Social Reform or Revolution?

Introduction

Rosa Luxemburg first published this polemic as two series of articles in the Leipziger Volkszeitung (1898 and 1899), replying to Eduard Bernstein, who argued that capitalism was becoming more stable and that social democracy should turn into a party of gradual reform. She holds that credit, cartels and trade unions do not remove capitalism’s crises, that reforms can improve conditions but not end exploitation, and that the conquest of political power remains the goal. The pamphlet made the 28-year-old Luxemburg a prominent voice of the left wing of the German Social Democratic Party and is still a standard text in the debate between reform and revolution.

Connections

Builds on

• Capital1867 · Karl Marx

More works by Rosa Luxemburg

• 1913The Accumulation of Capital