| Popis: |
On 22 June 1899, the French socialist Alexandre-Etienne Millerand became a minister in the Waldeck-Rousseau government. A socialist participating in government was controversial among leftists in many respects. First: Was it admissible for a socialist and one of the political heirs to the Paris Commune to serve in a government alongside General Gaston de Galliffet, a leading participant in the brutal suppression of the Commune? Second: Would the government introduce a kind of transitional phase to socialism, overcoming capitalism step by step, or was this government ultimately only a form of capitalism entrenching itself? Third: Would the left be strengthened or weakened by participating in this government? Fourth: Would more social and political reforms be achievable by participating in the government or opposing it from the outside? Fifth: The Marxism of the Second International offered no scientific basis for left-wing politics in a situation characterised by the relative long-term stability of capitalism, the growing threat of world war and the barbarism of colonialism, imperialism, nationalism, racism and antisemitism. The chapter concentrates on Rosa Luxemburg’ analysis of this first participation of a representative of a socialist party in government with regard to the above-mentioned questions. |
