J ACCUSE THE CLASS STRUGGLE 110 111 It is the state lack of principle that has bred in me a hatred, not against Austria as a country, but against Austria as an immoral entity, against its lying spirit. This Austrian spirit exists in all of its parts and in all of its nations; all are degraded by it, and in all it is being fostered by lawlessness. And if you wish to understand what brought me here, it was that this lying spirit has entered into my party, that Dr. Karl Renner, who is nothing less than the Lueger of the Social Democracy, has brought this readiness to betray one convictions, this readiness to humbug into our movement. have become ashamed of the odium that it reflects upon us.
In this whole crisis have tried in vain to shake off the filth that has been spewed by these politicians on that which has always filled my whole being. have attempted again and again to get away to place myself in opposition to those who have betrayed the spirit of my party. That is the real cause for my deed. It was a protest against this spirit that has entered our movement.
own inner Austro national convictions as real, international principles into the party. That the party has lost its honesty to itself, that is the thing that has brought me here.
Though the public prosecutor says that stand completely isolated in the party, he must admit that all the contempt that feel for the Austrian system is shared by a large majority of the Executive Committee that, as a matter of fact, only one man, Dr.
Renner, justifies every form of arbitrary action. But Dr. Renner cannot be considered representative of the party. These words can mean, then, merely that stand alone in my act, in my use of terrorist methods. From this the prosecutor concludes that discussed the matter with no one else. There were good reasons why should not do so, for hesitated to burden my friends with a responsibility that, in the end, only one would have to bear, to make them, too, the victims of persecution. political party must always act according to its own principles. We have seen the Austrian party acting according to German nationalistic principles, as represented by Leuthner, Pernerstorfer and Hartman, to whom the International is not the highest law, acting under the influence of people like Dr. Renner, whose highest ideals are enabodied in the Austrian state. have the highest respect for Pernerstorfer, who is an honest, open German Austrian nationalist. have no objections to his convictions, but have nothing but contempt for a party that will tolerate a political opponent as its chairman. can understand that Leuthner should stand on German nationalist ground, and will not respect him the less because of it. But that a Social democratic party that, according to its program, is an international party, that the masses who profess allegiance to this international party should allow a man who is an open German nationalist and practically the mouthpiece of the foreign office in Berlin, to daily conduct the political columns of the Arbeiterzeitung, is quite another matter. The situation becomes worse when Dr.
Renner concocts from all sorts of half arguments a demagogic argument. For only thus can we look upon the smuggling of his It will not be casy to reconstruct the situation that has developed since last October, for in these seven months a whole epoch has transpired. And yet it will be easy, for in this time, in many respects, the world has approached my point of view. Many a thing that was looked upon as an utter absurdity at the time has meanwhile become common property. Notice the contempt with which the indictment speaks of the International. And yet the very internationalism that, according to the prosecutor, was wiped off the earth, has risen in the estimation of the whole world; it has become the hope of the Austrian government. The prosecutor accuses me of having associated with a group of revolutionists in Switzerland; yet no one to day cultivates the society of these very revolutionists more zealously than Count Czernin, the Prime Minister. They are the revolutionists who to day have a certain measure of influence in Russia, and upon whose influence Austian peace hopes are built. cannot say that this method of cinging to these people appeals to me any more than does the fact that our Austrian party members go to Stockholm, not beCause they have remained international, but because they, like the government Socialists of Germany, have been officially sent as commis voyageurs of the foreign office.