Bernstein's misunderstanding of capitalism, Luxemburg argues, brings him to accept reform rather than revolution. His claim, writes Luxemburg, that since capitalism "shows a greater capacity of adaptation," it follows that the "general crises" of capitalism have disappeared thanks to "the development of the credit system, employers' organizations, wider means of communication and informational services," is laughable now in light of the current economic crisis.
For Bernstein, Luxemburg writes, the struggle of the Social Democracy should not "direct its activity toward the conquest of political power but toward the improvement of the conditions of the working class." In addition, the struggle "must not expect to institute socialism as a result of a political and social crisis but by means of the progressive extension of social control and gradual application of the principles of cooperation."
With this logic, writes Luxemburg, Bernstein believes he is "in agreement with certain declarations of Marx and Engels."
Bernstein thus travels in a logical sequence from A to Z. He began by abandoning the final aim in favor of the movement. But as there can be no socialist movement without the socialist aim, he necessarily ends by renouncing the movement itself.
Bernstein, Luxemburg concludes, advices Social Democracy "to go to sleep now and forever, i.e., to give up the class struggle."
***
How glad I am that three years ago I suddenly plunged into the study of botany the way I do everything, immediately, with all my fire and passion"so that the world, the party, and my work faded away from me and only one passion filled me up both day and night: to be outdoors roaming about in the springtime fields, to gather plants until my arms were full, and then at home to put them in order, identify them, and put them between pages of a scrapbook to dry. How I lived through the whole springtime then as though in a fever, how much I suffered when I sat in front of a new little plant and for a long time couldn't identify it and didn't know how to classify it; many times I almost fainted, fretting over such cases"As a result I am now at home in the realm of greenery. I have conquered it--by storm--and what you take on with fire and passion becomes firmly rooted inside you. ("To Hans Diefenbach," Wronke i. P., March 30, 1917 )
Luxemburg was marginalized. Her work was excluded from not only the SPD party's publication, Neue Zeit, but other Left publications as well.
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