The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-15
Otto Bauer>>SdViOr of
Austrian Capitalism


yesterdays Daily Worker from the Jewish Socialist
Forward.
He spoke to the capitalist ruling class and to
the working class.
To the bourgeoisie. he explained and apologized
that he did his best to bind the hands of the Aus
TRAN proletariat to restrain them from taking the
road of resistance to the advance of Austrian Fas
cism. To the bourgeoisie, he spoke one who
seeks to justify his usefulness to master.
But to the workers he spoke as he has always
spoken-as the representative of bourgeois theology
in the ranks Of the working class as the Social
Fascist traitor, cunning, treacherous, skillful in
lnitless distortions Of revolutionary MarXism in
order to justify his betrayals Of the revolutionary
struggles of the proletariat
Bauer paints picture of himself that will be-
the prototype of Socia-Fascist treachery. But
his seeming candor, in which he merely exhibits
himself as a faithful servant to the ruling class is
only the mask for conceang the fact that he still
strives to inject the hdeous virus of his Social
Fascist poison into the ranks Of the revolutionary
proletariat
Bauer still is the leading propagation of the CEN
trail thesis of world Social-F ascism-that Fascism
can be defeated through the peaceful path of bour-
geois democracy. His entire article is pervaded
with the denial of the revolutionary way out of the
crisis. This revolutionary way out is impossible he
declares because of the superior" forces of capital
ism. What then is the way he offers? 1t is the
road again of the lesser evil" and the path of bour-
geois democracy.
But the policy of the lesser evil" dooms the
working class to yield to the steady advance of Fas-
csm, and to yield the very bourgeois democracy
Social-Fascism defends! The net result of Bauer's
way out of the crisis is policy of submission to
Fascist reaction in the name of democracy" and
a full acceptance Of the capitalist way out Of the
crisis, masked by Marxist phraseology.
heroism OF the Austrian proletariat. But then he
drives home his real poison:
NO one doubted" he declares in his article,
that the military forces of the government were
much stronger than the power of the workers
and that the workers could not succeed in struggle
against the government"
This is the counter revolutionary lesson that
Norman Thomas also draws from the uprising in
Austria. He too in the New Leader (Feb. "a finds
that the lesson of Austria is that it is hopeless for
the working class to attempt to overthrow capital
ism through revolutionary means. This is the in
ternational role of l-Fascsm-to infect the
working class with this poison, to get it to accept
the capitalist way out Of the crisis lesser evil"
WHAT counter revolutionary lesson does Bauer
draw here from the struggles of the Austrian
proletariat? Bauer, after listing unparalleled
series of betrayalS that trapped the Austrian work
ing class, draws the lesson that the revolutionary
struggles of the Austrian proletariat we're "sacri-
fees for liberty and democracy" but were doomed
to failure revolutionary attempts to overthrow
the yoke of capitalist wage slavery
The poison of Bauer's article on the Austrian
uprising is that it draws perspective of per-
manent unter-revolution, of the permanence of
the yoke of wage slavery, of the hopeessness and
futility of the proletarian attempts to overthrow
the capitalist system and capitalist state power.
1t is with this poison Of defeatism, with the Social
Fascist poison of submission to the superior force
of the government" that Bauer now hopes to con-
tinue his errevoutionary service to the bour-
geoisie.
1T is not their fault that the struggle ended
so tragicaly for them for the time being" Bauer
declares.
Where then does the fault lie? And it is his
answer given above that contains the heart of his
treachery the desperate, vena attempt to mask
the 15-year historic path by which Austrian Social
Fascism paved the way for Austrian Fascism and
made its victory not only possible, but inevitable.
Bauer's answer is that the defeat inevitably
due to the overpowering force of the capitalist
government.
The truth is the contrary The truth which
Bauers article strives to conceal is that the defeat
was due not to the inherent weakness of the Aus
trian proletariat but to the presence of Social
Fascism at the leadership of this proetariat The
workers lost in Austria because the bourgeoisie
was too strong says Bauer. The brutal historic
actuality is that the Austrian proletariat lost
and the bourgeoisie because the bourgeoisie
had its agents in the ranks of the leadership of
the workers party The Austrian proletariat was
not weak. 1t was its leadership that stripped it
of its power and led it into the trap of the enemy.
WHAT was the real situation in Austria? Were
W the workers weak? Was the government strong?
Was the proletarian resistance to FaScsm futile?
Was the victory of Fascism impossible to prevent?
Let one fact be indelibly cear-that in Austria
the majority of the working class was not only
ready but eager for battle against capitaist-Fas
cist reaction. Bauer'S statement reveals that
for the past year. the Austrian proetariat
restrained from taking the offensive only through
the most desperate attempts of its leaders. The
Austrian proletariat the best organized in Eu-
rope, with powerful trade unions, with more than
SIS per cent of the votes in Vienna, the countrys
capital with powerful organizations in the factories
and social bodies. 1t a proletariat that has
been through the fires Of revolution, that burned
down in its rage the Municipal Palace of Justice
in 1927 It was proetariat class conscious and
with the terrible example of Germany to learn
from.
More than that, it was proetarist that prac-
ideally had power in the palm Of its hands when it