THE REVOLUTIONARY AGE December 7, 1918 Socialism and Reaction in Austria cvery rialism, refuse al cxistence spirit you By Friedrich Adler (From Adler speech in court at his erial for the assassination of Premier Stuergk. DESIRE to declare that deny all responsibility movement has deviated from this old national prin that has ben handed down from generation to geacrafor any statements marle here by my attorney and ciple, that the Social Democrats have adopted the im. tion with tht principle of equality of all people, loy that am determined to opposc, inost emphatically; serialist mode of thought, and are defending a pro working for peace without annexations and indemniany attempt on the part of my counsel to present an gram in which they do not defend the German natics.
insanity plea in my favor. It may be the duty of the tional statc which woulil correspond with the nation am convinced that the great majority of Socialattorney to take care of my body but it is my duty to al defense of the rench and the Belgians, but the Deniocrats went into this war only because they licprotect my convictions, which are more important than intergrity of the German Empire, including even its lieved it to be a war of self defence, and from the pnim the hanging one man morc in austria during the of view of national defence it is to be understood that tiar. The case is a meh more serious one than that democrats sacrificed the international character of fore the same from the materi dil not commit elis ancies travergine getirenly supporting rolicy of maple democratic But then the idea of visiting the latest fcat that we were trying to avoid, with all its lworror: mocrats who have gone so far as to surrender them and all its misery, upon others, look possession cration; have considered it for a year and a half, selves to the shameless policy of conquest of Impe. was the idea that found expressiv thc:rlreiterhave weighed all its effects, from sids.
zcitung on the 5th of August in the worels, llowever In the wiwle of Austria, no one is competent but the The wrty has always maintained that Austria can the dic may be cast, we hope, from the depths of our ministers and they have turned the constitution into exist only as a federation of national states; much hearts, that it may be cast for the victory of the lily a serap of paper and have refused to be called to ac energy was spent in the cliort to spread recognition cause of the German jxople. This woril cictory was comm. la ky 11. therefore, what is to be done when or the necessity of democracy in the nation. canthere is 110 institution through which these cleren rot, vi cutre, foretell what will become of tiis na and it became tlie main point of difference bwtween pample may lw calle.
to account, what method remains tion in this war. There are only two eventualitics, us, for, as Swialists, we must oppose those who seek to In that of force: What other possibility is there. and have furthered neither of these eventualitics, but profit from this war. Just as the man who is attacked when ministry rules by force. to call to account. have. rather, oneupied a strictly neutral position towin the forest by roblers and uses all his strength to exceput the mothers which they themselves are using are. Nistria. The Socialist cause, have always to throw them off, would not think of rubbing his Danes nest. mer such circumstancas, force become a attacker wlien he lias him in luis power, su slwuld we fur greater than any temporary state necessity, just as you have always said of war? In a formation, and we must therefore refuse to compro refuse, in our relations with other nations, to sink state, which is called in orderly society, under such wise ur bil its ſale by an intimate identity with the down to the level of street rololers. But wlien incircumstances is there anything left but force. of a nation, a mistake that was made in the past, sisted at the national conference last March that the tot speak of the right of revolution. The Social De to say. by a number of my former friends! party executive should lemand emphatically of the mocratic Party: pon whose program have always little as shall claim the title patriot, nevertheless Ceniral Powers a bid for peace without annexation stond and still stand today, does not deny force and live termed anti patriut, partcularly when this and indemnities. was langled at anel has only sixteen has not condemned its use. It has declared in its pro is a part in my motives, not the national, but the more of the 100 delegates on my side. At first fearer that gram that it will use for thic rcalization of its aims, all of Austria, the lustrian a short victorious war wenke uncler alısolutism firmly cffective means that are in accord with the natural 11 is is the state lack of principle that has bred in for decades to come. But thic long months of war.
sense oi justice of the people.
me a hatred, not against Austria as a country, but with its horrible ravages and destruction, have awakThe state attorney intimates that am an enemy against Austria as an immoral entity. against its ly cned in the people a realization of its misery, have ining spirit. This Austrian spirit exists in all of its oculated the organisin of the people with its anti loxin, cuised the Arbeiter Zeitung of patriotic excesses, that in all of its nations; all are degraded diave created the sentiment of which Goethe speaks attacked Dr. Renner for his Austrianism. do not ind in all it is being fostered by lawlessness. And if wlien le says: Ic wlon lesires war in times of claim to be a patriot. have never made this claim. you wish to understand what brought me liere, it was peace, has lost, forever, the joy of hope. short neither before mor during the war, nor will you le ilat this lying spirit has entered into my party, that war woull lave licen followed liy decades of chauvinlieve that in order to gain your sympathy, will throw Dr. Karl Renner, who is nothing less than the Luegeristic frenzy on both sides; war, out of itself, so to my convictions aside and say, am a patriot. of the Social Democracy, has brought this readiness speak, creates truc pacifisn. For the lessons that the will see later that an entirely different train of thought to luming into our movement.
war has taught will stick in the minds of even those have become ashamed of the odium that reflects upon us.
who, like Funder and his ilk, praised war as a bath of quently used in Sustria as an abuse and this is not In this whole crisis have tried in vain to shake off steel.
