The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-25
By T. LOAF.

Democracy, in its criticism of the
present leadership of the Party laid
particular stress upon the correct"
"Marxian" policy of the Austrian
Social-Democracy that was able by
it's allegedly 'non-opportunist" policy
to get an unshakable grip upon the
working class of Austria and to de-
velop a mighty proletarian organize
ton. The left opposition in the Ger
man Social-Democracy expected
strong support of its stand from the
fraternal delegates of the Austrian
Social Democratic Party. This they
did not get. The "fraternal dele
gates" of the Austrian Party behaved
in the German city of Kiel (place of
the convention) in the same manner
as they had been invariably behaving
in their own city of Vienna: they
were applying the brakes against any
sharper leftward turn in the move
ment of the proletarian masses.
TO be sure, fraternal delegate Rem
ner had something to say about
the Austrian Social-Democracy; he
thus served the delegates with the
gist of the Austrian social-demo-
cratic philosophy:
''WE muster now 43 per cent of all
" votes. We improved 7 per cent
since 1919. Seven per cent more and
we have a half. (laughter).. But the
last seven per cent are always the
hardest (renewed laughter) 49,. We
have never put to voter the limo
cent question: what is your stand on
religion? . -. Forward, towards
capturing the state and forward, to-
wards national unity of all Germans
within the framework of the 1nterna-
tional!"
WE are presented here with the CEN
w trail idea of the agitation of Aus
TRAN social-democratic leaders: wait
till we get the parliamentary ma
iority, we shall obtain and WELD
power then. This slogan of parlia-
mentary majority transferring to the
proletariat actual power in the state
has struck deep roots in the working
masses of Austria and has aided the
Austrian social-democratic leaders in
breaking off the sharp edges of the
proletarian struggles in Austria.
THEN the Austrian social-democratic
4 masses were ready to fight. They
were ready to fight in the year 1919,
when their spontaneous revolutionary
outbreaks were suppressed IN blood,
and they have shown their revolu-
tionary mood in these days of bloody
struggle against the onward march
of Fascism. They have entrenched
themselves almost absolutely in the
trade unions, embracing, with the ex-
ception of agricultural workers Of
whom but small percentage are or
ganized less than $4,000 out of $780,
000), practically the entire Proletar-
ian mass of the country and leaving
but a small fraction of the workers
either unoRganized or in the yellow
organizations (about per cent,
mostly Christian-Socialist). Although
the membership of these social
democratic unions in the last years
fell from over a million to some
thing over 100000, still the Austrian
proletariat is the best organized in
the whole capitalist world. Also,
these unions have built out of their
midst a powerful political organiza-
ton, the Austrian Social-Democratic
Party, that numbers little less than
100000 members, of whom 100000
are in Vienna. Of the 100000 votes
cast in the last april 1920 cleo
tons, 100000, or 43 per cent, were
polled by the Social-Democratic
Party; this party has in Parliament
now II seats against "a seats of the
bourgeois bloc (mostly Christian-So-
cialist Party) and has developed a
formidable party apparatus, busy
with the municipal and other small,
everyday welfare work of the Party
and to large extent always ready
to "share" with the capitalist par
ties the Responsibilities" of govern
ment.
NEXT to the building up of trade
unions, an extensive party organl-
cation, influential cooperatives, the
Austrian Social-democratic masses
were able to form a numerous pro-
letarian guard, the so-called "Repub-
likanischer Schutzbund" (about 100,-
000), which is to a considerably lar
ger extent than the German "Reichs-
banner" is social-democratic in its
composition and proletarian in its
character. 1t was formed out of the
AIMED defence guards of the workers
councils dissolved in 1929 as shock
troops against the growing danger of
Fascism, but unlike Germany it has
not been confronted with such a
radical and disciplined Communist
defence organization as the Front
kaempferbund" is. All these years
it had never an occasion to face and
by a higher order" to suppress a
revolutionary proletarian outbreak,
and even now its role during the re-