Page - 279 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the question ofwar in bauer’s thought 279 As lateas 1907, thesdap leadershipdidnotdeemitnecessary todraft aplan forwar prevention, despite the fact that theAustrian government hadbeen preparingto invadeSerbia forsometime.Nordid it fully fathomthemechan- isms that theAustrianworkers’ party coulduse toprevent theannexationof Bosnia andHerzegovina.On theonehand, theparty leaderswereunable to win thenationalmovements to the fight against the ruling classes andmon- archy. On the other, they were increasingly reluctant to engage in protests againstthegovernment.TheyrejecteddemandsmadeatSecondInternational congresses todisseminateanti-warpropagandaamongst thearmedforces, as well as othermeasures that could have weakened the influence of militar- isticideas.Moreimportantly,though,theparty’sattitudetowardtheHabsburg monarchy’s imperialist policieswas ambivalent in form. True enough, Bauer andRennerattacked imperialist aggression in their speeches inparliament– yet themajorityof theGerman-AustrianSocial-Democraticmovement firmly believed inAustria’s culturalmission in the Balkans. At the 1910 congress in Copenhagen,theAustriandelegatesdidnotformaunitedfrontonthequestion ofmilitarism,evenastheconflict intheBalkansdrewprecariouslyclose.Ren- nerput forwardamotiononbehalfof theAustriansection,calling forgeneral disarmament, thecreationof internationalarbitrationcourts, andthepublic- ation of secret pacts between parties.5 However, this did notmean that the AustrianSocialDemocratswerepreparedtosubordinatenational interests to theinterestsof theinternationalproletariat.Theirrefusal torally forageneral strike in the caseofwarwas symptomatic of this.6 TheAustrian leadership’s onlyresponsetothewarwasanappealpassedbytheexecutivecommitteeon 15October 1912,whichput forwardtheslogan, ‘NointerventionintheBalkans war!TheBalkansfortheBalkanspeople!Maintainpeace!’asasloganofthepro- letariat, thus leaving theweightof responsibility toTsarismandinternational imperialism.7TheBalkanpeoples’ righttoself-determinationwasacontrover- sial question, given that thesewerenothistoricalnations, and thereforehad, according toMarxistdogma,noright toexist independently.Thedemandfor preservingpeaceintheBalkanswasnotgroundedinanyefficientwarpreven- 5 SeeInternationalSocialistCongress inCopenhagen, inDocuments,Programmes,Protocols, p. 104. Renner’s demands were an arsenal ofmeasures typical of bourgeois pacifist ideo- logy. 6 The Frenchdelegation issued to call a strike. TheAustrian,German, and Italian delegates argued that calling a general strike would give the party an illegal character and lead to heavy repercussions. See International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen, in Documents, Programmes,Protocols,p. 104. 7 Seespd1912,pp. 107–24.