Karl Barth. Paul S. Chung

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Karl Barth - Paul S. Chung


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policy. The opponents of war were expelled and in April 1917, the Independent German Socialist party (USPD) was formed. Among their membership was Karl Kautski, Hugo Haase (chairman of the SPD since Bebel’s death in 1913), and even revisionists like Eduard Bernstein. In addition, the left wing, which had formed itself into the Spartacus League at the beginning of 1916, joined the USPD.

      When the war split the SPS into various fractions, three different groups emerged: the social chauvinists, the left wing of socialists, and the centrists. The social chauvinist group was represented by Gruetliverein, and its direction was under the leadership of people such as Herman Greulich, Paul Pflüger, Gustav Müller, and Johann Sigg. This right wing supported the unconditional defense of the fatherland and Burgfrieden, whereas the left wing struggled against the war and their opponents in Switzerland. Centrists took an opportunistic attitude between the two opposing trends. The left-wing group was represented under the leadership of Münzenberg, Fritz Platten, and people of Revoluzzer. Robert Grimm was one of the most important leaders among leading centrists, who were a majority within the socialist workers’ movement in Switzerland.

      Although the SPS officially sent its delegates to the Zimmerwald Conference (September 5 to 8, 1915), some of its representatives, such as Grimm, Platten, and Naine, also freely participated in the conference. The manifesto of Zimmerwald leftists and their resolution Weltkrieg und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie were underwritten by Platten from the Swiss side. Zimmerwald leftists argued that the imperialist war was conditioned by the economic system of capitalism, and the war must be regarded as a necessary result of this economic system. Therefore, Marxism should be further applied and developed toward the stage of late capitalism. Furthermore, the imperialist war must be transformed into a revolutionary civil war through an internationally led class struggle against the bourgeois of all countries. Lenin and Zimmerwald leftists blamed the collapse of the International on treachery and opportunism on the part of the social-democratic leaders. Through this position, Bolshevists and Zimmerwald leftists distanced themselves sharply from all pacifist attempts. In fact, the 1915 Zimmerwald conference paved the way for the foundation of the Third International.

      Karl Barth and Eduard Thurneysen: World War I and Socialism


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