Pelz Sobre Libro de Day y Gaido Review of Witnesses

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This article was downloaded by: [LSE Library]On: 22 October 2012, At: 02:30Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

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Witness to Permanent Revolution: The

Documentary RecordWilliam A. Pelz

Version of record first published: 13 Sep 2012.

To cite this article: William A. Pelz (2012): Witness to Permanent Revolution: The Documentary

Record, Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory, 40:3, 459-460

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00111619.2012.697767

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You can have the closing part of this poem placed over my grave . . . Did you takethat seriously Mathilde? Hey, laugh at it. On my grave, as in my life, there will be nopompous phrases. Only two syllables will be allowed to appear on my gravestone:Tsvee-tsvee. That is the call made by the large blue titmouse, which I can imitate sowell that they all immediately come running. (p. 373)

All of Rosa Luxemburgs spirit of pathos and irony, indomitable fight and subtle

humour, iron steadfastness and soft tenderness, is captured in these few lines. In a

spineless world, she, who limped from childhood, was one of the few human beings

able to walk upright.

Richard B. Day and Daniel Gaido: Witness to Permanent Revolution: The

Documentary Record

Leiden/Boston, MA, Brill, 2009.

ISBN: 978-90-04-16770-4 (hardback)

William A. Pelz

The concept of permanent revolution, first suggested by Karl Marx in the mid-19th

century, is most commonly associated with the work of Leon Trotsky. At its heart, it

disputes the idea that every society must pass through a fixed series of historical

stages before socialism may emerge. Put differently, permanent revolution dissents

from the belief that a full, developed capitalist stage is always a necessary pre-

condition for a socialist transformation. Marx and Engels, after the failed revolutions

of 18481949, began to argue that the bourgeoisie could no longer be relied upon to

fight for progress and thus the working class must organize independently.

This suggestion had tremendous significance for the revolutionary movement

in underdeveloped countries such as Russia, although the preeminent Marxist

theorist G.V. Plekhanov held firm to the notion that a fully developed capitalist

stage of development was inevitable and also a necessary precondition for socialism

(see Chapter 3). Between Plekhanovs supporters and those who upheld permanent

revolution a fierce debate raged, particularly in the years just before and after the

failed Russian Revolution of 1905. Plekhanovs stage theory of revolution was not

challenged by V.I. Lenin but, rather surprisingly, by Karl Kautsky.

Kautsky, long dismissed by the radical left as a renegade from Marxism because

he opposed the Bolsheviks in 1917, emerged as a pivotal figure in these debates.

Witness to Permanent Revolution includes no less than eight of his essays, which show

Kautsky as a clear- sighted revolutionary who did not shy away from mass struggle.

In 1905, Kautsky saw the larger significance of the social conflicts to the east and

argued that the revolution in permanence in Russia cannot fail to have repercussions

on the rest of the European continent (p. 381). Rather than the mechanical Marxist

of legend, the editors show that the often reviled European theorist was a particularly

original and creative thinker.

Book Reviews 459


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For those expecting a volume heavily laden with the writings of Trotsky, it will be a

surprise to find more writings from the pen of Kautsky, whose work takes up almost a

third of this weighty volume. Not that this diminishes Trotsky in any way. He had the

insight that the army is ultimately made up of human beings who can choose to disobey

orders in a moment of revolutionary crisis. Guns, rifles and munitions are excellentservants of order, but they have to be put into action. For that purpose, people are

needed . . . they differ from guns because they feel and think (p. 347).

Still, it is the work of Kautsky that will surprise the reader. Having seen these long

forgotten essays, one can understand the admiration that Rosa Luxemburg felt for him

in the years before World War I, as her writings in Witness to Permanent Revolution

make clear. Like Lenin, Luxemburg saw herself, at least in part, as a disciple of Kautsky.

What distinguishes Luxemburg from her one-time mentor is that, when the crisis of

world war came, she remained faithful to her convictions. This attitude can be seen

when she wrote in 1907 thatit is a poor leader and a pitiful army that goes into battle

only when it knows in advance that victory is in its pocket (p. 549). The selections

from Rosa Luxemburg are stimulating and thought-provoking, as are the little known

writings by Parvas, Franz Mehring and N. Ryazano.

Rather than being a rehash of long-standing debates, this title brings forth writings

not available before in English as well as long-forgotten texts to produce a rich and

nuanced picture. Proving that the wealth of intellectual debate surrounding the

theory of permanent revolution is not merely a topic for specialists, Witness to

Permanent Revolution is a most welcome addition to the literature of world Marxism.

More than being of merely historical interest, this work will help clarify the thinking

of all those who ponder the questions surrounding radical change. For those new

to the debate, the editors provide a substantial introduction that puts the controversy

in context. Unimaginative Leninists may object to the lack of his writings in this

collection. The reality, as this work shows, is that Lenin simply was not yet ready to

break from his pre-conceived notions of stages of historical development. He would

abandon the stage theory later, but Trotsky, Kautsky, Luxemburg and others came to

this realization sooner. The editors of Witness to Permanent Revolution are to be

credited with producing an important and original collection that advances our

understanding of a very important theory.

Vincent Barnett: Marx

Abingdon, Routledge, Book Series Routledge Historical Biographies, 2009.

ISBN: 9780415435925 (paperback)

Yves Laberge

Simply titled Marx (which might complicate any further bibliographical search

on the Internet or in a bookstore), Vincent Barnetts one-word titled monograph

460 Book Reviews

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Pelz Sobre Libro de Day y Gaido Review of Witnesses