Eduard
Bernstein on Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social
Reformer
Ferdinand
Lassalle at Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of
People
"... Constitutional questions are
in the first instance not
questions of right but questions of might. The actual
constitution of a country has its existence only in
the actual condition of force which exists in the
country; hence political constitutions have value and
permanence only when they accurately express those
conditions of force which exist in practice within a
society..." Ferdinand
Lassalle, 1862 quoted in Old Habits Die Very Hard: India's Ugly
Underbelly - Badri Raina
" When all is said
and done most persons like to see a cause, which, the
more far-reaching its aims at any given moment, must
seem the more abstract, embodied in one individual.
This craving to personify a cause is the secret of
the success of most founders of religions, whether
charlatans or visionaries, and in England and America
it is a recognised factor in political
party-struggles. This craving is so strong, that at
times the bare fact that a certain personality has
withdrawn himself from a body of men, his equals or
even his superiors, is sufficient to raise him above
them, and to procure him a power that has been
obstinately refused them... However, one cannot
have the advantages of a thing without having to
accept its disadvantages into the bargain. We
have seen what a doubly two-edged weapon the
Lassallean agitation was, two-edged in its
theoretical foundation, two-edged in its practice.
And this continued, of course, long after Lassalle
himself was dead. Aye, it became worse. Adhesion to
Lassalle's tactics meant adhesion to the change of
front executed by Lassalle during the last months of
his agitation, he himself knowing, and making the
mental reservation that he should be able to turn
back and throw off the mask at any moment. But in
his own words: "individuals can dissemble, the masses
never." His policy, if literally carried out,
meant misleading the masses. And the masses were
misled... The Social
Democracy has no legends, and needs none; it regards
its champions not as saints but as men. It does not,
on this account, value their services the less, but
honours the memory of those who have done well in the
work of freeing the
working-class...Lassalle no more created German Social
Democracy than any other man... But even though
he cannot be called the creator of the movement, yet
to Lassalle belongs the honour of having done great
things for it, greater than falls to the lot of most
single individuals to achieve. Where at most there
was only a vague desire, he gave conscious effort; he
trained the German workers to understand their
historical mission, he taught them to organise as an
independent political party, and in this way at least
accelerated by many years the process of development
of the movement. His actual undertaking failed,
but his struggle for it was not in vain; despite
failure, it brought the working-class nearer to the
goal. The time for victory was not yet, but in
order to conquer, the workers must first learn to
fight. And to have trained them for the fight, to
have, as the song says, given them swords, this
remains the great, the undying merit of Ferdinand
Lassalle." Eduard Bernstein on Ferdinand
Lassalle as a Social Reformer
Eduard
Bernstein on Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social
Reformer
Courtesy:
Marxists.org
" When all is said and done most
persons like to see a cause, which, the more
far-reaching its aims at any given moment, must seem
the more abstract, embodied in one individual. This
craving to personify a cause is the secret of the
success of most founders of religions, whether
charlatans or visionaries, and in England and America
it is a recognised factor in political
party-struggles.
This craving is so strong, that at
times the bare fact that a certain personality has
withdrawn himself from a body of men, his equals or
even his superiors, is sufficient to raise him above
them, and to procure him a power that has been
obstinately refused them. We have only to recall the
Boulanger fever in France, which is by no means without
its prototypes in the history of other countries.
Dozens of members of the French Chamber were
Boulanger's superiors in knowledge, ability, and
character, and could point to the must honourable scars
gained in the service of the Republic, but they became
mere ciphers side by side with him, whilst he became
the great One, and his name enkindled hundreds of
thousands. Why? Because an idea was suddenly
incorporated in him, while the Chamber of Deputies,
despite the sum of knowledge and of experience which it
represented, was nothing but an anonymous quantity.
