Page - 194 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

194 chapter 5 impact on the course of events, as did the consolidationof thepolitical and economicpositionofthebourgeoisie inthewholeofEuropeandRussia.After 15June1919, therevolutionarywavedieddowninthewakeofmassarrestsand risingdeathtollsatstreetprotests.Afterthesuppressionofastrikebythepolice on21July1919,arevolutionarytakeoverbytheproletariatofAustriawasoutof thequestion. 2 TheTheoryofSocialUpheavalDuringthePost-Revolutionary Period 2.1 TheProgrammeofLinz SincetherulingclasshaddestroyedthedemocraticfoundationsoftheRepub- lic, theprogrammesofHainfeldandViennawererenderedobsolete.Thesdap leadership saw itself forced to arrive at new ideological, programmatic and tacticalprinciples tomeet theconditionsof struggle for socialismduring the period of fascisisation. Thesewere formulated at the party congress in Linz from 30 October–3 November 1926 and remained valid in Austrian Social Democracyuntil 1958. Thenewprogramme, commonly referred toas a ‘clas- sical document of Austromarxism’, went down in history as Bauer’s pro- gramme– after all, he had played a decisive role at the party congress. The programmeof Linz also becameknownas aprogramme for power:more so than the programmes that had gonebefore, it prioritised the prognosis that theproletariatwouldseizestatepowersoonandwithabsolutecertainty.This wasbasedonthesdapleadership’sdelusionthattheworkingclasswouldrap- idly acquire a parliamentarymajority through the adopted tactics. The only realnovelty intheprogrammewasthe introductionofa formulaaccordingto whichtheproletariatwouldapply‘defensiveviolence’ifdemocracywereunder threat fromreactionaryforces. The authors of this programmeaimed to outline a clear strategy of party activityfortheworkers,hopingthiswouldstrengthentheirclassconsciousness andwinalliesofsocialismamongpeasants,officials,andtheprogressiveintel- ligentsia.Thethesisofsocialismasahistoricalnecessitywaspushedtotherear, andinstead,emphasisshiftedtocoursesofaction.65Twoprimary issuesarose fromthesetactics:howwouldtheworkingclasstakeandmaintainpower,and 65 The neatly composed programme, 17 pages in length, begins with an analysis of the developmentof capitalismduring thepostwarperiod. Basedon this analysis, it devises the goals andmethods of theproletarian struggle against the capitalist state order, the road to seizing statepowerby theworkingclass, the transitional forms fromcapitalism