106 THE CLASS STRUGGLE ACCUSE 107 explains my act that there is in Austria to day no authority that is competent concerning Austrian constitutionality.
Everyone in Austria says: That does not concern me, am not competent. The responsibility rests with him who has enacted this imperial decree. And if we deserve to be quite specific on this point we must admit that the Emperor is not responsible because, according to the constitution, he is irresponsible. No, the ministry is responsible and so this whole question of responsibility and of everything that is done in Austria becomes more and more complicated because the Austrian, in his good nature, does not feel as a citizen, but as a subject, while the instruments of government, on the other hand, do not consider themselves competent to test the legality of actions from above.
Thus, in the whole of Austria, no one is competent but the ministers and they have turned the constitution into a scrap of paper and have refused to be called to account. ask you, therefore, what is to be done when there is no institution through which these eleven people may be called to account, what method remains but that of force? What other possibility is there, when a ministry rules by force to call it to account except the methods which they themselves are using. Does not, under such circumstances, force become a necessity, just as you have always said of war? In a state, which is called an orderly society, under such circumstances is there anything left but force? will not speak of the right of revolution. The Social Democratic Party, upon whose program have always stood and still stand today, does not deny force and has not condemned its use.
It has declared in its program that it will use, for the realization of its aims, all effective means that are in accord with the natural sense of justice of the people.
hands. Since the government has placed itself outside the plane of legal redress every citizen is justified in calling it to account outside the plane of legal action; nay, further, he is not only justified but rather in duty bound to do so. Only a morally degraded nation, a nation devoid of all pride of citizenship could bear it. Is the use of force effective? This question it is somewhat more difficult to answer. Here, too, must differ with my attorney who will say that it was not effective, that it was not in accord with the tactical ideas of the social democracy, that it was a deviation from the principles which have represented. will relieve him from answering this difficult question and will show why my deed, that is in accord with my natural feelings of right, was likewise effective under the existing extraordinary conditions. Before entering upon this point, however, let me say a word to the remark made by the state attorney to the effect that have lived so long in foreign countries, a fact that explains to him the whole deed, since have lost the natural love of my native land. By this remark the state attorney intimates that am an enemy of Austria. The state attorney mentions that accused the Arbeiter Zeitung of patriotic excesses, that attacked Dr. Renner for his Austrianism. do not claim to be a patriot. have never made this claim, neither before nor during the war, nor will you believe that I, in order to gain your sympathy, will throw my convictions aside and say, am a patriot.
You will see later that an entirely different train of thought has guided me. have heard the word patriot frequently used in Austria as an abuse and this is not surprising for patriotism in Austria is a peculiar thing. Long before the war Austrian patriotism was denounced not only by social democrats but even by bourgeois as something inferior. The intelligent bourgeoisie was everywhere not patriotic but nationalistic; need only call your attention to the fact that those people of the Deutsche National Verband, who to day are so indignant at the unpatriotic activity of the Tschechs at one time called us the imperial) social democracy, to express their deepest contempt. At that time, the German bourgeoisie openly declared that its ideal was not Austria but the national state, that it belonged to the state of its nationality. With a full realization of what they were doing Hochenburger and Stürgkh prepared their coup etat. Therefore the justification for my deed is to me, as a citizen, fully given. The question is not, is the use of force justifiable, but, what right have I, as an individual, to use force. In my opinion when law is trodden to earth every citizen has the right to take the law into his own