The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program)

The Class Struggle (Erfurt Program) (Das Erfurter Programm in seinem grundsätzlichen Theil erläutert von Karl Kautsky) is an 1892 book-length work by Karl Kautsky. It was first published in Stuttgart and was the official commentary of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) on their brief 1891 Erfurt Program (by Kautsky, party leader August Bebel and Eduard Bernstein). It became and is still considered the seminal (and popular) text for Orthodox Marxism and the Second International.

History
Eduard Bernstein is acknowledged in the first edition preface as having given advice and critical review. Historian Donald Sassoon wrote it “became one of the most widely read texts of socialist activists throughout Europe” and Kautsky's commentary “was translated into sixteen languages before 1914 and became the accepted popular summa of Marxism” around the world. It was first translated into English by Daniel De Leon in 1894 and an adaption published in The People (Socialist Labor Party newspaper) in New York.

In 1894, Lenin translated it into Russian. This was during his exile in Geneva.

20th century
In 1904, it was republished in German as Der Klassenkampf in der Sozialdemokratie. The eighth German edition from 1907 was translated by William Bohn and published in 1910 by Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company in Chicago. In 1911, Chapters 2, 3, 4 and 5 (from the 1899 translations by Daniel De Leon) were published in four SLP pamphlets, The Working Class, The Capitalist Class, The Class Struggle and The Socialist Republic (the latter from Chapter 4 The Commonwealth of the Future). Dietz Verlag (Berlin) reprinted it in German in 1965. In 1971 another English version was published by W. W. Norton & Company.

21st century
Author Lars T. Lih coined the term Erfurtianism to describe the political views put forward in Kautsky's book.

1892 German original

 * 1) Der Untergang des Kleinbetriebes
 * 2) Das Proletariat
 * 3) Die Kapitalistenklasse
 * 4) Der Zukunftsstaat
 * 5) Der Klassenkampf

1894 English translation
Published separately as pamphlets of the Labor library.
 * The Proletariat
 * The capitalist class
 * The co-operative commonwealth
 * The class struggle

1899 English translation
Published separately as pamphlets of the People library.
 * The working class
 * The capitalist class
 * The socialist republic
 * The class struggle

1910 English translation

 * 1) The Passing of Small Production
 * 2) The Proletariat
 * 3) The Capitalist Class
 * 4) The Commonwealth of the Future
 * 5) The Class Struggle