0
III. SOCIALISM AND THE "WORKING CLASS" 324
IV. SOCIALISM AND LABOR UNIONS 334
V. SYNDICALISM; SOCIALISM THROUGH DIRECT ACTION OF LABOR UNIONS 354
VI. THE "GENERAL STRIKE" 387
VII. REVOLUTION IN DEFENSE OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT 401
VIII. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION 416
IX. THE TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM 426

NOTES 437

INDEX 447

INTRODUCTION

The only possible definition of Socialism is the Socialist movement.
Karl Marx wrote in 1875 at the time of the Gotha Convention, where the
present German party was founded, that "every step of the real movement
is of more importance than a dozen programs," while Wilhelm Liebknecht
said, "Marx is dear to me, but the party is dearer."[1] What was this
movement that the great theorist put above theory and his leading
disciple valued above his master?

What Marx and Liebknecht had in mind was a _social class_ which they saw
springing up all over the world with common characteristics and common
problems--a class which they felt must and would be organized into a
movement to gain control of society. Fifty years before it had been
nothing, and they had seen it in their lifetime coming to preponderate
numerically in Great Britain as it was sure to preponderate in other
countries; and it seemed only a question of time before the practically
propertyless employees of modern industry would dominate the world and
build up a new society. This class would be politically and economically
organized, and when its organization and numbers were sufficient it
would take governments out of the hands of the old aristocratic and
plutocratic rulers and transform them into the instruments of a new
civilization. This is what Marx and Liebknecht meant by the "party" and
the "movement."

From the first the new class had been in conflict with employers and
governments, and these struggles had been steadily growing in scope and
intensity. Marx was not so much interested in the immediate objects of
such conflicts as in the struggle itself. "The real fruit of their
victory," he said, "lies, not in immediate results, but in the ever
expanding union of the workers."[2] As the