Page - 178 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

178 chapter 5 BaueragreedwithAdler that therewasaneedto transformcapitalist soci- ety at the level of consciousness, thoughhe linked thismoreexplicitly to the democraticrevolutionthanAdlerdid.Thatistosay,hearguedthatconquering theparliamentarymajoritywouldonlybepossibleoncethreeconditionshad beenfulfilled.Firstly,themiddleclassesareenticedtothesocialist ideathanks to SocialDemocracy’s attractive programme for socio-economic transforma- tion. Secondly, there exists a proletarianmass partywith a socialist, yet not necessarilyMarxist,programme,whichsubscribestoapluralistworldview,and which, throughits inclusiveness,unites theworkingclassunderthebannerof SocialDemocracy(thispremisedependedonweakeningtheChristianwingof theworkers’movementandextinguishingCommunistinfluence).Thirdly,tak- ingawaythebourgeoisparties’hegemonyoverthemiddlelayersandassuming intellectual leadershipoverthem.Tobeprecise,Bauerthoughtthatintellectu- ally ‘disarming’ thebourgeoisieanddestroying its ideologicalauthoritywould decideovertheseizureofpowerbytheworkingclass.Thefundamentalroleof ‘educationtowardssocialism’,then,wasnotsomuchtoprepareworkersforthe administrationofworkplaces and local government, but instead to entrench socialist ideals andpatterns in the consciousnessof broad social layers, raise workers’ intellectualandculturallevels,andraisetheirpoliticalconsciousness. Aimingtoabolishthemonopolyofbourgeoiscultureandeducation, it sought toeducatethroughart,music, sportsandself-education.20Thismodelof ‘edu- cationtowardssocialism’was,accordingtoBauer,ameansfortheproletariatto gainculturalhegemony,whichinturnwasarevolutionaryfactor.Theconcept of ‘cultural hegemony’ inBauer’smodelwas close to that ofGramsci, even if theyhadarrived at their conclusions independently andhadpolitical differ- ences. Gramsci’s revolutionary theory foregrounded the role of cultural and ideological phenomena and educational activity, whichwould ideologically unifysociety.Hearguedthatthiswasthebasis formergingsociety’seconomic andpoliticalstructures. IdeologicalquestionswereimportantforGramsci,yet 20 Weidenholzer states thatAustromarxist educational theory focusedon the following: a rejectionofneutral education, a subordinationofeducation to the interestsof theclass struggle,anupbringing insolidarity,politicalactivity,andintellectualism.From1904–10, about 1,500 lectureswere given in the ‘workers’ university’,whichhadbeenestablished uponthesuggestionof theeducational society,DieZukunft.The lecturers includedMax Adler,Bauer,Renner,FritzWinterandAdolfBraun.Thecurriculumof the two-semester course (256 lessons) contained general political and social theory, political economy, Austrianlaw,andthehistoryofsocialism.In1926,thepartyschool,establishedonBauer’s initiative, tookover the tasksof the ‘workers’ university’. SeeWeidenholzer 1981,pp. 54– 69.