Page - 290 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

290 chapter 7 thecountryagainstapotential invasionimpossible.Concretely,hefearedthat FrenchandBritish troopsmightpotentiallymarch throughGerman territory inawaragainstRussia. AsanadvocateofthepreservationofGermany,Bauergaveaspeechentitled ‘The situation inGermanyandcentralEuropeand theworkingclass struggle for democracy’ at the 1931 congress of theLabour andSocialist International inVienna, inwhichdelegates from32 countries participated. In his analysis of the crisis inGermany, he cautioned that itwould lead to the rise ofNazis andCommunists in thestate–asbothgroups intendedtodestroy thedemo- craticfoundationsoftheWeimarRepublic,provokeacivilwar,andintroducea dictatorship.BauerdemandedthattheWesterncountriesgrantcreditstoGer- manyandannulherwardebt inorder toprevent the latterbecoming reality. ThemajorityoftheViennacongressadoptedaresolutionbasedonBauer’ssug- gestions. By then, however, theGerman Social Democrats had already been losing votestotheNationalSocialistssince1931.Therewerenoforcesleftwithwhom theycouldhavealliedinordertodefenddemocracy,consideringthattheCom- munistswerearch-enemiesofSocialDemocracyatthetime.Hence, theysup- portedthebourgeoisgovernmentasa ‘lesserevil’.WhenAdolfHitlerassumed thepost of chancellor on30 January 1933, theWeimarRepublicwas still in a deepsleep.Hitler’sreprisalsandbanonthespd,theleadingpartyoftheLabour andSocialistInternational,reinforcedfearsstirringinthesocialistcampofthe fascistperil. In lightof thedisagreementas to themeasures that theworking class should instigate in the case of war, the lsi convened an international socialist congress in Paris from 21–5 August 1933. Bauer, one of the leading speakers,pointedoutthattheNazis’ seizureofpowerbyconstitutionalmeans hadshatteredthemasses’ faithinthebourgeoisdemocraticsystem.Inhisres- olutionentitled‘StrategyandTacticsoftheInternationalWorkers’Movement’, he recommended that the Social-Democratic parties employdifferentmeth- odsofstruggleagainstreactiondependingontheconditionsineachrespective country.29 In fascist countries, theworking class should organise revolution- ary uprisings to bring down the regimes and introduce socialist democracy. Inbourgeoisdemocraticcountries, it shouldpreservetheexistingdemocratic liberties by expanding political democracy. The adoption of the resolution by congress testifies tohow intently Social-Democratic leaders believed that mereformalmeasurescouldstopthebourgeoiscounter-revolution.Bauersoon 29 It was adopted with 291 to 18 votes. Five members abstained. This document would becomethebasiclsiprogrammeforthestruggleagainst fascism.