Page - 281 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the question ofwar in bauer’s thought 281 dogmaswastheirbeliefthatthemasseswouldspontaneouslyjumpintoaction if class contradictions intensified, aswell as their hope for the international solidarityofworkers.Thelatterwasbasedonthenotionthattheinterestsofthe workingclassasawholewerestrongerthanthecommonnational interestsof differentclasses.14Theseandotherbasic ideologicalandtheoreticalpremises ofMarxismwere fertilegroundforoneof thegravest illusionsof theworkers’ movement – that is, thenotion that the Second International couldprevent war.Oneof the fewsocialists to recognise thediscrepancies betweenSocial- DemocratictheoryandpracticewasMaxAdler,whoin1915wrote: That iswhy the International did not actually fail. Thewar onlymade apparent that it did, in fact, not yet exist, that it hadnoexistenceaside frombeingamereideologyoftheproletariat,anobledesirewithoutany guaranteeof fulfilment.15 ourtranslation The war clearly exposed themiscalculations ofMarx’s theory on historical materialism.Forone, itrevealedthelimitsofsociety’sclassstructures,demon- strating that national, political, and cultural cross-class bonds played a far greater role inpolitics thanclass ties.What ismore, it proved that social and politicalinterestsarenotclearlydeterminedbyeconomicmatters.Tonolesser degree,cross-classinterestswithincommunitiesstemfromtheirvariouspolit- icalandnationalhistories.Legaladvantagesofferedbythestateplayedadom- inant role. That is precisely why the Social-Democratic parties of Germany, FranceandBritainadvocated, in spiteof thearrangementsmadeat the con- gresses of the Second International, a politics of ‘defending the fatherland’. The Social-Democratic Party of Germanywas the first to vote for war cred- its, arguing that democracy andWestern culturehad tobedefendedagainst the totalitarianismofTsarism.TheotherSocial-DemocraticpartiesofEurope also took the side of their respective governments, amove decisively influ- encedby thenationalistmoodof themasses.16Consistentwith their politics 14 CompareLeser1968,p.266. 15 ‘Die Internationale hat darumeigentlich auch gar nicht versagt, sondernderKrieg hat nuroffenbargemacht,dass sieüberhauptnochgarnichtbestandenhatte,dass sienoch keineandereExistenzführtealsdieeinerbloßenIdeologiedesProletariats,alseinesedlen WunschesohneirgendwelcherealeGarantieseinerErfüllung’–Adler1915b,p.47. 16 Thewar cabinetsboastedwell-knownsocialists, e.g. EmileVandervelde inBelgiumand JulesGuesdeandMarcelSembatinFrance.Thedecisiontojointhewarwassupportedby HenryHyndmanandErnestBelfortBaxinBritainandPlekhanovinRussia.