AUSTRIAN BETRAYED

In Austria, as in Germany, in the 1918-1919 period the monarchy was overthrown by the organized workers. The new Austrian Republic proclaimed on November 12, 1918. A revolutionary crisis existed, but at the head of the Austrian working class stood the Social Democrats.

When the old imperial army collapsed, it was replaced by the 'Volkswehr' made up almost entirely of Social Democrat supporters. In Vienna, especially, the Volkswehr consisted of armed workers totally loyal to Social Democracy.

Soldiers' councils were formed, demanding the right to elect their officers. Frequently, one of the conditions of election was pledge to vote for the Social Democrats. The Viennese soldiers' councils elected an Executive Committee influence of left-wing which was entirely Social Democrats.

The Volkswehr units, however. were used by the government a coalition of Social Democrats and the two main bourgeois parties--to put down communist demonstrators. Some, at least, of the Social Democratic leaders were ready from the start to follow the line pursued in Germany by Noske, who had declared The Free Corps are better Germans than the Spartacists'. crats to proclaim the Austrian Soviet Republic.

At the second national conference of the Austrian workers' councils in June, a communist delegate demanded that the Social Democrats immediately leave the coalition government and that the workers' councils seize the power. But the Social Democrats would not have it, and the resolution was defeated.

In October 1919, the Social Democrat-controlled Vienna district workers' council passed resolution condemning 'any attempt to bring about the rule of one class' as it would lead to civil war. It was. said the Social Democrats, 'unfortunately necessary' to continue the coalition government in order to protect 'the vital interests of the working class'!

The workers' councils were, in fact, restricted to welfare activities within the framework of the coalition with the bourgeois parties, of which the largest was the Christian Social Party. But even here, the councils trod on the toes of the bourgeoisie.

They took it on themselves to stop the black-market profiteering in food and fuel on which the bourgeoisie gorged themselves while workers were going hungry and cold. In one month alone (August 1919) the councils reported in Vienna that they had confiscated from • bourgeois profiteers 10,200 kilos of flour, 15,800 of potatoes, 3,000 of meat and sausages, 2,000 of butter and fat, 230,000 cigarettes, 6,070 cigars, 12,300 pairs of shoes plus large quantities of eggs, cheese, milk, soap. coal, wood, petrol. leather and textiles.

Contrast this list with Adler's statement (above) and the Social Democrats couldn't lead a revolution because there was 'no food'!

Another field of activity was the prevention of evictions. And in some aréas the large houses of the rich were inspected for surplus space and homeless families installed in them.

Frequently, workers toured the luxurious night-clubs and expensive bars (in the country where there was 'no food') to put an end to wasteful guzzling while families starved the streets. One result of this was frequent complaints to the Party's head office from workers who had discovered leading Social Democrats those places. loudly bawling "Service, Comrade!' at the harassed waiters.

Then, after Horthy's counterrevolution in Hungary and the Kapp Putsch in Berlin, there were increasing demands in Austria that the workers should be armed. The Social Democrats, needless to say, rejected this.

The workers' councils were starved of power and resources by the Social Democrats, who saw the maintenance of friendly relations with their bourgeois allies in the coalition as far more important than any activities of the working class. This led to the steady decline of the councils throughout 1920.

The Social Democratic leaders, Friedrich Adler and Otto Bauer, frequently used the conservatism of the peasant as an excuse for indefinitely postponing the revolution to which they were, of course, 'devoted'. But the Social Democrats never produced a revolutionary programme which the peasants could be united with the working class.

Instead, by remaining in coalition with the bourgeoisie, they preserved the old order. As the leader of the Christian Social Party, Dr Seipel accurately pointed out in December 1918: 'The party coalition has remained in force, and no major unrest has disturbed the bourgeois order. The National Assembly in which all parties co-operate has NOCH was opening the way for the reactionaries. Bauer and the other Austrian and German Social Democrats disarmed the revolutionary masses in order to placate class exert its vital forces in the struggle for self-preservation... the bourgeoisie finds itself face to face with mortal danger, after having accumulated colossal poli-