Our Aim the Same, Though Our Methods May Change
Bauer, Otto
Our Aim the Same, Though Our Methods May Change By Otto Bauer Comrades, there is only one party. Only one banner soalied in otir blood. We are led by those, rvho fell in the fight, Koloman...
...The disintegration of world capEditor's Corner Review of and Comment on Events Here and Abroad, Critical and Otherwise By James Onea...
...e are suc-c e s s o r s to that generation of workers who in 1918 expelled the Hapuhurg, founded the Rapubllc, gained .by armed force, under the leadership jf Ferdinand Hannusch, the new code for labor—the eight-hour day vacations with pay, factory and shop eouncil.s, unemployment in-Hurance, the civil service law-~Bnd...
...The rest of the platform should be a terrific indictment of the whole capitalist system in terms of the class struggle...
...does thi's very thing...
...Does he think that he can win them by promising the abolition of property in land...
...I regard it as the duty of the Sociali.sts in the class struggle, and when we fail in that duty we cease to be Socialists...
...Shall we tell their story or forget them, as the bourgeois historians have, and tell the story of the merchants, land speculators, smugglers and slave owners who were victorious in that struggle...
...If tne Socialist movement "emerged out of this view," as Jim Oneal learnedly announces, I ask for particulars...
...But the one big point raised was: H w may we in America readjust our program and policies so a» to avoid the dettruction that overtook Oerman Sooialiam^ < On that ma|i\ point the editorial critic is stone bdindi 4*af, and dumb...
...Most of our patriotic tradition* are based upon a perversion of history and they concede nothing to the workers...
...Hitler did not seize the republic's banner...
...the .Maiiifcsiu ,if 1818 declmed fur thi "abotitioM of pioperty in land...
...J'HKRl'' is prote.-t in the party against political opporttiiii.-iii and some of it lias takui llie form of inipos-ilijli^iti...
...In the Colonial period and in much of the later period of our history the farmers and workers have a continuous history of struggle against injustice and exploitatioa in many forms...
...thrit is...
...To propose "abolition of property in land" and make no distinction between the two types is to make the small farmer the ally of the big exploiters of the public domain...
...It sems to us very naive to assume that if the German Sociali.sts had only seized the republic's banner before Hitler did, it would have changed the history of the German movement...
...jJ^'- are Social Democrats...
...Joe's Orthodoxy goes back to 1848 and...
...We ' are tiie successors of those wlio l)egan the struggle for liberty that the Austrian workers, under the leadership of the Social Democrats, carried on for so .many years...
...the industrial cri-is coiitiiiiies sii severe ;iiid tlie future is so uncertain that I he lie\e that our t'oiigressioiial platform should eliminate most of the detailed measures we have hitherto stressed and only a few of the measures related to the sociahzation of hanks and the basic industries, unemployment insurance, the child labor amendment, injunctions and civil rights should be singled out for special niention...
...He and his heirs for generations have become "land-minded...
...We agree that it is necessary to "free the soil" for the users thereof, but we do not agree that it can be accomplished by the method Joe proposes...
...We are successors of the February uprising, which is "comparbd by the entire Socialist world to the glorious Paris Commune of 1871, and although unsticcessful, is of colossal historical significance in the development of socialism...
...heelprints of ow rades( trying to | brink of the tad...
...The fearful prostration of industry and agriculture fully justify this emphasis upon our fundamental aims and listing mainly those measures that correlate with them...
...yet knowledge of that struggle is lost to the modern workers...
...Instead of trying to utilize the old American patriotic traditions, we should produce a workiljg class literature that will give the workers a sense of their struggles and achievements as a class in our history...
...Joe rcvcalfi panic over the defeat of the niovemciit in (Jciniany and a.s.-iuincs that 1 iiuld to un "ciithiidoxy" that In ri'it wiuiaiutd by the changing world of cai)i-tali.sili...
...There was no excuse for the comment that I am urging "free access to the soil" in the style and spirit of the free-soil farmer of 75 years ago...
...Jim should have read the other planks...
...Talk to 1 they are keenljr mand its restorst v/ith us...
...would (loom the party to steriliiy...
...We should insist on the recovery of the plunder of the big exploiters but approach the small farmer in a different day...
...Now, any land prog^tlam that does not distinguish between these two phases of the public domain is futile and harmful...
...We are led by those, rvho fell in the fight, Koloman Wallisch is clearing the way for us...
...These said the "first step in the revolution" must be for the working class to "win the battle of democracy," and then should come: 'tl...
...he would have...
...Two Phases of Land History WHEN Joe speaks of the "plunder of the public " domain," he confuses two things...
...We are the sticcessors of that getteration of workers who...
...Just as after the defeat of the Russian Revolution' of 1905 followed the victory of 1917 that has, had world-wide significance so our Februar-,- defeat will also be followed by triumph...
...There is no reason why the farmers should not be permitted c()pperatively to own their equipment ' and land while their productive activities ,are also integrated with urban industry...
...This policy will|| members to stui of the Socialist Executive Because of th in the party, soi vest the N.E.C...
...Cultivate historical knowledge and memories' of the struggles of the masses, recover the inspiring stovjF of' many battles they fought against discrimination, injustice and class rule, link them up with their final phase, the struggle for Socialism...
...We wanted to win over the majority of the people to our ideas in order to reconstruct 'society by the peaceful hiethod of the ballot...
...The banner of the Social Democracy, which fell from their lifeless hands, is taken up and carried on by us...
...Kurt Dobercr...
...It .should also be a popular presentation'of the Socialist philosophy and aim...
...1 liiwi'ver...
...Joe wants to win th,e farmers whom he includes in those who are "land-minded...
