Otto Rühle

Otto R?hle (1874 - 1943) was a German Left Communist active in opposition to both the First and Second World Wars, and a founder with along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring and others of the group and magazine "Internationale", which posed a revolutionary internationalism against a world of warring states, and also the Spartacist League ('Spartakusbund' in German) in 1916. The Spartacist League took an oppositional stance to Leninism, and was attacked by the Bolsheviks for inconsistency. Though Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered in 1919 for their involvement in the revolutionary movement in Germany, R?hle lived on to participate in the left opposition of the German labour movement, developing both an early critique of Bolshevism, and an early opposition to fascism. R?hle saw the Soviet Union as a form of state capitalism with much in common with the state-centred capitalism of the West, as well as fascism:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:It has served as the model for other capitalistic dictatorships. Ideological divergences do not really differentiate socioeconomic systems. Otto R?hle and the German Labour Movement by Paul Mattick

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He also saw the Leninist party as an appropriate form for the overthrow of Tsarism in Russia, but ultimately an inappropriate form for a proletarian revolution. As such, no matter what the actual intentions of the Bolsheviks, what they actually succeeded in bringing about was much more like the bourgeois revolutions of Europe than a proletarian revolution:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:This distinction between head and body, between intellectuals and workers, officers and privates, corresponds to the duality of class society. One class is educated to rule; the other to be ruled. Lenin?s organisation is only a replica of bourgeois society. His revolution is objectively determined by the forces that create a social order incorporating these class relations, regardless of the subjective goals accompanying this process.Otto R?hle and the German Labour Movement by Paul Mattick

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

R?hle was also critical of the party as a revolutionary organisational form, stating that "the revolution is not a party affair", and supported a more council communist approach which emphasised the importance of factory councils run by workers.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In "Anti-Bolshevik Communism" Paul Mattick describes R?hle as an exemplary radical figure within a German labour movement that had become ossified into various "official" structures; a perpetual outsider defined by his antagonistic relation to the labour movement, to Leninist party communism, as well as to capitalist democracy and fascism.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

1874: 1874 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar)....

1943: :This is an article about the year 1943. For the arcade and video game, see 1943....

German: German may mean:...

Otto Rühle related Images and Photos (experimental)

Otto Takes Rome	Philipp Otto Runge	Otto Eduard Leopold Bismarck	Otto's Eleven - German Style
Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck (1815-98) 1849	Otto Von Bismarck 1886	Prince Otto Von Bismarck 1884	Adolf Otto Reinhold Windaus German Chemist
Otto Eduard Leopold Bismarck a Mild Caricature	Otto Von Bismarck as a Student 1833	Otto King of Bavaria from 1886-1913	Otto Lilienthal in Flight on Hill Near Neustadt Germany