Revolution or Reform?

Revolution or Reform? Should we aim to win through to a new society by reforms? Is revolution the only way to rid ourselves of capitalism, or is this implausible nonsense at best and a betrayal of the working class at worst?

The longevity of the battle, and the acrimony with which it is sometimes conducted, is astonishing. The same arguments trundled out. The same counter-arguments deployed. Neither side convinces the other and the status quo remains.

At least Left Unity is trying - again - to get the Left to overcome this temptation to fight each other rather than capitalism.

It all springs from the notion of Revolution as a means instead of an end.

Though they are much to blame, Marx and Engels did not (always) believe the Proletarian Revolution was a single moment in history when the world would be turned upside down. They realised reforms were part of the process, the change from capitalism being achieved in part through changes in the tax system.