Karl Kautsky’s Communism and Socialism
image: Forverts; November 8, 1932, p. 7; New York, NY.
source: Historical Jewish Newspaper Archive of the National Library of Israel
Translation
Dictatorship or democracy?
Socialism or communism?
On both of these subjects, which way should we go?
A comprehensive and correct answer on the findings in Karl Kautsky’s new work:
Communism and Socialism
To recover: (i.e. find a copy)
in Rand Bookstore, 7 E. 15th Street; Forverts; 175 East Broadway, and in all socialist clubrooms.
25 cents a copy
Analysis
Karl Kautsky (b. 1854) was a Czech-Austrian-German socialist thinker, writer, and political figure who was active in the establishment of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Kautsky was an acquaintance of Engels, helped edit Marx’s Theories of Surplus Value, and co-authored the original political program of the SPD—Europe’s largest and most storied socialist party. Kautsky staked out a position to the left of Eduard Bernstein and other “revisionist” (or reformist/evolutionary) socialists, but to the right of radicals like Rosa Luxemburg. When the communists split from the SPD, Kautsky stayed with the party. He became a strenuous critic of Bolshevism—rejecting Bolsehvik ideas of a revolutionary vanguard in favor a broad, democratic, socialist movement. Following the Nazi takeover of Germany, Kautsky fled to the Netherlands. He died in Amsterdam in 1938. His wife, Luise Kautsky, a German Jew, was deported to Auschwitz and perished there.
Communism and Socialism was a pamphlet published in 1932 by The American League for Democratic Socialism, an educational branch of the Socialist Party USA. The pamphlet attacks Lenin and argues that Bolshevism actually represents a deviation from Marx and Engels—especially Lenin’s rejection of a broad, democratic, working-class politics in favor of “secretive” cadres. According to Kautsky, this feature of Bolshevism ensures that the resulting party will be a “conspirator[ial] organization with unlimited dictatorial power…and blind obedience of the members.” The pamphlet was offered for sale at 25 cents, which is equivalent to $4.87 in today’s (December 2019) dollars.
The Forverts, America’s leading Yiddish newspaper, was openly aligned with the Socialist Party USA in it’s early years. This advertisement appeared in the November 8 issue of the Forverts, a few days after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt—an election in which the Forverts endorsed the Socialist Party candidate Norman Thomas. The close link between the Forverts and the Socialist Party is revealed at the end of the advertisement, which states that the pamphlet can be purchased either at the Forverts headquarters on East Broadway or at the Rand Institute of Social Science.
The Rand Institute was a multistory educational complex located near Union Square. Nicknamed “The People’s House,” the center contained a library, radical bookstore, and classrooms for popular education. The school was founded by veterans of the Socialist Party and was linked to New York’s broader Jewish socialist milieu—it was even funded by the Forverts and the Workmen’s Circle (a Jewish Bundist organization) in it’s early years.
Sources
Encyclopedia Britannica; “Karl Kautsky”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Karl-Kautsky
Muldoon, James; “Reclaiming the Best of Karl Kautsky;” Jacobin
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/01/karl-kautsky-german-revolution-democracy-socialism
Marxists Internet Archive; “Karl Kautsky;” Encyclopedia of Marxism, Glossary of People
https://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/k/a.htm#kautsky-karl
Kautsky, Karl. “Communism and Socialism”
https://www.marxists.org/archive/kautsky/1932/commsoc/ch03.htm#top
Unsigned; “Rand School of Social Science: Important Auxiliary for Socialist Movement: The Work of the School to Begin on Oct. 1 —Systematic Instruction of Social Sciences and Training of Speakers and Writers the Objects in View;” The Worker, v. 16, no. 7 (May 19, 1906), pg. 1.
http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1906/0519-worker-randschool.pdf
Unsigned; Historical Note; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/tamwag/tam_007/bioghist.html
Bureau of Labor Statistics; Inflation Calculator
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
