Page - XIII - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

IntroductiontotheEnglishEdition Letus foramomentgobackto thehistoryof the 1960sand1970s leftist social movement.Thoseyears revealedaprofoundcrisisof ideologicalandpolitical values–acrisis thatdeeplyaffected theexponentsofWestEuropean radical Social-Democratic groups, liberalising Eurocommunist factions of the Com- munistmovement, andEuropeanandAmerican leftist intellectuals. It found expression in the growing strength of various endeavours: First, critiques of theprogrammaticlineofSocial-DemocraticParties–suchastheireclecticism, ideologyof the ‘people’s party’, lackof revolutionary theory, and statemono- poly capitalism–anddemands for structural reforms towards internal party democracy.1Second,theEurocommunists’attempttoadjustsocialist ideology to the needs of themodern industrial state.2 Third, the appearance of intel- lectualsandgroupsof radicalyouthunderthebannerof the ‘newleft’, casting doubtover the theoretical,methodological, and ideological valueofMarxism anditspracticalconsequences,suchastheprinciplesofpartyorganisationand formingalliances.Thesemovementsdemandedthetransformationofsocieties throughtheir ideologicalandcultural realms.3 1 See juso-jahrbuch1968–69,Bonn1970,p.41,andHandbuchfürdieJungsozialistenarbeit,Bonn 1971,p. iii/1. 2 Theexpression ‘Eurocommunism’was first usedby theYugoslavian journalist, FranceBar- bieri, in 1975, and shortly after by the Italian journalist, Arrigo Levi, and by the Catholic philosopher,AugustoDelNoche. The Italian, Spanish, French, Swedish, British, andGreek CommunistpartieswereeventuallydominatedbytheEurocommunist trend,aswere–not entirelylogicallyduetotheirgeographicallocations–theJapaneseandAustralianCommun- ist parties. The tendency,whose adherentswere ideologically rather thanorganisationally linked,wascharacterisedby itsopenapproach towardsMarxismandother ideological ori- entations, its critical attitude towards theSovietmodel of socialismand theLeninist party concept, itsdemandforautonomyandequalityofCommunistparties,anditspostulates for ademocraticpathtosocialismandapluralist-democraticmodelofsocialismineconomyand politics.CompareLeonhard1980. 3 Originally,the‘newleft’representedanintellectualcurrent.Itemergedattheturnofthe1950s and1960smainlyamongacademics(philosophers, sociologists,andeconomists),publicists, andwriters drawingonneo-Marxism, existentialism, and social psychoanalysis.Under the influenceofthestudentprotestsandFrench‘gauchism’of1968,ittransformedintoapolitical movement.Representativesofthe‘newleft’ included,amongothers,C.WrightMills,Herbert Marcuse,WilhelmReich, andTheodoreRoszak in theUnitedStates,AndréGorz, Jean-Paul Sartre,PaulSweezy,CharlesBettelheim,andErnestMandel inFrance,OskarNegtandRudi DutschkeinWestGermany,andRossanaRossandainItaly.Thestrengthsofthenewleftwere