Social Reform or Revolution? () is an 1899 pamphlet by Polish-German Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg. Luxemburg argues that trade unions, reformist political parties and the expansion of social democracy—while important to the proletariat's development of class consciousness—cannot create a socialist society as Eduard Bernstein, among others, argued. Instead, she argues from a historical materialist perspective that capitalism is economically unsustainable and will eventually collapse and that a revolution is necessary to transform capitalism into socialism. The pamphlet was heavily influential in revolutionary socialist circles and along with Luxemburg's other work an important precursor to left communist theory. Background In 1878, Germany's chancellor Otto von Bismarck imposed anti-socialist laws. As a result, thousands were arrested and hundreds exiled, political newspapers were closed and all political activity except elections was made illegal. During this period, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) declared itself to be revolutionary and repudiated the parliamentary road to socialism. The SPD's platform gave expression to the concerns of the urban working class in Germany and its share of the vote grew from 312,000 in the 1881 federal elections to more than 1.4 million in the 1890 elections. In 1890, anti-socialist laws were lifted and a wave of strikes and trade union militancy followed. Fearing that the strikes would "scare off" conservative members or that repression might return, SPD leaders renounced the more revolutionary aspects of their program. At the 1891 Erfurt Congress, the party program enshrined Marxism—and the overthrow of capitalism—as the "official" thinking of the SPD, but argued for practical tasks appropriate for a time when revolution was not on the immediate agenda. Leading German socialist Eduard Bernstein was one of the authors of the Erfurt Programme. Polish-born socialist Rosa Luxemburg moved to Germany in 1898 as the debate over revolution was raging within the SPD. Revolutionary socialists argued that socialism can only be achieved through the self-emancipation of the working class through an act of revolution. On the other side were the reformists, or revisionists, who argued that capitalism had reached a stage in which it was no longer necessary to call for revolution, but that enough reforms could be put into place—more democratic rights, more social welfare programs and so on—that over time would transform capitalism into socialism. Bernstein advocated for revisionism with a series of articles on the Problems of Socialism between 1896–1898 and later a book, Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die