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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 3, No. 2. 1940

Austria and Germany

Austria and Germany

In Austria in 1918, power was almost in the hands of the proletariat, but the forcible institution of socialism was prevented by the tactics of social-democracy. Social-democratic parties continued in power, attempting to bring about "the pacific victory of socialism". In 1928 seventy per cent of the population of Vienna voted for the social-democrats. In 1930, the elections gave the rising Fascist organisation, the Heimwehr, 8 representatives to 72 social-democrats. In 1933 Dollfuss proclaimed an open dictatorship. The social-democratic leaders tried to negotiate, to appease; they refused to lead the workers against the fascists, at a time when the power of the fascists could easily have been broken. When a popular revolution did break out in 1934, it broke out against the orders of the social-democratic leadership. Austria became completely fascist, and her position today, under the yoke of Germany, is directly attributable to the futile eclecticism of social-democrats and to its childlike faith in the power of the ballot-box.

Strachey in his "Menace of Fascism" has shown how the weak and vacillating policy of social-democracy in Germany, its policy of lesser evil, its submission to the forces of capitalism, paved the way for the betrayal of the Weimar Constitution and the rise of Hitler to power in 1933. It is quite obvious to any observer, that if the working class had been led by a revolutionary Marxist party, there would have been no Hitler and no fascist Germany.

These are no isolated examples. Study the history of modern Poland, China, Greece, and Hungary, observing carefully the role of social-democracy when fascist ideas grow. Finland is a horrible example. Social-democracy is a road, not to reform, but to fascism and fascist measures. Look around you, at the present reactionary measures of New Zealand's social-democratic government. Observe how men like Sir Oswald Mosley, Hitler, Mussolini, Pilsudski, Sample and Fraser, were all social-democrats before they tasted power.

We cannot act on the vain hope that "things will be different in England"; we cannot allow the horror of violent revolution to prevent us from becoming realists. It can be shown theoretically, and it has been proved practically countless times, that the ruling capitalist class will never allow social-democracy to become too strong. At a certain stage of the progressive reformist measures, as soon as the security of the system itself is threatened, the ruling class will use force to subdue working class organisations. "One of the tragic lessons of the events in Germany was that the enemies of democracy were willing to shed blood to destroy liberty, and did not shrink from murder, arson, and lawless action; but social-democracy was peaceful, law-abiding, and shrank from fratricidal strife."

That is the fundamental nature of social-democracy. It is a humanitarian illusion. Not only does evolution to a new stage of society by democratic means conflict with the basic laws of history, but it has been demonstrated fully, by the tragic events in Germany to be an impossible dream.

Let us be realists. Let us not shrink from the inevitable.

R.L.M.