Page - 208 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

208 chapter 5 instead adhered to the same connotation that the president of the Belgian Labour Party, EmileVandervelde, had ascribed to the termat the endof the nineteenth century: it denoted a process by which workers’ organisations, suchas co-operatives and tradeunions,wouldgradually supersedecapitalist institutions.Marx’s concept requireda radical change in thebalanceof class forcesinthecapitaliststateanditsreplacementbyasocialiststate.TheSocial- Democraticproject, incontrast, impliedeconomicandpoliticalmodifications of social life thatwould leavecapitalist class relations intact. In themindsof SocialDemocrats, lawsand regulations for socialisation representedanearly stageof full socialisationandwereprefigurativeof revolutionary solutions. It iseasytoseethatthistypeof ‘socialisation’wascloselyrelatedtothenotionof ‘growingintosocialism’andhadmuchincommonwiththepracticeofreform- ism. Theappeal, ‘socialisationisthesloganoftheday’,becameincreasinglypop- ular inAustriaafter thepublicationofapamphletbyArbeiter-Zeitungeditor, AlexanderTäubler.92On14March 1919,parliamentpasseda lawoncommen- cing thepreparations for socialisation: industrial enterprises sufficiently ripe for socialisationwere tobe socialisedby the state, federal ormunicipal gov- ernment.Asanaside,socialisationaccordingtothis lawwastheresponsibility of thegovernment–hencebourgeois forceswereable to sabotage it fromits infancy. In order to implement the law, a national socialisation commission withBaueratthehelmwassetup.93Theelectionresultsof16February1919,the nationalconferenceofworkers’andsoldiers’councilson1March1919,andthe numerical growthof theCommunist Party all helped tohasten the socialisa- tionproject.Theseeventsall testifiedtotheradicalmoodamongtheworking masses.Inthespringof1919,thebourgeoisblocassumedaconciliatoryattitude towardthesocialisationprogramme–evidently,itfearedthatanyresistanceon itspartmightescalatesocialupheavals. Bauer took upon himself the task of drafting a socialisation programme. As early as January 1919, he outlined the central ideas of the socialisation 92 SeeTäubler 1919.CompareAlbers1979,p.32. 93 The commission largely consisted of politicians rather than economic experts, which would have negatively affected the content and practice of socialisation. Among their memberswere fivenationalassemblyrepresentatives, twodelegates fromthesdap, two fromtheChristianSocials,andonefromtheGreaterGermans.Asocialisationcommission had been convened in Germany prior to that, yet the German Social Democrats and government were unable to work out a clear socialisation programme. In contrast to Austria, the socialisation programme in Germanymainly interested the Independent SocialDemocraticPartyofGermany(uspd).