Page - 238 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

238 chapter 5 Soviet tradeunions in 1925, theCominternexecutive committee’s call on the lsi toengage inunited frontaction toprotect theChinese revolution in 1925, andtheBritishLabourParty’s1926suggestiontoenterintonegotiationsregard- ingunificationwith theComintern. Itwasalso symptomatic thathe, asAus- trian foreignminister,didnot takeupdiplomatic relationswithMoscowand, furthermore,warnedAustrian trade-uniondelegates travelling toMoscow in 1926nottoco-operatewiththeCommunists.160Actually,Bauerwasundecided about thepolitical andsocialprocesses in theussr.Aschairof the ‘commit- teeagainst thedangerofwar in theEast’ at theMarseilles congress,hecalled upondelegates to reject ademandmadebyKautskyand theGeorgianSocial Revolutionaries that the lsi support spontaneous national uprisings in the ussr; heargued that theparty shouldnot intervene in the internal affairs of theSoviet republic.At the samecongress, hecriticisedBolshevikendeavours togaincontrolof revolutionarymovements inAsiaanduse themto triggera worldwar thatwould realise theCommunists’ desire forworld revolution.161 The question arises as towhy relations between theAustrian socialists and theussrwere so tense. Bauer expected twooutcomes: first, the swift demo- cratisationof theSoviet system; second, theComintern’s recognition that the Social-Democraticpartytypewasthemostdesirablemodel fororganisingthe working class under conditions of advanced capitalism, and its programmes theonlyvalidstrategyforaction.However, in lightof theThirdInternational’s challengingattacksagainsttheLabourandSocialistInternational,andbecause ofpermanentmutualcriticism,co-operationbetweenthetwogroupswasout of thequestionfromtheoutset. 4.3 APragmaticPerspective:Stalinism Attheendofthe1920s, thepoliticsof JosephStalinchangedsignificantly.This turnhadbeenprecededbyaconflictof interestsbetween industrialworkers, thepettypeasantry, andkulaks, aswell asdisputes and factional struggles in theCommunistPartyleadershipfrom1925onward.Thesewerecentredontwo aspects: the possibility of building socialism in an isolated country and the questionofpeasants,whohadbecomerichduetotheNewEconomicPolicy.162 160 The delegation stayed in Russia from 28 January–1 April 1926. In this time, it visited Minsk,Moscow, Leningrad andCharkov, and reported to the shop stewardmeeting in Viennaon17April.Atthetime,Bauerwasambiguous.Ontheonehand,herecommended drawing lessons fromtheRussianexperience,andontheother,hesharplycriticised the Communistregime.SeeBöröcz1985,p.37. 161 SeeBauer1980p,p. 101. 162 Astotheformerconcern, twotrendsemergedintheCommunistParty.Stalin,Bukharin,