Page - 326 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

326 chapter 8 tohispoliticalprognosis, thefascistdictatorshipsinItaly,Poland,Estland,Bul- gariaandYugoslaviawereweakened;yetontheotherhand,hepredictedthat Hitlerwould attack EasternEurope. The sociological-political prognosiswas farmorecomplex. Itwasbasedon the incoherenceof class ruleandpolitical powerunder fascism.Letusnote that themanner inwhich this fascismthe- ory illustrated the relationshipbetween the twopowerswasnebulous.Aside fromclaiming that the fascist dictatorship reinforced theeconomicpowerof thebourgeoisie,Bauerassertedthatthefascistgovernmentisthrownintocon- flictwith the big bourgeoisie in particular. The governing fascist caste turns on various fractions of the capitalist ruling class, unitingwith them in com- mon struggle only to keep theworking class at bay. Bauer’s emphasis on the tensions and instability of the fascist system served one particular purpose: to reinforce the vision of an anti-fascist revolution. Pointing out the conflict of interestsbetweenthepoliticalandeconomicpowersservedtobuttress the notionthatthiswouldleadtoaradicaltransformationofthesocialconditions, andthustoa lossof fascism’ssocialbase.At theendof themanuscript,Bauer citedthreeenemiesoffascism:theworkingclass, thedisappointedpettybour- geoisie,andthebourgeoisieatoddswithfascismforeconomicreasons.These classeswouldwageacommonstruggle toabolishthetotalitarianregime.The notionof cross-class struggledirectly referred toBauer’s concept of the anti- fascistunited front, according towhichtheproletariatwould leadthemiddle classes andparts of the capitalist class into struggle. In 1938, Bauerwas con- vincedofthefollowing: If the working class gets moving, if big mass strikes shake the fascist systemofruleandthestatistcommandeconomytoitsfoundations,then broadmassesofpettybourgeois,peasants,andintellectualswillcoalesce aroundtheworkingclasstobringdownthehatedfascistbureaucracy, its totalitarianrule,anditsdictatorshipovereconomiclife.66 ourtranslation Itwas, of course, anothermisguidedprognosis. The conclusionsBauer drew fromtheconceptofa ‘dirigisteconomy’,however,werenotas idealisticashis previousverdicts inhis theoryof ‘organisedcapitalism’– i.e.hedidnot think of it as aphase thatheralded the socialist economy.Thisdoesnotmean that herelinquishedhisfatalistperspective.Rather,henowsupportedhisnotionof theinevitabilityofsocialismbycitingthedialecticalunityoftheobjectiveand 66 Bauer1980ff,p.895.