly proletarian is a parasite.

[[Kautsky]] believes that [[capitalism]] created a whole new level of [[poverty]] in the world, and that the role [[philanthropy]] plays is one of simply social alleviation: poverty creates all kinds of social problems, and philanthropy is there to keep things in order. It does not call for the [[abolition of the proletariat]].

The preface of this piece calls this piece a canonical entry into [[Orthodox Marxism]], and “orthodoxy” is very much the sense I get from this text. [[Kautsky]] is formalizing many of the things [[Marx]] and [[Engels]] talk about in their central texts.

The proletariat is, therefore, in a position to form an independent party. It knows how to control its representatives. Moreover, it finds in its own ranks an increasing number of persons well fitted to represent it in legislative halls.

Whenever the proletariat engages in parliamentary activity as a self-conscious class, parliamentarism begins to change its character. It ceases to be a mere tool in the hands of the bourgeoisie. This very participation of the proletariat proves to be the most effective means of shaking up the hitherto indifferent divisions of the proletariat and giving them hope and confidence. It is the most powerful lever that can be utilized to raise the proletariat out of its economic, social and moral degradation.

The proletariat has, therefore, no reason to distrust parliamentary action; on the other hand, it has every reason to exert all its energy to increase the power of parliaments in their relation to other departments of government and to swell to the utmost its own parliamentary representation. Besides freedom of the press and the right to organize, the universal ballot is to be regarded as one of the conditions prerequisite to a sound development of the proletariat.

— Karl Kautsky

[[Kautsky]] believes that [[workers should participate in parliamentary action]], and believes that the [[state stops being a tool of the bourgeoisie]] when proletarian parties are in control.

Kautsky believes that the socialist struggle must be carried on by a union of socialists and labor organizers.

Kautsky believes in the international character of revolution.

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