Page - 149 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the national question 149 fromitwhere the limitsof federalismendedandcentralauthoritybegan.68 It wasassumedthat theworkingclass,whichwasnumerically thestrongestand enjoyeduniversalsuffrage,wouldautomaticallysecurethedecisivevoteinthe administrativebodies.Theelectoralsystematthetime,whichunambiguously privileged the propertied classes,made politics in the interests of thework- ing class impossible from the outset. The programme envisioned amodern bourgeois state based on democratic foundations. Commenting on it, Kule- mannrightlynotesthatitmisconceivedthelinkbetweenthenationalquestion andthestruggle for socialism.69 It iseasy toexplainwhythatwas thecase: as mentionedearlier,manySocialDemocrats failed toacknowledgeprogressive aspectsofnational liberationstruggles.Therefore, theydidnotestablishalink betweennationalandsocialrevolutions.Moreover,theprojectofnationaland culturalautonomydidnotimplythatfully independentcentresofstatepower would be established. Rather, the intentionwas to appoint national organs of self-administrationwith taskswithin thespheresofcultureandeducation. Hence,workers’ struggles in the respective countrieswereunderstoodnot as attempts to seize political power, but as struggles for access to the cultural sphereagainst thenationalbourgeoisie.Mommsenwrites: ‘Thisnationalcon- sciousnesswasinessenceapolitical,notstate-oriented’.70Thesituationwas,as itwere,aclosedcircle:Austria-Hungarywasapatchworkofmanynationsheld togetherbytheemperor, imperialcourt,statepowerandarmy.Giventhisstate ofaffairs, realbonds to linkpeoples thatdidnot identifywith thestatecould onlybecreatedataculturallevel.Historyprovedthatthiswastooweakafactor inthefaceofAustrianrealitiestopreserveculturaltiesthroughthestateorsave thesocialistmovementfromsplitting. NeitherthetwodraftsintroducedinBernnorthesuggestedsolutionbecame reality.Meanwhile, the Slavic peoples of Austria far from relinquished their struggle for equal rights and separation.Contemporarypolitical events, such as theRussianrevolutionof 1905andtheannexationofBosniaandHerzegov- ina, onlyaggravated the situation.TheCzechs refused togiveup their efforts forequal languagerights inpublicoffices, schools fornationalminorities,and the right toappoint theirownrepresentatives in thestatecouncil.71 Theydid 68 SeeMommsen1963,p. 107. 69 SeeKulemann1979,p.124.ThePolishandUkrainiansocialists,whoregardedthesuggested solution as a regression towards positions predating theHainfeld period, opposed the Bernprogramme. 70 Mommsen1963,p.317. 71 In1905,CzechandGerman-AustrianSocialDemocrats stoodseparately for statecouncil electionsforthefirst time.