...Winning the Farmerk IT i-ii't easy to uieuv \vi:li uiie who reveals tiie chulcr * Joe .Sliaits (iocs mi lhi,-i ])age, but we .-ihall try again...
...Its chief booty consisted of gathering in coal, oil and mineral resources...
...under^ the glorious leadership of \^ictor Adltr, gathered workers, inrbued them with the spirit of class-consciousness, organized them, obtained for them the freedom of social activity, gained for them the right of universal.suifrage, founded and developed their tf,ilde unions, re'diiced their hours of daily labor from l'leveji a n d twelve to l'ight and thus, e re a ted the' basis' for the' phys'cal and spiritual regeneration of the working cl.'iss...
...forests, quarry sites and, later, power sites...
...This decision pf the International Social Democtacy also shows us the road we have to take...
...The revolutionary power, emerging from a revolt against fascism, not only dis-arroa faacism, but strikes . a mighty, b(»w upon its most important ^onomic support—upon th» prtvate property of big capital, agricultural and industrial, layg the foundation for the new social order and establiahes the Socialist democracy...
...This dictatorship can be <H>nctUered by Ho means' other than revolution...
...Curi( are party men...
...He hated it and raised a new one, the swastika, tend raised it by the side of the old monarchist banner...
...We are heirs of Weissell, Wallisch and Munich-reiter...
...Some Proble Americar By J«mtft Oaval This is part of o»i address de-' livered by the editor of The Xei^) Leader at the Tenth Anniiecsaiy Dinner, Sunday, April 15...
...But by the side of this capitalist exploitation of the public domain there also appeared the small homesteader, who acquired his acres under various acts, permitting payment for his land in a number of installments...
...But though it is the same banner, the new situation requires new methods and new ways...
...The workers were defeated...
...and "the Socialist movement emerged out of this view 75 years ago...
...To assume that when we help the worker to wr^t increased wages and shortei hours from the owners bf industry, these victories art Obtained at the expense of thei tax-payers, is something I am unable to understand...
...But o» demands fo' earners and pt expense of taX-V Oneal apparent...
...If we would' democracy in Ai must (hange ci policies...
...over all pi camps and oth the party...
...powers over th branch organizal bers...
...We are successors to the Austrian workers in their heroic war against fascism...
...Thui' pealed, in the i German Sociiliij proletarian claiij ,t^ plain facttlj pure proletaritf nority...
...The future ideal that has a chance of winning the farmers is cooperative farming on a large scale,' with society providing all the advantages of power, chemistry, and machinery...
...although f^ngeis in his piefaee to the Manifesto, wiitteii in 1888, Htates distinctly that the program from which Joe (luotes was even then largely "anti(juated...
...Under democracy We fought by means of the ballot...
...The Austrian fascist dictatorship destroyed these democratic methods of struggle...
...l;ut Joe himself goes back to the orthodoxy of that period and acce|)ts it...
...a (leiiiatui lliat all iiiiiiirdi.ite I mca-^iires he cliiiiiiiated truni ihe plat ft inn, I :iyrce with the pn.-te~t liiit not with it- im])(i--iliilist funii which, in my jtulj^nunt...
...Why the exploiters of labor fight strikers when it is tax-payers who will pay the bill if a strike is won most remain a mystery...
...ions whicli we lu'lieve ."Siiciali-ts wijl-i^'c...
...The fact is, however...
...Hardly...
...loe has done this, liut he draws eoiK'lu...
...Othenvisc we will turn him over to some Hitler financed by these same exploiters, I do not mistake the fight we make for the organised workers as Socialism...
...In countries, where fascism is victorious, the fascist dictatorship can be overthrown only by a revolutionary uprising of the masses...
...Tlw Recelutiofl of fhe inttr-natienai As far back as August 1933, the Labor and Socialist International at its Paris conference adopted the following decision...
...Abolition of property in laiit...
...under the leadership of Reiman, Seitz and Breitner, crested a model of Socialist municipal economy admired by the entire proletarian...
...So lon|j to him, we « 'Party to be a IB —not big enou enough to be kii We i;nust.capt masses, or we i American mawe erty-holders...
...He is so hard worked, he had to criticize my Program and Points of Policy without reading it through...
...The possessive instinct would thus be expressed through cooperation and thus correlate it with the collective ownership of industry...
...rank-and-file d trade unions b( executive bureal The Socialist born of a revolt executive dictato that had no confi How to Win Am( Sharts Takes ExceptJen fo Critichm ef Answer in "Ediior't I ET me enter protest agaiijst the cruel exploitation of the editor, Jim Oneal...
...That is our Job...
...It is true tlia...
...Ajuparently he is so idola-troua of certain habitual forms...
...Their possessions are based upon memories of back-breaking toil...
...It happens the land planks are based upon the Communist Manifesto of 1848, written by those discarded "land reformers," Marx and Engels...
...Socialism) le»« "Chauvinist, Jim, because I « approach to tb* whom we art ^ gave him no «" offering thii...
...Mi singularly Isnd-i result of Ameri« is a story of t immense public mous common^ practically stolei and subjected t« within the mtn living...
...He .says, "the program reverts back to the land reformers...
...Th^ Patriotic Approach 117E cannot accept, the patriotic approach Joe recom-" mends...
...I*:very inl'-irnicii^jjiciali^t will welcome and al-•wayy ha.s welceioed ii eiitieal r*-exaniiiiutiipii of uur lia.^ic ideas iokI pi'o);nnii...
...Back of the movement that culminated in the Declaration of Independence, which Joe mentions, was a class struggle for power by workers...
...And into what did it "emerge" —to become the doormat of Hit-lerism...
...That plundering was done by speculators and capitalists in alliance with servile members of the government...
...world...
Vol. 17 • May 1934 • No. 18
