"Antifascism, Sports,
Sobriety - Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture," with Selected Writings by
Julius Deutsch, edited by Gabriel Kuhn, 2017
I'll bet
Austromarxism was not on the tip of your lips.
Mine either. However, this
intriguing little book came into May Day and touched on topics few talk
about. Dave Zirin, the sports lefty,
should read it, as should some of the pacifist types on the left. Even our teetotalers will feel a bit
vindicated.
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| The Working Class Atlas |
Events in
"Red Vienna" are somewhat unknown on the U.S. left, so this study helps with
its extensive bibliography. Lenin,
Trotsky, Serge, Bela Kun & Ilona Duczynska all criticized the ideas and
methods of the Austrian Social-Democratic Workers Party (SDAP) - Kautsky, Hilferding,
Bauer, Adler and their '2.5 International" - from a Bolshevik point of
view. Their key criticisms were brought
out when the SDAP failed to stop Austrian fascism from triumphing in 1934. They
called them 'all bark, no bite."
The SDAP talked left, mentioned the possible need for a dictatorship of
the proletariat and tried to effect theoretical unity between Social Democrats
and Communists, but none of that occurred.
At four
key moments of crisis in Austria
the SDAP failed to live up to its revolutionary talk. The first was their refusal to actively
support the March 1919 council republic in next door Hungary. Next, in July 1927, a court acquitted some
fascists who had shot at an SDAP march and killed some workers. During the mass workers protest that followed,
the SDAP did not come out in a show of force to respond to the fascist threat. Third, in March 1933 the SDAP failed to
properly deploy their "Schutzbund" workers militia in the face of the
suspension of the Austrian parliament by the fascists, and disappointed their
own base. They followed that up in February 1934 by missing the moment and not moving
fast enough to seize power in Vienna
as the fascists were taking power. This
last failure, after a 3 day battle, led to the triumph of fascism in Austria. The basic lesson learned was that 'retreat'
emboldens the bourgeoisie and their fascist henchman, and at these key moments,
the SDAP leadership backed down for fear of civil war. Well, civil war came anyway.
The German and Italian CPs did not even make the late attempt the SDAP did, so
there is lots of blame to go around.
Though the CPs, including the tiny one in Austria,
were key in the later partisan movements across Europe.
However the
SDAP made valuable contributions in building an anti-fascist military militia,
which unfortunately only went into action once.
The SDAP dominated the sports scene with working-class sports clubs. Some
of their leaders crusaded against alcoholism as something which weakened the
working-class, ultimately coming out against any drinking. Karl Polyani described changes in Vienna after the 1919
election of the SDAP as unique in the socialist movement.
MILITIA
The
Republican Schutzbund was the anti-fascist militia built by the SDAP, which was
drawn from party cadres, unions, the proletarian sports clubs, youth and the
general working class. It guarded
meetings and demonstrations, paraded in strength, practiced military skills and
was to be eventually called out in combat with fascist gangs or in defense of
the working class and republican institutions. As was noted by the SDAP leadership, the
bourgeois military is THE key prop of the capitalist order, so without an
organized opposition, defeat is far more likely. Yet due to the aforementioned hesitations of
the SDAP leadership, the Schutzbund was only used once, which demoralized the
Austrian working class and encouraged the fascist paramilitaries.
There
were debates within the Schutzbund as to whether it was to be a strictly
military organization or should learn the skills of what has come to be called
urban guerilla warfare. The majority was
in favor of traditional militarism.
Duczynska noted that this technique was sometimes more useful in
controlling the working class than the enemy.
Nothing in the book indicates that the units allowed democratic votes, so
they might have been purely top-down.
CULTURE
The SDAP
tried to create a working-class culture to accompany their political struggle. After their election in Vienna they constructed large workers
apartment buildings like the 'Karl Marx-Hof' to better house the class. One writer about Red Vienna called it a
"foretaste of the socialist utopia."
Public swimming pools, dental clinics in schools, maternity homes, adult
education centers, lending libraries, , bookstores, publishing houses, theaters
and festivals were all part of life in Red Vienna, part of an expression of
Austromarxism and unknown in other cities.
It showed the role of the 'city' in socialist organizing.
SPORTS
Of
particular note, the SDAP created the Austrian 'Workers League for Sport &
Body Culture,' which had hundreds of thousands of members and participated in
nearly all sports. This kind of organization was not possible until workers got
an 8 hour day. This movement went
international, with a series of well-attended proletarian ' Workers Olympics'
that made no mention of nations and did not fly national flags, as does our
present rabidly bourgeois 'Olympics.'
This was under the umbrella of the 'Socialist Workers Sport
International (SWSI).' At its peak, the
SWSI had 2 million members and held 3 international Olympics.
The
sports clubs promoted health, community and strength for the average worker,
not individualism, commercialism and 'records' by pampered elite bourgeois
athletes. Participation was emphasized over passive watching
of sports by fans. One main purpose was
to prepare the working class for a physical confrontation with the fascists or
even the state, as flabby, weak or lazy workers would not be much good in a
clash. As part of this physical culture,
the SDAP also created the 'Whersport' organization, which specialized in more
military physical skills - marksmanship, martial arts, running and other
disciplines related to military training.
All of this has echoes in the U.S. - the Teamster Local 544 Union Guard, the BPP,
AIM, Robert Williams and the Deacons for Defense, the JB Anti-Klan Committee, Socialist Rifle Association, Redneck
Revolt - but in the U.S. they occur on a much smaller level. So far...
TEMPERANCE
Drinking
is a two-edged sword, and many times it (and its modern equivalent, drugs) demobilizes
working class people. Karl Kautsky once
remarked that 'liquor, that is the enemy.'
Like the strict rules against drug and alcohol by the Black Muslims, the
SDAP promoted temperance as an antidote to the rampant alcoholism found among
some working class people, which only profited the bourgeois 'inn' owners in Austria. If religion is not the opiate of the people,
certainly drugs and alcohol can be. Most
socialists at this time were OK with socializing around a glass of beer or wine
(Marx was a beer drinker himself) but not the SDAP leadership. And they might have had a point, as their
society was marinating in fascism at the time.
The book
ends with re-publication of some of the writings of Julius Deutsch, a former
impoverished worker and military man who met Luxembourg,
Kautsky, Bebel, Trotsky, Bauer and Adler in Berlin
and Vienna. Deutsch had organized an anti-war group in
the Austrian military during WWI and also fought in Spain. During the first Austrian Republic
in 1918, after the fall of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, he was appointed
minister of defense by the Social Democrats as part of a joint government.
May Day
Books carries a number of Dave Zirin's books on sports. Commentaries
on anti-fascism, the NFL, the Olympics, drugs and alcohol, below. Use blog search box, upper left with those
terms.
And I
bought it at May Day Books!
Red Frog
September
14, 2017
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