The name Lassalle became a standard which created more
and more enthusiasm among the masses the more
Lassalle's works spread among the people. Intended to
produce immediate effect, written with extraordinary
talent, popular, and yet setting forth the theoretical
points of view, they had, and to a certain extent still
have to-day, a great affect in agitation. The
Working-men's Programme, the Open Reply Letter, the
Worker's Reader, etc., have won over hundreds of
thousands to Socialism. The strength of conviction that
breathes in these writings has enkindled hundreds of
thousands to struggle for the rights of labour.
And with this, Lassalle's writings
never degenerate into a jingle of meaningless phrases:
they are pervaded by a sensible realism, which
certainly at times is mistaken as to means, but always
seeks to keep actual facts in sight, qualities which
have through his writings been communicated to the
movement. That whereof Lassalle in practice had,
perhaps, something too much, he has given, in his first
and best propagandist works, the right measure which
the working-class movement required. If the German
Social Democracy has always recognised the value of a
strong organisation, if it has been so convinced of the
necessity of the concentration of forces, that even
without the outer bond of organisation it has yet known
how to perform all the functions of one, this is
largely a heritage of the, agitation of Lassalle. It is
an indisputable fact that in those places where,
amongst the workers, the traditions of the Lassallean
agitation were strongest, as a rule, most was
accomplished in the way of organisation.
However, one cannot have the advantages of a thing
without having to accept its disadvantages into the
bargain. We have seen what a doubly two-edged weapon
the Lassallean agitation was, two-edged in its
theoretical foundation, two-edged in its practice. And
this continued, of course, long after Lassalle himself
was dead. Aye, it became worse. Adhesion to Lassalle's
tactics meant adhesion to the change of front executed
by Lassalle during the last months of his agitation, he
himself knowing, and making the mental reservation that
he should be able to turn back and throw off the mask
at any moment. But in his own words: "individuals
can dissemble, the masses never." His policy, if
literally carried out, meant misleading the masses. And
the masses were misled.
The time of the Schweitzer dictatorship
came. Whether Herr von Schweitzer was ever, in the
literal sense of the word, a Government agent, seems to
me very doubtful; but there can be no doubt that his
tactics were at times those of a Government agent. Why,
under his leadership, it even came to this, that
agitators of the "General German Working-men's
Association" declared a republican to be synonymous
with a bourgeois, because republics so far have been
bourgeois republics. Schweitzer was unquestionably the
most gifted of Lassalle's successors. But if he almost
equalled Lassalle in talent, he surpassed him in all
his worst faults. He was a real cynic, and he therefore
coquetted with the Social demagogues of the Prussian
Court with even less hesitation than Lassalle had done.
But that he should have been able to do this without
once failing to find some passage justifying his
manoeuvres in Lassalle's speeches is a reproach from
which Lassalle cannot escape. Even Schweitzer has done
nothing worse than to designate as a simple "clique"
the parties that were fighting for the constitutional
rights of the people's representatives, among whom were
men like Jacoby, Waldeck, Ziegler, etc.
Other faults of Lassalle's also were reproduced in
the movement, and it cost long and sharp struggles
before they were completely overcome. As to the
theoretical errors of Lassalle, which I have dealt with
more fully above, I need here only remind my readers
what violent struggles it cost before a right
appreciation of the Trades Union movement could make
headway in the ranks of the German Socialist
working-men; how long Trades Unions were opposed by a
large portion of the Socialists, on the strength of the
"iron law of wages." The result of the personal
colour that Lassalle gave the movement, was that after
his death it drifted into the current of sectarianism,
and floundered about in it for long years to
come.
Persons who have played a prominent part, and
developed remarkable qualities, usually beget a large
number of imitators. So, too, Lassalle. The semi
and semi-demi Lassalles after his death blossomed forth
all over the land. But since for want of his ability,
they were forced to confine themselves to imitating,
"Wie er sich geräuspert, und wie er gespuckt,"
["The way he hawked, and the way he spat."] and as we
have seen, this not being his best side, they formed
one of the most obnoxious excrescences of the
working-class movement.
To-day all this has been overcome, and we can speak of
it quietly, and without bitterness. But there was a
time when the movement suffered from it, and that is
why it is referred to here.
