The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-14
HAD ALREADY REACHED
SUCH A HIGH PITCH
THAT THE WARNINGS OF
THE PARTY LEADER
SHIP DID NOT HELP ANY
MORE.


THE P ARTY LEADER
SHIP DID NOT HELP ANY,
MORE.
Early Monday, when the police in
Linz began anew to seize the work
eTs' arms and to arrest the leaders
of the Schutzbund, the workers Of
Linz started to fight. This was two
days after the Heimwehr troops in
Linz had threatened to Hquidate
with force the Social Democratic
municipal government.
Also in Vienna there wes great
unrest among the workers early
Monday, and this because In the
Floridzdorf, the industrial section Of
Vienna, Comrade Schtockhammer, q
representative Of the workers, was
arrested. Early Monday, the work
ers in the FloridE factories demand
ed call for protest strike against
Schtockhammer's arrest.
While the workers in the fac
tories were still discussing this, II
became known that in Linz street
battles had already begun. This
turned into signal. The workers
could no longer be held back.
The workers in Vienna felt that
the workers in Linz and in upper
Austria, who had already gone out
in struggle, could not be left alone
to their fate, that they must be
helped and that this help must come
from all Austrian workers.
If the struggle were allowed to go
on in separate places, it would not
take long for the Austrian working
class movement to be destroyed
piecemeal After the workers were
defeated in one place, the workers
in another section would be at
tacked-and when the government
felt that the workers movement was
already incapacitated for struggle, it
would carry through its counter
revolution as it had planned in the
first place.
EVEN IF THE party leadership had
Il succeeded in carrying through its
line to the last minute, the strug-
gle would in all probability not have
been avoided. The fascist enemies Of
the workers sought with all means
to force the workers to begin the
struggle if they did not intend to al
low themselves to be suppressed and
to voluntarily accept the fascist re-
gime.
But when the struggle had broken
forth and if the leadership Of the
Party had agreed to this, then the
fight would have been better orga-
nized because the broad masses
would have better understood it.
But we cannot wholly blame the
workers because they no longer had
the patience to wait. Since the be-
ginning Of March, 1888, the workers
lived through one persecution after
another, and when all at once came
the provocations of the last days,
before Feb. 10, the workers patience
burst, and they stepped forth into
open resistance.
The workers cannot be blamed
for deciding to fight, after mass ar
rests were carried through and their
arms confiscated. The workers
feared that through the fascist at
tacks they would become altogether
helpless and would have nothing
with which to defend themselves at
the moment Of the fascist counter
revolution.
No one doubted 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.
A government which does not
stop at shattering with artillery the
most beautiful and largest buildings
of the capital can and will anninis
late the workers battalions with the
same ferocious means. The workers
battalions are Of necessity much
weaker than the government troops,
they cannot be as experienced, and
cannot have as much ammunition as
the government, let alone armored
trucks, howitzers and other cannon.
The workers knew this. They
knew they could not win. But this
did not stop them from giving open
battle. This did not stop them from
offering themselves as sacrifices for
liberty and democracy.
The Austrian workers, and espe-
cially the fighters Of the Republican
Schutzbund, are liberty-loving men
who do not allow themselves to be
enslaved, and knowing that they are
weaker than their enemies. do not
surrender, Notwithstanding the OPP
position.
Heroic was the struggle Of the
workers of Vienna and Linz, of
Bruck and of Eggenberg, of Yuden-
berg and Steyr.
Even the blacklist reactionaries
who opposed the workers and car
ried through their bloody butchery
had to marvel at their heroism.
They had to feel admiration and
respect for the men and women who
with old guns in their hands and
with emptied cartridge belts stood
AGAINST cannons, machine guns Of
the enemies of the working class and
AGAINST the enemies of republican
liberty.
The brave heroic fighters defended
the rights of the workers to the last
bullet; to tie last moment that they
were abb And because of this they
won tn recognition, the enthusiasm
ana TIC admiration not only of their
frier As but even of their enemies.
Az they well deserved this recog-
lion and admiration. 1t is not
cher fault that the struggle ended
for the time heino co +~o-~;o.,, -