> I hadn't known most of the information Angelus gives on Kautsky.
I think those of us who got our political socialization against a "Maoist" or "Trotskyist" background (and I plead guilty as charged) are only aware of the authorized canon of texts formulated in the Zinoviev-era Comintern. We're so used to the petrified notion of revolutionary continuity promoted by the more orthodox groups that we aren't aware of what a lively, contentious, chaotic mix international Social Democracy was in the pre-WWI era. Kautsky was "the pope of Marxism", Lenin, Plekhanov, and Trotsky were his faithful disciples, Luxemburg and Pannekoek his staunchest critics from the left, Bernstein his most dogged opponent from the right.
And yet, when it really counted, namely, when it came down to opposing the Wilhelmine state in WWI, both the orthodox "Pope" Kautsky and the right-wing revisionist Bernstein joined together *against* the mainstream SPD leadership! And keep in mind, this wretched pro-war leadership in the main sided with Kautsky against both Bernstein and Luxemburg!
Not that I'm pleading for some *ideological* return to pre-WWI Kautskyist orthodoxy on theoretical questions. In that case, I agree with Carrol that for example that the anarchist Freddy Perlman is a much more reliable exponent of Marx's critique of political economy than the "Pope" Kautsky.
However, on *organizational* questions, I think some kind of variant of Kautskyite pre-war socialism is the only option, a broad anti-capitalist formation encompassing a right-wing (Bernstein), an "orthodox" center (Kautsky, Lenin), and a "left" opposition (Luxemburg, Pannekoek). You find much the same kind of thing in the pre-WWI American socialist party, where the IWW and Eugene Debs constituted the Luxemburg/Pannekoek "left" of the SPA.
However, ultimately, these are questions of how the self-identified "socialists" should be organizing. This does not apply to the question of social movements, which as CLR James correctly noted, have an independent validity. The contemporary manifestation of "Father Gapon" is the Occupy Wall Street phenomenon. A few days ago I said this movement was the most exciting thing since Seattle. I will correct myself and say this movement is far more important than Seattle. This movement is in a direct continuity with Wisconsin-Greece-Egypt-Spain. The job of socialists is not to "lead" this movement. The job of socialists is to help promote this movement. And I'll be trying to chat people up to join the _Capital_ study groups being offered at the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation.