The term
revolutionary socialism refers to
SocialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society. The term is used by socialist and communist tendencies in contrast to
reformismSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
, the advocacy of the possibility of gradual change as a means of achieving socialism or of ameliorating capitalism.
From 1896 to 1898,
Eduard BernsteinEduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :Bernstein was born in Berlin to Jewish parents...
, one of the leaders of the
Social Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
(SPD), published a series of articles entitled "Probleme des Sozialismus" ("Problems of Socialism").
The term
revolutionary socialism refers to
SocialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
tendencies that advocate the need for fundamental social change through
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
, as a strategy to achieve a socialist society. The term is used by socialist and communist tendencies in contrast to
reformismSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
, the advocacy of the possibility of gradual change as a means of achieving socialism or of ameliorating capitalism.
Origins
From 1896 to 1898,
Eduard BernsteinEduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :Bernstein was born in Berlin to Jewish parents...
, one of the leaders of the
Social Democratic Party of GermanyThe Social Democratic Party of Germany is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a grand coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009...
(SPD), published a series of articles entitled "Probleme des Sozialismus" ("Problems of Socialism"). These articles led to a debate on revisionism in the SPD.
In 1900,
Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Polish-Jewish-German Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German SPD, the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.In 1914, after the SPD supported German...
wrote
Social Reform or RevolutionReform or Revolution is the title of a pamphlet written by Rosa Luxemburg in 1900. It was published to confront the revisionist ideology beginning to emerge in Europe shortly after the internal conflicts amongst Marxists at the Second International....
, a
polemicPolemics is the practice of disputing or controverting significant, broad-reaching topics of magnitude such as religious, philosophical, political, or scientific matters...
against Bernstein's position. The work of reforms, Luxemburg argued, could only be carried on, "in the framework of the social form created by the last revolution". In order to advance society to socialism from the capitalist 'social form', a social revolution will be necessary:
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
attacked Bernstein’s position in his
What is to be Done. When Bernstein first put forward his ideas the majority of the SPD rejected them. The 1899 Congress of the SPD reaffirmed the Erfurt programme, as did the 1901 congress. The 1903 congress denounced "revisionist efforts".
The First World War and Zimmerwald
However on 4 August 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted for the government’s war budget, while the French and Belgium socialists publicly supported their governments.
Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov , was the Bolshevik Leader of the 1917 October Revolution, and the first Head of State of the Soviet Union; in the course of his political career, he used the pseudonyms Lenin, V. I. Lenin, Nikolai Lenin, and N. Lenin...
,
Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky , born Leyba Davidov Bronstein , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist. He was one of the leaders of the Russian October Revolution, second only to Lenin...
,
Karl Liebknechtwas a German socialist and a co-founder of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany.-Early life:...
and
Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Polish-Jewish-German Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary for the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the German SPD, the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.In 1914, after the SPD supported German...
, together with a small number of other Marxists opposed to the war, came together in the
Zimmerwald ConferenceThe Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 through September 8, 1915. It was an international socialist conference, which saw the beginning of the end of the coalition between revolutionary socialists and reformist socialists in the Second International.The...
in September 1915. This conference saw the beginning of the end of the uneasy coexistence of revolutionary socialists and
reformistReformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
socialists in the
Second InternationalThe Second International was an organization of socialist and labour parties formed in Paris on July 14, 1889. At the Paris meeting delegations from 20 countries participated...
. The conference adopted a proposal by Trotsky to avoid an immediate split with the Second International. At first opposed to it, in the end Lenin voted for Trotsky's resolution to avoid a split among anti-war socialists.
In December, 1915 and March, 1916, eighteen Social Democratic representatives, the Haase-Ledebour Group, voted against war credits, and were expelled from the Social Democratic Party. Liebknecht wrote
Revolutionary Socialism in Germany in 1916, arguing that this group was not a revolutionary socialist group, despite their refusal to vote for war credits, further defining, in his view, what was meant by a revolutionary socialist.
The Russian revolution of 1917 and after
Following the
Russian Revolution of 1917TheOctober Revolution , also known as the Soviet Revolution or Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution. It began with an armed insurrection in Petrograd traditionally dated to 25 October 1917 Julian calendar...
the Third International was founded. This International became widely identified with
CommunismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
, but also defined itself in terms of revolutionary socialism.
Emerging from the Communist International, but critical of the post-1924 Soviet Union, the Trotskyist tradition in Western Europe and elsewhere uses the term 'revolutionary socialism'. For instance, in 1932, the first issue of the first Canadian Trotskyist newspaper,
The Vanguard, published an editorial, "Revolutionary Socialism vs Reformism". Today, many Trotskyist groups advocate "revolutionary socialism" as opposed to reformism, and are considered, and consider themselves, "revolutionary socialists".
LuxemburgismLuxemburgism is a specific revolutionary theory within Marxism and communism, based on the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. According to M. K...
is another revolutionary socialist tradition.
Some revolutionaries outside of the Marxist tradition, such as
libertarian socialistsLibertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that aspire to create a society without political, economic, or social hierarchies, i.e...
, have described themselves as revolutionary socialists.