The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-25
The left" Social Democracy in Action

Austria cannot be altogether ascribed
to the tactics of the cial-democracy,
still it is fact that they have been
able to meet the influence of the
Communists with more dexterity than
their political brethren in other coun-
tries. What is the reason for it?
NE shall indicate it but briefly. The
" Austrian social-democrats (the
"Austro-MarXians" as they are often
allied because of the special trend or
school, that they have developed in
the camp of MarXist ideology) had a
peculiar line of development. Be-
cause of the feudal character of the
old Hapsburg monarchy that had been
for years denying to the workers
elementary civic rights and had been
basing itself upon the feudal priv
ileges of a landed aristocracy, miti-
gated for the benefit of the grow
ing large bourgeoisie, the social
democracy, as the representative Of
the proletarian masses, had not been
able to "grow in" into the institutions
of the capitalist state with the same
rapidity as other parties of the
Second international had been doing
it before the war. Moreover, under
the pressure of the disfranchised and
much exploited masses, the social
democracy had to undertake mass ac-
lions that more often than net met
with a sharp and bloody suppression
on the part of the bureaucratic state.
Shooting of workers was not rare in
the realm of the Hapsburgs, but it
was met by proletarian cadres that
have become more accustomed to
mass demonstrations and m )
strikes. The fight Of the workers in
Czarist Russia and particularly the
Russian revolution of 1905 had deep
effect upon the workers in the Aus
trian Monarchy. Thus the leader
ship of the Austrian social-dem-
ocracy, although in its theological and
psychological makeup rather akin 10
the opportunist majority in the
Second international, had to develop
a tactical line of mass action that
was keeping them more rooted in the
proletarian masses. The largely
poor existence of these masses had
been likewise working against de-
veloping an atmosphere of petty
bourgeois-opportunist satisfaction.
ANOTHER no less important factor
II shaping the character of the present
Austrian social-democracy was the
nature of the old Hapsburg mon
archy, composed of so many nation
alities with their movements for ma
tional liberation. Against the in
creasing danger of national unity
between the social-democratic labor
| leaders and the bourgeois nationalists
within these nationalities las in the
Czech territory, in Western Galicia
etc.,, the German part of the Aus
trian social democracy-which was
the leading part-could set only one
weapon the appeal to the interna-
tional solidarity of the workers,
coupled with temporary solution of
the problem of nationalities on the
basis of national autonomy within
the framework of the existing state.
Incidentally this program of the Aus
trian Social-Democracy was the only
one, by which the lettering Austrian
state could be yet somehow kept and
maybe knit together. Its final down
fall was due to the imperialist de-
velopment of Europe.
THUS the necessity for more radical
Amass action and the necessity for Sin
ternationalism' were the two main
factors that have shaped the char
acter of the present Austrian Social
Democracy. AS the Austrian social
democrats were not so strongly tied
to the Austrian state, their social
patriotism was lacking the strong
imperialist trend of large part of
German Social-Democracy: h enc e
their vacillation and pronounced paci-
fism during the war. If we add yet
| that owing to the influence of the
Catholic church, they had to institute
for a time a Gree thinkerish" anti
religious movement, we get an ap-
proximate picture of these "leaders'
of the Austrian masses.
| TYPICAL centrists, their every po-
litical confession contains the I'M
avoidable formulation of ION the one
hand" and ION the other hand" On
the one hand they are for a Soviet
Republic, but on the other hand for
bourgeois democracy; they are for
workers. councils and against them,
for the Soviet Union and against, for
arming the workers and against, for
the necessity of Two-and-a-half In
ternational as against the Second and
at the same time for unity with it,
finally for proletarian dictatorship,
but--not now and not by force. Their
political conduct after the fall of the
Hapsburg state and the establish
ment of the top-heavy Austrian Re-
public was fully in line with their
makeup. They choked the revolu-
tionary movement in Austria and re-
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