The Aim of the Mass Strike

In the article “A New Strategy” in Die Neue Zeit, which continues the discussion on the mass strike, Kautsky attempts to define the future form of this means of struggle in more detail. There he comes to the conclusion that this form will be quite different in Germany than in Russia, because here the highly developed, strong organizations of both classes tend to make clashes and decisions rarer and more violent. Instead of a longer period of struggle, as there, it will here be a single act, a mighty decisive battle, in which the proletariat pulls together all its power and throws down its opponent and forces him to surrender. Now the justification for this view is inadequate, for however much the two opposing armies may wish to bring about a decision in a single battle, it does not depend on their will whether it is possible. The object of battle, the entire social power, is too powerful. There is more in it than can be won by a single great battle. The forms of the struggle can only be clearly recognized when the goals to be achieved are clearly envisaged.

The description of a great mass strike, as it is so often given, looks very seductive: how it grows enormously in a few days, seizes more and more strata of labor, paralyzes the whole life of society, terrifies the bourgeoisie, renders the government helpless, wears down the military and loosens its discipline, and finally forces the government to capitulate. It is just as seductive as the anarchist description of the general strike, which was supposed to revolutionize the whole of society at once. It is more correct in so far as it clearly and definitely indicates the individual moments of the struggle. But it suffers from the same defect in that it lets them all arise at once within a few days. It takes all their conditions for granted: the whole proletariat, ready to go abroad at the first word, willing to sacrifice military discipline to nothing in a single blow, cannot be accomplished in two days. Even if the last day always gives the final blow, only a longer revolutionary period can create the conditions for this. All the more so because much more is needed than the courage to revolt once.

A one-off revolt by an expendably[?] oppressed class can never be enough to overthrow a system. A system can only be overthrown when the victors have all the abilities to take the place of the former rulers and are permanently superior to them. The first time a strike movement swells so violently that it drags the transport workers with it, the ruling class will be defeated, but it will not yet be overcome. It has cunning and deceit at its disposal; it will try to placate the masses by means of concessions and at the same time intimidate them by acts of violence against individuals. And these masses, who are entering the struggle for the first time, lack inner strength, an unshakeable organizational spirit and socialist experience. Therefore, setbacks will be unavoidable, making new struggles necessary. In these struggles, the masses that are always entering anew must forge ironclad organizations and acquire socialist insight and political maturity. The individual victorious act will be a stage on the road to power; its significance lies in this, and not in the impossible complete destruction of the enemy.

The destruction of the rule of capital has as its basic condition that the mass of the proletariat is vigorously organized, dominated by the spirit of socialism, superior to the other classes through clear insight and strong discipline. If these conditions are fulfilled, capitalism has become impossible. It cannot be brought that far with the present means of struggle. The previous parliamentary and trade union methods were necessary to form the nucleus around which the entire proletarian mass can crystallize, to bring together the class-conscious mass of millions that is capable of starting such gigantic struggles. In order to bring them to an end, a completely different power is needed, and creating this power is the first major goal of the mass strike method that is then added.

At the same time, the goal would be the dissolution of the power of the opponent's state organization and the disintegration of the ruling class. The only goal of the mass strike would then be the destruction of the organization of state power. In reality, all those moments of the mass strike can themselves only be the results of a long period of struggle, the fruit of a revolutionary epoch. They are the real goals of the mass strike, which, with great effort and many sacrifices, form the content of the great final revolutionary struggle; once they are there, the disorganization of state power flows out of this situation by itself as a result.

If a political strike is to have a powerful effect as a mass strike, it must not be limited to the two million or so workers who are now organized in trade unions. Then the seven million unorganized workers must also join in. So will we have to wait until they are all unionized? As much as we are convinced that the unions have not yet reached the limits of their growth, it is clear that many of these millions are extremely difficult to organize. They are far more likely to be roused and drawn into the struggle by mass political strike movements.

This applies above all to the working classes on whom the unheard social enterprise depends most. A strike lasting a month in the timber or metal industry is easier to endure than a transport strike lasting a week. The class state knows this as well as we do, and that is why it has semi-organized the transport workers – railwaymen, postal and telegraph workers – so that a strike in these industries takes on the appearance of mutiny. It is therefore out of the question that such proletarians will join in from the start. Will they not join in at all? To believe this would mean that the ruling classes would have secured themselves against the overthrow of their rule by enslaving these workers to a greater extent. These hard-pressed proletarians will also rise up one day, but only when a great strike movement has created a high degree of political excitement and the authority of the government has already been considerably weakened.

Such a change of thought and action, the transformation of servile beambots, who think only of themselves, into defiant fighters, who are conscious of their power and are committed to the common cause of their military might. By calculating how numerous the urban and proletarian elements are in the German army, one must not give in to the illusion that they will fall out of the hands of the ruling forces at the first blow. The power of military discipline can only gradually be shattered to such an extent that it finally breaks down if it is often confronted with large mass movements. The difference in the composition of the army here and in Russia will not be reflected in the fact that here the army is revolutionary from the outset, but that it will eventually become revolutionary, whereas in Russia it has proved itself a counter-revolutionary force.

The view that the overthrow of capitalist rule cannot be the result of a single massive mass strike is therefore not, as Kautsky believes, a simple transfer from Russia to Germany. Here every action will be more powerful because of the organization of the masses, but here the power of the state is more powerful and the goal to be achieved more formidable. Our view is rooted in the nature of the mass strike itself, in the contradiction that its conditions – organization and understanding of the masses, weakening of government power – can only be created by the strike itself. This contradiction, which has led many revisionist writers to declare it impossible, is resolved in practice as a process of development in which each act creates the conditions for further acts. The beginnings of this development, the first applications of the new weapon, naturally follow the political and trade union struggles of the proletarian organizations existing today. At the end of this development the whole proletariat stands as an organized, insightful class capable of ruling; the long, difficult organization of victory is completed, the organization of work begins.