Page - 198 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

198 chapter 5 Bauer’sposition intheargumentondictatorshipwas less thanclear.When protestingagainstAdler’ssuggestiontointegratethedemandforaproletarian dictatorship into theprogramme,hearguedthat ‘oneshouldnot try to tellus thatdictatorshipand terrorismare twoentirelydifferent things’.73Appealing toEngels’s renownedcritiqueof theErfurtprogrammeof 1891,heemphasised that democracy and dictatorship were not opposites in principle, yet they hadbecomeopposites due toBolshevik political practice (we shall assess to whatextenthebelievedinthisstatement later). Inanycase, thedebateabout termswas secondary for Bauer – hewas farmore preoccupiedwith finding a compromise thatwouldunite the right and leftwings of theparty. Byway of suchacompromise, he confinedhimself to stating that in the transitional phase between capitalism and socialism, the proletarian dictatorship ought toassumethe formofadictatorshipofallworkingpeople, i.e. the ruleof the workingmajorityoverthebourgeoisie,exerciseddemocratically. Whenarguingagainst theuseof force,Bauerremindedtheparty leftof the RussianCivilWar.Forhim, theonly legitimate formofviolencewasdefensive violence to protect the democratic foundations of the state.74 The reasons as towhyhe demanded that the rhetoric of ‘defensive violence’ be adopted into the programme were, firstly, his desire to reconcile the two opposing positionssoastonotjeopardisepartyunity.Secondly,hefearedtheriseofanti- democraticforceswhich,infact,hadbeguntoundermineAustriandemocracy since 1923.75 The phrase ‘defensive violence’ communicated that the party wouldnotabandonthestruggleforstatepowerduringpeacefulperiods–and if thebourgeoisparties attackeddemocracy, itwould introduceaproletarian dictatorship.76 The formula justified the use of force only for the case that the bourgeois government jeopardised the reformist road. Dictatorshipwas 73 Seesdap1926inDocuments,Programmes,Protocols,p.271. 74 KarlPopperalsoespousedthisview.SeePopper1945,p. 152. 75 VolpiandPfabiganpointedoutthat theformulaof ‘defensiveviolence’hadbeenpresent inBauer’swork longbefore thepartycongressofLinz.AccordingtoVolpi, itwasalready implicitinhistext, ‘DieGrundfrageunsererTaktik’(‘TheFundamentalQuestionConcern- ingOurTactics’)and,accordingtoPfabigan, inhis 1920polemicagainstBolshevism.See Bauer1913;Volpi 1977,p. 184;Pfabigan1985,p.46. 76 The programme contained the following statement: ‘But if the bourgeoisie resists the social transformation thatwill be the taskof theworking class throughplanned sabot- ageofeconomiclife,violentinsurgency,orconspiracywithforeigncounter-revolutionary forces, then theworking classwouldbe compelled tobreak the resistanceof thebour- geoisiebymeansofdictatorship’–seesdap1926,p.176.TheenemiesofSocialDemocracy oftencitedthissentenceintheirpoliticalpropaganda.