Yellow Socialism

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). 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.