Page - 39 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

otto bauer andhis time 39 in state enterprises on 23November 1933 and theArbeiterkammer (workers’ chamber)inDecember1933,followedbythedissolutionofthelatteron27June 1938. The solutions offered by Bauer and his comrades during this year, which wassodecisive for theAustrianworkers’movement,didnotmeet theexpect- ations of partymembers and sympathisers.While theworking class staged spontaneousdemonstrations toprotestagainst thedissolutionofparliament, theparty leadership couldnot agreeonproclaiminga general strike.At that time, the sdapwasbigger than theSocialDemocraticPartyofGermany,had greatersocialweight,hadpreserveditsunity,anddidnothavetoconsiderthe influenceofthekpö.Theonlyobjective justificationforthepoliticalpassivity of its leadershipwas the fact that the sdap’s electoral support basewas con- centrated inVienna,LowerAustriaandStyria since industrial areas,unlike in Germany,weredispersedacrosstheentirecountry.Provincesaverse,evenact- ivelyhostile,tothesocialistssurroundedtheseterritories.Evenso,theworking classwasmore internally consolidatedandbetter armed inMarch 1933 than wouldbe the case a year later, asBauer confirmed inDerAufstandderöster- reichischenArbeiter (TheUprisingof theWorkersofAustria, 1934). Indeed, 1934 sawworkers buildbarricades in anact of desperation to save the remains of a dying democracy. The fall of democracywas largely due to political rather thaneconomic factors.Amongthemwereaweakparliamentarypractice, the ossification and bureaucratisation of political parties, offers of co-operation being rejected, the personal charisma of politicians of an authoritarian pro- clivity, the sdap leadership’s erratic assessmentof possibilities to evoke sup- port from themiddle classes, thepolitical ambitions of the church, and, not least, theSocialDemocrats’ excessivewillingness tocompromise, a tendency whichdominatedinBauer’spositions.In1933,hefoughtforacoalitiongovern- ment,andinordertoachievesuchco-operation,heevenamendedhisofficial, if not actual, position concerningAnschluss. Bauer’s suggestion to theChris- tianSocialPartytowageacommonstruggleagainst fascisminMarch1933led todiscordwithin thesdap.89Dollfuss rejected theoffer, yet thisdidnot stop Bauer frombelieving in thepotential of anunderstandinguntil January 1934 andattemptingtoconvincethechancellorofco-operation–hewasprepared 89 AsButterweggestates, theautumnof1933sawtheformationofapartyist left for thefirst timesincetheendofthewar.UndertheleadershipofErnstFischerandLudwigWagner,it criticisedwhat it regardedas ‘Austromarxist fatalism’,defensivemethodsofstruggle, fear of foreign interventionandcompromisewith the government.At the sdapcongress in 1933,theleftwasaminority. Itdroppeditsresolution,whichcalledforactivestruggle,not least inordertopreservepartyunity.SeeButterwegge1990,pp.463–5.