Page - 204 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

204 chapter 5 Theconceptof ‘integralsocialism’essentiallycamedowntotheideaofunit- ingthetwomaintendenciesof theworkers’movement inthestruggleagainst counter-revolutionaryandfascistforces.Thisunitmustassembleunderaban- nerofdefendingmutuallyacceptedvalues. Itwasintendedasaprocessofdia- logueandmutual learningcurvetomitigateantagonismsbetweenthereform- ist andCommunistwings andprepare theworking class forunitedaction in thecaseofwar.Bauerattached furtherhopes to it: that theSocialDemocrats recognisethelimitsofreformistsocialismandtheCommunistslearntoappre- ciatedemocratic values. Inaddition,hehoped that terror inRussiawouldbe reducedanddemocraticprinciplesofsocialcoexistenceintroducedasaneffect ofhisidea.Bauerfirmlybelievedthathissuggestioncouldbeputintopractice. As an example, he cited the collaboration between socialists andCommun- ists in France, althoughhedepreciated the difference between the situation inAustria and that in a countrywhere two legal political parties engaged in commonactivitiesunderconditionsofparliamentarydemocracy.Forthesake of precision, one should add that, irrespective of his long-termperspectives, Bauer linkedmore humble practical goals to his concept: hewanted towin communistparties thathaddistancedthemselves fromthedogmatismof the CommunistInternationaltotheSocialDemocrats.Thesuggestioncontainedin histheoryof‘integralsocialism’todissolvesmallcommunistpartiesinthewest so itsmembersmightbolster theranksof theSocial-Democraticmassparties isevidenceofthis.However,hishopeprovedmisguided.TojustifyBauer’sstra- tegic concept, it is important to state thathedevised ithalf a yearbefore the MoscowTrials.ThesetrialsextinguishedanyhopefortheunificationofSocial DemocratsandCommunists forgood. What did Bauer’s programme of ‘integral socialism’ actually represent? Moreover, was its glorification by researchers from Bremen University and Eurocommunist theorists in the 1970s–80s, who considered it a premise for potentialcollaborationbetweencontemporaryCommunistsandsocialdemo- crats,justified?In1984,ErnstWimmer,amemberandtheoristoftheCommun- istPartyofAustria, arguedthat itembodiedtheoldAustrian ideaofworking- classunity.89However, its content, value, andpolitical usefulnesswereweak. Thereasonwhyitwassopopularbefore the fallof reallyexistingsocialismin theEasternBlocstates is that leftsocialistshadnotworkedouttheirownpro- grammeforco-operationwiththeCommunists. 89 SeeWimmer1984,p.4.