The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-02-21

10
And Inevitably the bourgeois reaction when it sees
that it has had enough concessions from the So
ciat leaders Unleashes the final blow Of open Fascist
terrorism against the working clsss and the rising
revolution. This is Just what happened in Germany
This is just what happened in Austria.
In the face OF the open, Unabashed revelations
by the Socialist leaders of Austria and America,
that the heroic armed uprising of the Austrian work
not of their choosing their planning, how
they seek to cover their treacheries with
the glory Of the Austrian prOletariat?
1t was not because they followed their leaders
but because they trampled the orders of the
Otto Bauers and the Deutsches that the Austrian
proletariat reached the heights Of revolutionary
herOsm that they did!
And they had arms, not because of the leader
ship Of the Otto Bauers but because they secretly
disObeyed the leadership and instructions Of their
Socialist leaders!
What does it mean Tor the working class to have
its leaders such Socialists" as Otto Bauer such
followers of Bauer as Norman Thomas, who make
concessions" to avoid civil war" who preach to the
workers that capitalist democracy offers them a
peaceful road to Socialism" that they therefore, do
not need to prepare for armed overthrow of the cap
taIst dictatorship and the setting up Of a Soviet
government the dictatorship Of the proetarat? What
does it really mean?
II means that with such leadership the working
class is going into battle against its class enemy with
representatives of tie class enemy actually guiding"
the working class! This is the lesson of Germany.
and il is the lesson of Austria.
THERE Socialist workers anxious for the United
Front, but who reproach us for being too sharp
in our criticism of the Socialist leaders But would
we be true to our revolutionary duty to the working
class if We did not expose sharply as we know the
terrible road to which the Socialist leaders are
taking the workers?
Norman Thomas, for example, in this weeks New
Leader declares:
zone cannot help specializing on how different
might have been the fate of Europe if the German
working class, including both Socialists and the
Communists, had offered heroic resistance to
Fssoism Austrian comrades"
What is Norman Thomas driving at in this
speluiaGon2 He is striving to conceal both the real
reason why the German working class did not take
the road of armed struggle against Fascisn and the
reason The Austrian workers did
The workers Of Germany surrendered without
taking to armed struggle Why? Because the ma
ority of the German working class was still under the
parayzng influence of the Social Democratic leaders
the WelSes the Samplers, etc.
To resist now would be like shooting into the air"
the leading Socialist paper the "vorwaers" told the
German workers with true Socal-Fascst poison when
the menace Of Hitler became scuality in January
1888.
Any one making such proposal now is a pro-
VOcaeu" the Socialist paper replied to the offer of
the Communist Party, the THIRD in one year for an
immediate general strike against Hitler.
That is how the German workers were paralyzed
and betrayed into the hands of Fascism
Why did not the Communist Party OF Germany
call for armed struggle? Because to have done so
Wou4d nave been enormous crime against the wo k
ing class and the revolution. Because the Comnu-
nists did not have the majority of the German work
erS behind them because of the terrible influence of
the German Socal-Fsscists upon the majority of the
German workers
But the Austrian workers had learned the lessons
OF the German Socia-Democratic treaehery Thew
too, like Norman Thomas began to speculate - and
they saw themselves headed for the same Fascist
coup into which the Socialist leaders had framed
their fellow workers in Germany and they made a
decision! They would longer heed the Otto
bauerS and the DeutscheS who told them to Sub
mt patiently TO search for arms" by the Fascists!
And they, together with many leaders OF the
D. r. locals who belonged to the workers, took the
read of armed struggle the only road that can ever
lead to the overthrow of capitalism!
That they refused to repeat the exaropIe NJ Ger
man socialist leaders-that they trampled on the or
ders OF their eadersthis is the eternal glory NJ the
Austrian prOletariat!
II instead of a Social-Democratic leadership the
Austrian and German working class had followed
Communist leadership, would the result have been
olnerentF Why does not Norman Thomas Speculate"
on this question? Because the epoch-nakng example
OF the Soviet Union has already given him his answer
In this country, how does Norman Thomas pro-
pose TO light against Fascism, how does he propose
to help the Austrian working class?
by Leading the working class on precisely the
same road by which Otto Bauer and Otto Wells
trapped the Austrian and German workers, They
appealed to Hindenburg and DoIfuss He appeaJs
10 the reactOnary organizer of the anti Soviet inter
ventiOn Matthew Vol. He appeals to the leading
agent OF American Wall Street monopoly capital
Roosevelt! He appeals to LaGuardia whose poce
dubbed anti-Fascist workers demonstrating before
the Austrian Consulate
Like OTTO Bauer, Norman Thomas called upon the
american workers to make concessions by not strik
ing against the MIRA. He hailed the reactionsrv
SOrlKe-nreaklng NRA. codes offering peaceful
pam 10 socialism" in the same way that wells and
Bauer hailed the offensive of the German and An
Strlan oourgeoise pieces of Socialism"
HE urges them, in other words, to follow in the
same fatal path of the German and Austrian
Socialist Party leaders, the path which has cost the
european working class such costly sacrifices,
But the working class of Austria has already taken