Page - 286 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

286 chapter 7 reconvenedinDecember1915 inorder topropagate ‘Zimmerwald left’ ideas.24 Thepeace resolutions that themembers of the society submitted to the 1915 and1916partycongressesfoundnosupport.Thesdapleadershiphadnodesire whatsoever todrop itspro-warpolicies. Furthermore, it fearedan increase in the influenceof left-wing agitators onwar-wearyworkers, and that the same fatewhichbefell theGermansisterparty coulddeveloponceagain– that is, that theworkers’movementmight split andthus losestrength.Bauer,whoat the timewasaprisonerofwar inRussia,wrote letters to thesdap leadership inwhichheendorsedthesplit intheGermanworkers’movement,considering itaresultofthedistortedproportionalitybetweenreformistandrevolutionary trends.Hedidnottaketheideologicalandtheoreticalargumentsraginginthe sdapduringthewartimeseriously.Rather,heclaimedthat thepartyhadpre- serveditsrevolutionarycharacter,andthatitsunitywasnotinjeopardy.Hewas only rightonthe latterpoint.Despite itsprotestsagainst theparty leadership and thepatriotic endeavours of the centrist forces behind it, the left didnot wantarepetitionoftheGermanscenario. It fearedthepowerfulrepercussions that therulingapparatusmightunleashagainst theworkers’movement if the latterweresignificantlyweakened. Divergentpositionsonwar, thoughmanifest since itsoutbreak,weremost vociferous at the sdap congress from 19–24October 1917. Otto Bauer, newly released fromapowcamp, tookover the leadershipof theopposition,which numbered 51 out of 283 delegates. Upon his initiative, the opposition intro- duced its own programme, the so-called ‘Declaration of the Left’. Acting as representatives of the class interests of theworkers’movement, the opposi- tionattackedthecoalitionbetweenSocial-Democraticandbourgeoisparties, the sdap’s vote forwar credits, and thenationalismof the party leadership. Itexpeditiouslydemandedtoworktowardsaswiftendtowar.25Notethat the 24 ThesecondZimmerwaldcongress from5–8August 1915 sawsharppolemical exchanges between Lenin’s group of radicals and themoderate reformists under Robert Grimm’s leadership. The draft brought forward by the so-called Zimmerwald left founded by Leninwas rejectedby 19 to 12 votes; yet theadoptedmanifestodemandingunityof the workers’movement todefendpeacewas a serious stepon thepath towardsuniting all socialist forcesagainstthewar.FriedrichAdler, impressedbytheZimmerwaldmanifesto, published an article, ‘Die Internationalen in Österreich and die Internationalen aller Länder’(‘TheAustrianInternationaliststotheInternationalistsofAllCountries’),directed against thepoliticsof thepartyright.SeeHautmann1971,p.22. 25 The ‘Declarationof theLeft’ states: ‘SocialDemocracycanonly fulfil itshistorical task in theclass struggle…Reformismnecessarily leads toministerialism.Wereject everyper- manentalliancewithbourgeoisparties,everyblocpolitics.Westicktotheoldprinciple,