Page - 36 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

36 chapter 1 agreedonwastheirnegativeassessmentof fascismasacounter-revolutionary andanti-democraticmovement.However, theirviewsonpotentialanti-fascist strategieswerewildlydivergent.Rennermerelyconsideredacoalitionwiththe ChristianSocials,underestimatingboththepoweroftheorganisationandthe intrinsically different interests it represented. Bauer solicited for a ‘wait and see’policy,whileMaxAdlerarguedforviolentmeasures,amobilisationofthe revolutionary forces of the proletariat and co-operationwith the Commun- ists.Howeverparadoxical thismaysound,groupsonthecentreandleftof the ChristianSocialPartyhadamorerealisticviewofthedangerposedbyAustria’s fascisisationthandidthesdap. Thedangerofa fascist victory inAustriawasmademoreacuteby theeco- nomicandpoliticalconsequencesoftheworldcrisisfrom1929–31.IthitAustria particularlyhard:industrialproductionfellby39percentcomparedtothepre- vious year (and by 47 percent by 1934), while foreign trade decreased by 47 percent.Thedebtofdomesticindustriesroseduetogovernmentinvestmentin internationalbankcreditintheBalkans,whichonlyexacerbatedtheeconomic crisis.Thecritical situationof thebanksreacheditspeakwiththebankruptcy ofAustria’s largestbank, theCreditanstalt, on 16 June 1931. Theworkingclass washit thehardestby the fall of real incomeby30percentandriseofunem- ployment by 25 percent (44.5 percent among industrial workers) compared to the years 1924–8.83 Young peoplewere pushed into a particularly desper- atesituation.84From1929–36,BauerwastheonlySocial-Democraticpolitician to investigate theeconomiccrisis.Hemadeaneffort toexplain thecausesof crisis and analyse its consequences for different economic groups. Based on hisstudiesofthedevelopmentofcapitalismafterthewar,Bauerauthoredtwo works,Kapitalismus und Sozialismus nach demWeltkrieg. Bd. i Rationalisier- ung–Fehlrationalisierung (CapitalismandSocialismaftertheWorldWar,Vol. 1: Rationalisation–MistakenRationalisation, 1931)andZwischenzweiWeltkriegen (BetweenTwoWorldWars, 1936), the latterofwhichwaspublishedduringhis emigration toBratislava. In these twostudies,Bauer illustrated the impactof thedevelopmentofproductive forcesandrelationsofproductiononthepro- cessofcapitalandconcentrationofagriculture.Herecognisedtheaftereffects of thesechanges, i.e. thesocialdynamicswithinorganisedcapitalism. 83 CompareMaderthaner2004,p.61. 84 In1918afterthefallofthemonarchy,German-speakingpublicservantsandteacherswho returned toAustria filled the ranks of the unemployed, as the situation of themiddle classes grewworse. TheFirstRepublic sawaconsistent rise of theunemployment rate: 160,000 in 1923; 276,000 in 1927; 500,000 in 1930–1; 770,000 in 1934. See Löw,Mattl and Pfabigan1986,p.32.