The Virginia Worker

Reform or Revolution?

In this course we discuss Luxemburg’s polemic against Bernstein’s revisionism.

Session One: From The Opportunist Method to Capitalism and the State

In this session we ask what are the two aspects of the struggle for reform, why it is the only means of working towards the final goal, and why the final goal is the only thing differentiating socialism from bourgeois democracy. We discuss the inherent duplicity of revisionism, why theoretical knowledge is the only strength of the workers movement, why the labor movement is usually petty bourgeois and the difference between the fundamental idea and the exterior form of capitalist crisis. Finally we discuss why the extension of democracy only reinforces the class character of the state and how the progress of social reform strengthens the obstacles to socialism.

Readings: Introduction to Chapter Four of Reform or Revolution.

Session Two: From The Consequences of Social Reformism to Opportunism in Theory and Practice 

In this session we discuss the difference between the Marxist and the revisionist views of parliamentary and trade union activity, the two factors required for the emergence of socialism, the implications of turning the focus of analysis from production to property relations and the meaning of the observation that socialism will not come from minority violence or numerical majority but from the consciousness of economic necessity. We further examine the relation between value theory and socialism and discuss the relation between capitalist development and democracy and the fundamental difference between bourgeois society and prior class societies. 

Readings: Chapter Five to Chapter Ten of Reform or Revolution.

Stay tuned for Marxism 102!