Page - 270 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

270 chapter 6 did anyof themwish for thedivisionof state power to remain apermanent condition.Not somuch the intentionor ideological orientationof theparty, but the real social and political circumstance was decisive. The bourgeois parties couldhave formedtheirowngovernment,but theycapitulated in the face of revolutionary threat. Similarly, itwouldhavebeen impossible for the SocialDemocrats to formagovernmentontheirown,given theanti-socialist resistanceintheregions.Thenecessityofcoalition,then,wastheresultofcool calculation: just as theChristian Socials couldnot have governedViennaon theirown,sotheSocialDemocratscouldnothaveruledallofAustriawithout ChristianSocialsupport. Asfarasthesocialistswereconcerned,thecoalitiongovernmentembodied the first stageof revolution,althoughthisconvictionhadmoretodowith the expectations theyattached to thecoalition than theactual results. Itsobject- iveswere to consolidate the state and implement reforms in the interest of broadsocial layers. Inpractice, thecoalitionwasactive in threeareas: consti- tutional, socio-economic, and foreignaffairs.Aside fromlegislative issues, its policieshad little todowithsocialist aims.Especially fromthesecondhalfof 1919onward,whenthebourgeoisblocnolongerfeltthreatenedbythedomestic situationandbrazenlybegantoconsolidateitspower,Bauer’spropheticwords of1907hadcometrueasfarastheworkingmasseswereconcerned.Backthen, hehadargued: If the SocialDemocraticmovement…onemoment [joins] forceswith thisandthenextmomentwiththatpoliticalgroup,perhapsevenforming a part of the governmental majority and participating in government itself … it appears itself to be an institution of the capitalist state; it sharesresponsibility…forallthemiseryandexploitationenduredbythe workingpeople incapitalistsociety.39 During theautumnof 1919, thesara factiondefended theworkerswhowere dissatisfiedwiththepoliticaldirectioninwhichthesdapleadershipwashead- ing. It demandedmore radicalmeasures,morepower to the leftwingof the sdap,andthatthepartyleavethecoalition.On14September1920,JosephFrey commentedduringthemeetingoftheViennasdapexecutive: for us all, yet for themoment, it is a necessity nonetheless’ – quoted inReimann 1968, p.335. 39 Bauer1996,pp.445–6.