Reform or Revolution

In Reform or Revolution (Waters [I8991 1970,
pp.33-91) Luxemburg refuted Bemstein's refutation
of the Marxist theory of the collapse of
capitalism. Bemstein's mechanisms of economic
adaptation were in fact modes of adaptation of
individual capitalists. Credit, trusts, and smallsize
entrepreneurs reflected in different ways increased
security for the individual capitalist but
are lubricants of the expansion of capitalism and
thereby accelerated its demise. In taking the
standpoint of the individual capitalist, Bemstein's
theory paid no attention to the systemic features
of capitalism. Later in The Accumulation of
Capital ([19 131 195 1) Luxemburg developed a
theory of the extension of crises of overproduction
to the world level. Searching for outlets for their
commodities capitalists would seek out new
markets through forcible incorporation (colonialism)
of countries into an international capitalist
order. When the whole world is divided up,
capitalist countries would be forced into wars to
redivide it, thereby intensifying class struggle.
Luxemburg was the first to recognize the close
link between the expansion of capitalism and
militarism.
Luxemburg accused Bernstein of utopian
thinking insofar as he thought that the effects of
capitalism could be suppressed without sup-

pressing capitalism itself. Equalization of wealth
and the introduction of cooperatives could not
come about through the reform of capitalism.
She regarded Bemstein as equally utopian in
postulating a law of increasing democracy since
she considered even bourgeois democracy to be
a very fragile form of state, continually threatened
by the bourgeoisie and defended by the
working class as a condition of its emancipation.
In returning to this question, The Junius Pamphlet
(Waters [I9151 1970, pp. 257-331) addressed
the crisis of German social democracy
brought on by its support for the war and anticipated
the rise of fascism. Equally prophetic was
her analysis of the Russian Revolution in 1918
(Waters 1970, pp. 365-95) which applauded the
Bolshevik seizure of power in the most difficult
of circumstances, but warned that a necessity
should not be tumed into a virtue. Premature seizures
of power were necessary at times, but they
should not be tumed into models for all revolutionary
transitions. She anticipated the trajectory
of the Russian Revolution: Without parliamentary
assemblies, without freedom of press and association,
"life [would die] out in every public institution,"
including the Soviets, and dictatorship
of the proletariat would become dictatorship of
the bureaucracy (Waters [I9181 1970, p. 391).
Socialist democracy must combine parliamentary
representation and basic civic rights with
popular participation in extraparliamentary forums.