Page - 873 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The January Strikes 873 in Steinfeld and in the Alpine foothills, as well as Styria. Unrest was next reported in Trieste (Triest). The workers announced that they would resume work only when flour and fats were distributed. There was enough for everyone, they claimed ; it just had to be correctly collected and allocated. The strikes spread to Vienna and the demands became ever more radical. The leadership of the Austrian Social Democrats succeeded once more, however, in taking the sting out of the radicality. A direct link was established between the peace negotiations and the hardships. The discontent was recast in four demands : the gov- ernment was to be called on to not let the peace negotiations in Brest be derailed by territorial desires. Next, a fundamental reform of the food system was demanded, fur- thermore universal suffrage for elections to the local councils and, finally, the suspen- sion of militarisation for a series of businesses. At the same time, the party leadership published in their Arbeiter-Zeitung appeals to the workers of the food industries, gas and electricity works, and the transport services, as well as the miners, not to strike. Nevertheless, an expansion of the strike to Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia threatened. Starvation was also still regarded as the main problem. Czernin subjected the Emperor to fierce allegations because he had not forced Seidler to establish order. These were the same accusations that had been made against Count Stürgkh. Czernin requested that the Emperor immediately send the Chairman of the Joint Food Committee, General Landwehr, to Kaiser Wilhelm to ask for assis- tance with foodstuffs. At the same time, Czernin argued, they also had to proceed with the utmost determination in Hungary and ruthlessly requisition. The next day, Czernin once more wrote to the Emperor and described the food situation as ‘currently the most important problem in domestic politics, […] since if we do not succeed in preventing the outbreak of famine, all is lost’.2074 For Czernin, the peace negotiations were at stake. It took days before the direction became clearer. The demands for better rations receded considerably and made way for the more causal demands for an end to the war, but also for revolutionisation and the enforcement of workers’ control. In this way, a group became recognisable that stood left of the Social Democrat movement and was to also cause its leadership discomfort. Viktor Adler had refused on 13 January to direct the strike into revolutionary channels.2075 Therefore, it was important for the Social Democrat party leadership to curb the strike and bring it to an end, since uncontrol- lable developments might otherwise occur. On 15 January, unrest was also reported in Kraków (Krakau). The military commands wanted to clamp down, since very many of the enterprises involved in the strike were militarised. Planned walkouts were described as mutiny and the worker-soldiers were threatened with the most severe punishments. As soon as the local strikes developed into a mass industrial action, violence was no longer a means of control.