> He considered Kautsky a most excellent Marxist until Kautsky supported
Germany in WWI
Wait a minute, this is not true! Whatever else one thinks of Kautsky, he did not join with the SPD parliamentary leadership in supporting the war!
^^^^^^^ CB; Thanks Angelus. I have a distinct memory of Lenin criticizing Kautsky in the way I said, in _The State and Rev_ and _Imperialism_, but I'll check.
^^^^^
He suggested the SPD delegation abstain from voting rather than vote for war credits. About a year into the war, he joined with Bernstein -- that great revisionist bogeyman -- in **denouncing** the pro-war SPD leadership!
Lenin's later break with Kautsky had to do with his attitude toward the Russian Revolution, not anything to do with WWI!
And remember, Lenin actually supported Kautsky *against* Rosa Luxemburg during the mass strike debate. I think Lenin and Kautsky were wrong in that case. However, I like to think Lenin tacitly admitted Rosa was correct by calling for all power to the soviets.
Nonetheless, I agree with Louis Proyect that any party-like project in the present era means constructing "Kautskyite" parties: large, multi-tendency socialist parties with reformist and revolutionary wings. That is basically what we are trying to create with Die Linke.
Oskar Lafontaine even openly claims the legacy of the USPD