THE INTERNATIONAL

SOCIALIST REVIEW

VOL. VIII

JULY, 1907

NO. 1

The Real Import Of The Austrian Victory.

THE

HE CONTINUED brilliant successes of the Socialist Movement in all the great countries of Europe have been for us too much a mere matter of self-congratulation or academic interest. Between the Amsterdam and the Stuttgart Congresses, in three short years, the position of every socialist party of Europe has been revolutionized. Not only do the tactics differ in each. country, but there are often now several disciplined but widely varying factions within the same party. We must stop boasting international successes, and using them merely as proof of the general justice of the socialist philosophy. We must analyze and study each party and faction to find what lesson it has for the United States.

In studying any party, however, it is convenient to classify it and compare it with other parties of the same tendency. Of course we must recognize that the parties will fall into entirely different groups, according to the principle of classification chosen. If, for instance, we classify the parties according to their interest in the economic struggle at the present moment, we find that the parties in England and Germany are most interested in the labor unions, while those of France, Belgium, Italy, Austria and Russia, though supporting with their full power the unions, especially, since they themselves have been the chief union organizers, are concentrating their attention either on parliamentary or revolutionary politics. If, on the other hand, we classify the National Movements according to their interest in the Agrarian question, we have a somewhat different grouping. All the movements, except that of England, are having considerable success with the landless proletariat or agricultural laborers. It is when we come to the problem of organizing the small proprietors that the diffi