Page:Karl Kautsky - The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) - tr. William Edward Bohn (1910).djvu/9



At Erfurt, in 1891, the Congress of the German Social Democracy adopted a new program. The following year Karl Kautsky published Das Erfurter Program. This work turned out to be more than a mere exposition of the new statement of principles. In his preface the author explained that it was designed to fill the gap between propaganda pamphlets on the one side and special monographs on the other. It was at once scientific and popular; it contained a systematic survey of Socialist thought and was, nevertheless, of sufficiently modest dimensions to be available for the average person's use.

In 1904, in the introduction to the fifth edition, the author stated that the Erfurt Program remained in all essential particulars an accurate statement of the principles of the German Social Democracy. Hence, his work demanded no fundamental revision. It may be added that the program adopted at Erfurt nineteen years ago is still valid, not only for the German Social Democracy, but, with comparatively unimportant modifications, for the international Socialist movement. Therefore, this book of Karl Kautsky's