Of the 1905 Russian revolution it has been correctly said that it was a bourgeois one, undertaken with proletarian means by the proletariat. The same is true for the German November revolution. It fought for and won the bourgeois democracy through the mass power of the proletariat. However, because of this, it is also the first step toward a proletarian revolution.
In October, the bourgeoisie finally took the reins in the parliament, forty years a worshipper of absolutism, it abandoned it once it brought defeat instead of victory and became parliamentary democratic. But this still did not seem consolidated, as if it could turn around in the next year, the Entente press rightfully spoke of camouflage. The old state institutions stayed intact, only the rules at the top changed. Then the armed proletarians appeared. With their unanimous mass power, they overthrew the old system nearly without resistance in a few days. And with that, something irrevocable happened. The entirety of the military-feudal junk, which attached itself to the capitalistic German Reich — Kaiser and Junkers, federal princes and small-statism, caste voting rights and police economy, militarism and divine right disappeared in Orcus’ world. Germany turned into a democratic republic.
But the proletariat has no reason to be proud of this. Only the most minuscule part of the task has been solved. With Ebert at the top, the chairman of the social-patriots, who continuously supported imperialism and the Kaiser’s governance during the war, the German republic cannot become a socialist workers’ republic. Ebert is received with sympathy by the bourgeois press, capital knows that it has nothing to fear from but everything to hope of him. It counts on this new government of pretender-socialists to keep the workers calm and pacified until the bourgeois order is restored, the masses are disarmed and the state-power is consolidated. And then the exploitation of the masses will start anew, worse than ever before, because in order to account for the losses of the war, to pay for the enormous amount of reparations, to found new factories, to collect new surplus-value, capital needs to increase the intensity of exploitation. It will fall upon the masses to carry the pauperization of Europe on their shoulders.
The workers however, did not make their revolution for this. For centuries, they have hoped for socialism, have fought and worked toward it, and now their tree finally bears fruit. Never has the opportunity been so favorable for a final taking of power and the initiation of socialism. Capitalism lies wounded, a terrible economic crisis lasts on the world, the biggest part of the population is hostile to the bourgeois order, the authority and power of the state have collapsed, hatred and rage have flared up from the deepest hardships of the war’s misery. And most importantly: the working masses are armed and organized, they can impose their will upon society once they see their task clearly in front of them and do not let themselves be tricked by false concessions!
It is the task of the revolutionary social democrats to show the way to the proletarians. They should immediately get together, formulate a common revolutionary programme of action and bring these demands closer to the masses by means of intense propaganda.
The first main task lies in giving the revolution a social, i.e., socialist context. This does not concern some radical reforms in the realms of worker-protection or the eight hour work day, these will be realized by the workers’ councils themselves in their respective workshops, because they now have the power, as no state authority protects the employers anymore. It concerns the big measures that will make the economy rise again through socialist organization. Everywhere, where the state is already in control of industry and trade, the organization should be preserved while given a new focus, the supply of the masses. Then the entire big industry, the monumental factories, the mines must be immediately nationalized. Particularly the banks; with the nationalization of the banks in Russia, the Soviet government has automatically gained control over a big part of the industry.
With this, finance capital would obtain the power and ground necessary for a socialist production.
The same goes for the large land holdings of the Junker. Once he is expropriated by the state and his holdings go to the landworkers, the neck of the Junkerdom is virtually broken and the region east of the Elbe is won for the revolution. With this begins complete control and regulation of production and distribution by the proletariat. At the same time, distribution will be taken care of. Capitalist distribution from the side of the government has been sufficiently demonstrated in the war years, now the socialist distribution must be based on the principle that all of those in need are provided with sufficient livelihood and all homeless are provided with an adequate home. For this, a heavy taxation of the capital ownership and a confiscation of the war-profits are necessary, while the government debts are annulled.
In order to realize these demands, it becomes necessary to organize the entire political power in the hands of the proletariat, with an exclusion of the bourgeoisie. The wish to rule together with the bourgeoisie is reminiscent of a carriage with horses on two opposing sides, ridding it of any ability to further progress. At the beginning, the power the workers have won for the moment needs to be consolidated permanently; arming of the proletariat, the formation of red guards, while the old army is demobilized and dissolved, meaning while the workers return home from their regiments. In the workers councils, the proletariat finds organs that are much more in accord with its state of affairs than parliamentary chatterboxes [Schwatzbuden - K.V.), where bourgeois politicians hold their talking tourneys. This is because they remain in steady contact with the practical working life, grow out of economic activity and their members are constantly replaced. In the expansion of these labor councils, supplemented by farmers' councils, lies the core of the future proletarian government.
At the same time, the old state bureaucracy must be eliminated, which was kept in office by Ebert and his comrades. As long as this apparatus of oppression remains intact - only temporarily bent by the storm of the revolution - there is a danger that it will rise again and seize power as soon as the pressure of the proletariat subsides.
Politically, the socialist program also differs from radical democracy. The latter finds its highest expression in a constitutional Reichstag, which advises the constitution and with that bourgeois people, social-patriots and those capable of holding beautiful speeches. But such institutions, voted for by the general population, are utterly undemocratic in revolutionary times. Because in such periods of time, the masses are in a continuous process of relearning and rise to hold a steadily improving point of view, while their representatives only reflect their view on the day of election. The masses will therefore be ahead of their Reichstag, their representatives will only represent the former stages of their development and therefore become reactionary compared to them. This misrepresentation could only be remedied by the right to recall, whereby each member could be recalled and replaced by the voters. Or the Reichstag would have to be elected anew after a very short legislative period, such as, for example, a two-month duration.
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