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

xvi introduction to the english edition did they criticiseLeser’smethodof illuminating facts, they also accusedhim of a gross subjectivism and personal animosity towards Bauer. In addition, twoworksglorifying the leadersof thepre-warsdap further ignitedtheargu- mentaboutAustromarxism’s legacy:ViktorReimann’sZugross fürÖsterreich. SeipelundBauerimKampfumdieersteRepublik(TooBigForAustria.Seipeland BauerintheStrugglefortheFirstRepublic, 1968)andOttoLeichter’sOttoBauer. Tragödie oder Triumph (Otto Bauer. Tragedy or Triumph, 1970). The ultimate fruits of this debatewere the 1975–80publicationofBauer’s collectedworks, around300 tomesandarticlesdedicated to this current’s theoryandpractice written from1970–2014byAustrian,German, Italian, French,American,Rus- sian,YugoslavianandPolishauthors,numerousinternationalconferencesand seminars, andadiscussiononthecontinuedrelevanceofBauer’sprogramme conductedinthepagesofthesocialistpress.7Inthe1970s,journalssuchasProb- lemidelsocialismoandMondoperaio, forinstance,publishedwritingsbyItalian CommunistPartymembersdrawingparallels between theWeimarRepublic, theFirstRepublic inGermany, and thecontemporary socio-political crisis in Italy; theauthors attempted to findconvergentpositionsbetweenBauer and AntonioGramsci.8Inlightofaparty-internalcrisis,thestudentmovement,cri- ticismfromtheYoungSocialists inthespdandattacks fromthe ‘newleft’, the WestGermansocialistsrevisedtheformoftheiroldideologicalsuperstructure, appealing to theexperienceof ‘redVienna’. The socialist left,mainly inWest Germany,Austria,andItaly, lookedtotheAustromarxists’workstofindabase for theconceptof socialdemocracy, the theoryof thebalanceof class forces, and justifications for thedissimilar economic structures inhighly developed countries and the ussr andAsian countries. Note that Austromarxism also 7 Therewere the following events andpublications, amongothers: a 1976Berlin conference organised by left socialists from Bremen University, Detlev Albers, Volker Gransow and MichaelKrätke, concerning strategic premises for theWestGermanworkers’movement– with respect to social partnership, the conferenceharkedback toBauer’s proposals; three conferencesonOttoBauerinViennain1978,1979,and1981;a1982seminarentitled‘Nostalgia orAustromarxist renaissance’ in Paris; celebrations of Bauer’s 100th birthday in Budapest; a 1984 conference onOtto Bauer’s andAustromarxism’s contribution to the development of democratic socialist theory and practice, organised on the initiative ofHorstHeimann andThomasMeyer, editorsofZeitschrift fürsozialistischePolitikundWirtschaft ( Journal for SocialistPoliticsandEconomy). Forextensiveassessmentsof the receptionofBauer’sworks andactions,seeButterwegge1990,pp.17–31;Saage2009,pp.59–62;andHanisch2011,pp.387– 93. 8 AcollectionofAustromarxisttexts,editedbyMarramaoandintroducedbyMozetič,metwith vividinterest intheEurocommunistcamp.