surprising for patriotism in Austria is a peculiar the fill that has been spewed by these politicians on It was a terrible disappointment for mc to discover iling long liefore the war Austrian patriotisın was that which has always filled my whole being. have that the Austrian Social Democracy, which has been bourgeois as somiting The intelligent in opposition to those who have betrayed the spirit blind leader of the blind in Austria. cannot measure surgeois was everywhere not patriotic but national of my party. That is the real cause for my deed. It the Socialist party by capitalist standards, but alone istic; neeel only call your attention to the fact that was a protest against this spirit that has entered our by the standard it las set itself in its own glorious those people of the Deitsche National Verband, who history. And it hurts me that this party should have to las are so indignant at the unpatriotic activity of the Clicks, at one time called us the imperial) seen in the daily political activity of the party a Stary institution. The conviction has grown its have all my life been a revolutionist. have with the arty Executive Committee partie opponents.
social democracy. 10 express thcir deepest contempt. weapon for the revolution and have never regarded because it has become more and more a counterAt that time, thic Ciermari bourgeoisic openly declared revolutioa as a catch plırase of political activity. Had that its ileal was not Austria lyut the national state, upon me that rezolution in Iustria can that it looked to the state of its nationality: have laughed at the idea of a revolution in times of against the will of the Executive Committee, which But in the course of clevelopments this war has counsel would have called for alienists and will always be a hindrance 10 the revolutionary moveevolve a cluinge of functions in the conception of ou will have thought him justified. But today. Work And for this Executive Committte had to Putherland At only the Irbeiter Zeitung but the entire capitalist work as its first secretar In formet times there were no fatherlands, but sure, these gentlemen have ever been enthusiastic for bring me into a once matters serious narealized. Clicn more and more clearly simply nations which had to byc governcıl. Since the s the ideal of a national state has come to life in freerlom in olier countries. And to day even the Ara sharp inner couflict between my duties ile orgioisie und so Sustria was looked upon as beiter Zeitung celebrates the revolution in Russia. as secretary and my own personal convictions.
came to the conclusion that our movement can recover a remnant oren times, that was expected sooner or It makes a great difference. whether you look at the cnly if it is given an entirely new leadership. Scitz later 10 fall part into its separate national cnielea of the fatherland has mct a one another. from the walls that the war has built: methods niust Tsc persecuted for the Executive Com.
new conception, one that is no longer based upon na or wlicther you see it from the wall that to me has tionalist lines, but pon questions of cconomic interthe most important, the wall of the classmittee must bear the responsibility for the blood that is shed. But maintain that this responsibility must ests. The lour:revisie has discovered its interest in es that separates the exploiters from the exploited. Ixc bornc. The secret of this wlinle inner conflict lics the conservation of the cconomic field of Austria, an We Socialists have always looked upon the world in the fart that the party in these long years of interest 119only in. Iustria but in the foundation of peace of a great Central European cmpire with the King has developed organizations, writers. political reprewar began and lave subordinated everything else sentatives, in short a whole civil stafi, buit lacks officers: Prussia, cui course at its licad, to whom Austria shall in the whole world to this highest point of view. We he sul servient. Tis ideal is no longer national indehave Inoked upon the International as supreme, and in the fact that noinly in Austria has realized that, under circumstances, force must be used. On we must change this certain penclence liit national rule. They are no longer satisfied with the class rule of the bourgeoisie over the the contrary, they have always made it their cluty to. in thic proletariat, they aspire in establish a kingdom from in war the struggle between prevent disturbances. Dr. Kenner struck the note that nations.
dominated this whole attitude of the party regarding Berlin te laaid, over which the German Peopic. e. went through an exhausting struggle to bring back the use of forcible measures. saw that the idea of the German irgenisie. shall rule.
Since the beginning of the war the same national tion of the International looks exceedingly naive. It force was to be discreditel in the eyes of the working class.
and comie policy has made itself felt in olier na is the same position that Marx described, when he This opposition drove me to individual action hetions. We have sirn that among the Chekhs, tro, said in 1864. that it is simply the attempt to establish cause the party and its leadership had lost the revol.
conomic interests love come into a sharp conflict the simple laws that regulate relations between pri utionary feeling of the working class. What wished with nati mal interests. But the same change of vale individuals as the highest law in the relations of functions has taken place within the Socal Democ tations to cach other. This morale of revolutionary will of the party authorities in Austria can a real reve racy. Wlan Pell sittackcıl Bismarck most violently. cemocracy which was first formulated in the Great olutionary iipheaval in Austria comc. that only by it was it Ixecause le liad created the German Imperi Revolution is promulgated in the Constitution of disregarding them will it be possible to use the fored al government in place of a German Republic. but 1701: The greatness of frecdom lies in the maxim because lie had create a Prussian Germany in place Douto others as you would have them do unto that must be used to overthrow the rule of force upon of a Greater Germany, for whi man demo vou. Waive as it may be, that the morale of de prove to you at once that individual action is in oppocracy of that time and with it the labor democracy hart inncracy, the morale that has again been taken up bysition to social democratic principles, that it is an leen figliting. Now we see in this war that the labor the Russian revolution in opposition to land robbers.
Continued on rage serien movement.
adopted the came into come only was The war.
vitics.
Now get there are recommence Struggle between classes,