Page - 334 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

334 chapter 8 tostopthe fascisisationof thecountry.84Hepleadedforcouplingparliament- ary actionwith street demonstrations. He issued the following tasks to the Social-Democraticmovement:maintainingtheproletariat’s readinesstofight, providingmilitarytrainingfortheyouth,andreinforcingdemocraticvalues in society,particularly inareassubordinatedtothestateapparatus. The resolutionBauerauthoredandput to the fifthlsi congress inParis in 1933reflectedtheenormousimportanceheattributedtopreservingdemocracy (thisdocumentwaspreviouslydiscussed inChapter7,whichpointedout the twodifferent strainsofworking-classanti-fascist struggle it advocated,which dependedonthedegreetowhichdemocracywasthreatened).Baueracknow- ledged the theory of ‘organised capitalism’ indefenceof democracy, demon- strating that due to the armseconomy,monopoly capitalismhadachieveda leveloforganisationithadpredicted.AccordingtoBauer, thiswould leadtoa transformationofthesystemintoasocialiststateinthenearfuture, i.e. thefall of the fascistdictatorships.Bauer’s resolutionborethedemandforpreserving theneutrality of the lsi if any constituent parties tookupnegotiationswith theCominternconcerning thecreationof aunited frontof theworkingclass against fascism.However, thePariscongressdidnotadoptthispostulate. Not fornothingdidBauer insist, inbothcongress speeches, that themain goal of theworking-class struggle against fascismwas not a socialist revolu- tion,butratherthedefenceofbourgeoisdemocracyanditspoliticalandsocial gains. This hierarchy of priorities was also consistent with the speeches of other lsi party leaders. It found a passionate advocate in the secretary of thelsi, FriedrichAdler,whoarguedthat surrendering thestruggle fordemo- cracywould be tantamount to admitting that SocialDemocracy had chosen thewrong path.85 The Social Democrats defended bourgeois democracy on twobases: as a value in itself, andas anecessarypremise for the struggle for social change. One is inclined to agreewith Zmierczak’s argument that the SocialDemocratsweresopreoccupiedwiththenecessityofdefendingdemo- cracy that they rarely ever contemplated a course of action for the case that thedemocraticsystemwasunderthreat.86WhenfascismseizedpowerinGer- manyandItaly, thelackofaclearprogrammeparalysedtheSocialDemocrats. Distinct examples for thiswere thepassiveattitudeof the spd in lightof the 84 SeeProtocoloftheInternationalSocialistWorkers’CongressinHamburg,21–25May1923, inDocuments,Programmes,Protocols,p.26. 85 Replying to theAustrian left socialists’ demand toadopt the sloganof a ‘dictatorshipof theproletariat’, FriedrichAdler stressed inhis letter that the fundamental interestof the workingclasswastodefenddemocracy.SeeZmierczak1988,p.89. 86 SeeZmierczak1988,p.93.