Yellow socialism has two meanings. It is primarily a system of government devised by Pierre Biétry in 1904, that offers the working classes a contrasting alternative to "red socialism" (Marxism).[1] It was prominent in the early twentieth century prior to World War I, competing with Marxism for the minds of the workers. After this point, this movement became absorbed into fascism, and the previously developed Austrian national socialism which from 1920 developed into Nazism.
This philosophy entailed workers striving to be part of a capitalist system, forming unions that were equal with groups of companies (similar to corporatism). Workers were to share in company profits more greatly through negotiation between these two groups. The philosophy proposed that above this should lie a strong autocratic state.
However, the term was appropriated by Marxists to describe self-described socialists who were seen by Marxists as on the side of the ruling class; all non-Marxists considering themselves socialists ("revisionists"), whether they identified with the label or not. This usage included many whose ideas would later be known as social democracy and democratic socialism, very different concepts to that devised by Biétry.
The term "yellow socialism" was coined by a former member of the French Socialist Party, Pierre Biétry, in 1904 when he founded the Fédération nationale des Jaunes de France ("National Federation of Yellows of France"). Later, affiliated Swiss and German "yellow" groups formed. This movement was strongly opposed to Marxism.[2]
In the United States, yellow socialism was associated with the business unionism of Samuel Gompers (and thus described as "yellow unionism"). Business unionism was centered on the belief that the workers' best option was to form a labour cartel within a capitalist society.
Yellow socialists and yellow unionists were criticized by Marxists for their nationalism and perceived occasional engagement in chauvinism such as opposition to immigration (for flooding the labour market and reducing wages or denying jobs to native-born citizens), and sometimes even racism including anti-Semitism.[3][4]
In Europe, during World War I, Marxists associated the social democratic parties with yellow socialism, as they supported their own states in the war rather than taking an internationalist position against the conflict. However, such parties had no connection to Biétry's thinking.
The "Berne International", formed in Zimmerwald in 1915, was similarly described as "yellow socialist" by Lenin for its rejection of revolutionary socialism, despite its opposition to the war.[1]
After World War I the term "yellow socialism" fell into disuse.