But enough. Else the impression of what I have said of
the heritage which Lassalle left the workers, even to
this day, might be weakened, and this is by no means my
intention. So long as I had to consider Lassalle's work
in detail, I was bound to be severe; for greater than
the fame of the individual is the interest of the great
cause for which we are fighting, and that above all
else demands the truth. The Social Democracy has no
legends, and needs none; it regards its champions not
as saints but as men. It does not, on this account,
value their services the less, but honours the memory
of those who have done well in the work of freeing the
working-class.
And this Lassalle did in an eminent degree. Perhaps in
a more eminent degree than he himself suspected on the
eve of his death. Things came about differently from
what he believed they would; but the movement to-day is
the same as that for which he raised the standard in
the spring of 1863. The ends for which it strives are
the same to-day, even though they be striven for in
other ways and with other demands. A few years hence it
may, perhaps, be fighting in yet other ways, and still
it will be the same movement.
No man, even the greatest thinker, can foretell the
march of Social Democracy in detail. We know not how
many struggles still lie before us, nor how many
fighters will have to perish before the goal of the
movement is reached; but the grave-stones of our dead
tell us of the progress of the movement, and fill us
with the certainty of its triumph in the future.
Lassalle no more created German Social Democracy
than any other man. We have seen how great were the
stir and ferment among the advanced German workers,
when Lassalle placed himself at the head of the
movement. But even though he cannot be called the
creator of the movement, yet to Lassalle belongs the
honour of having done great things for it, greater than
falls to the lot of most single individuals to achieve.
Where at most there was only a vague desire, he gave
conscious effort; he trained the German workers to
understand their historical mission, he taught them to
organise as an independent political party, and in this
way at least accelerated by many years the process of
development of the movement. His actual undertaking
failed, but his struggle for it was not in vain;
despite failure, it brought the working-class nearer to
the goal. The time for victory was not yet, but in
order to conquer, the workers must first learn to
fight. And to have trained them for the fight, to have,
as the song says, given them swords, this remains the
great, the undying merit of Ferdinand Lassalle.
Ferdinand
Lassalle at Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of
People
Courtesy: Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of
People
"Ferdinand Lassalle took part in French
Revolution of 1848. Created the Democratic Socialist
Party in Germany. In 1862 proposed a theory
(Lassalleanism) in opposition to Marxism, explaining
that while bourgeois society "guaranteed" all
individuals unlimited development of their individual
productive forces the moral idea of the proletariat is
to render useful service to the community.
Lassalle wrote the Science and the Working Man:
"The course of history, is a struggle against nature,
against ignorance and impotence, and consequently,
against slavery and bondage of every kind in which we
were held under the law of nature at the beginning of
history. The progressive overcoming of this impotence
is the evolution of liberty, of which history is an
account. In this struggle humanity would never have
made one step in advance, and men gone into the
struggle singly, each for himself. The state is the
contemplated unity and co-operation of individuals in a
moral whole, whose function it is to carry on this
struggle, a combination which multiplies a million-fold
the forces of all the individuals comprised in it, and
which heightens a million times the powers which each
individual would be able to exert singly."
Lassalle believed that the proletariat represented
community, solidarity of interest, and reciprocity of
interest. He believed therefore that the cause of the
workers is the cause of humanity; when the proletariat
gains political supremecy a higher degree of morality,
culture and science would occur which would further
civilisation.
Lassalle believed in the State as Hegel did, as the
organ of right and justice. He believed that only
through the State could victory be gained, explaining
the state as "the union of individuals which increases
a million-fold the forces of the individuals." He
explained that "The aim of the State is the education
and development of liberty in the human race." He
believed that the State would hear the cause of the
proletariat, and so revolution was not necessary.
Killed in a duel by the Wallachian Count von Racowitza
on August 31, 1864.
His works included:
Die Philosophie Herakleitos des Kunkeln (1858)
Das System der erworbenen Rechte (1861) "
