Karl Kautsky, Socialism and Colonial Policy, Berlin, 1907.
“The capitalist mode of production has already played this role of the most powerful stimulus to the development of the productive forces. In the eighties of the last century it had already reached the limit beyond which it becomes more and more a hindrance to their further development. Not yet in the sense of making any further growth of these forces impossible—such a growth is still taking place—but in the sense that a mode of production has already become possible in which productivity rises faster than under the capitalist mode. In the interests of self-preservation, the capitalist mode of production is compelled increasingly to block the growth of productivity” (p. 35).
“Today socialism has already become an economic necessity. The time of its arrival is only a question of power. To create this power for the proletariat by organisation and education is today more than ever the most important task of Social-Democracy. Nothing is more peculiar than those socialists who believe that alongside this they must be concerned also for a further development of the power of capitalism” (p. 37).
| | |
| | | | | | | ||||||