The Daily Worker Newspaper, July 23, 1927, Page 5

i ; | j | ' ; y 4 4 4 j one THE New MAGAZINE Section of The DAILY WORKER SATURDAY, JULY 23, 1927 EDITOR’S NOTES By ALEX BITTELMAN __ uy VENTS in Vienna, Austria, of last week are instructive in more than one way. They show an — accumulation of anger and re- sentment among the working masses which few had suspected would be in existence. They also indicate a fighting spirit among the workers which under favor- ‘ able conditions, such as the pres- etse thera of a powerful Communist Party, might hase ied to a revolution and a successful struggle for political power by the workingclass. And last, but not least, they expose the “model” socialist party of the world—the Austrian social-democracy ~~as no whit better than the hangmen of the German workingclass, the Noskes and the Scheidemanns. The ordeal and the misery through which the toil- ing masses of Austria have passed during the post- war period are too well known to require a fresh recital. The present day wages and the general standard of living of the Austrian workers is about the lowest in Europe. The Austrian workingclass is required to produce profits and luxury not only for its own capitalists, the Austrians, but also for the big European and American bankers which are supporting and financing Austrian capitalism. Under this double weight of oppression the Austrian work- ers have been suffering ever since the conclusion of the late imperialist war. And on top of this, the workers have been subjected to a regime of arro- gance and brutality of which the recent acquittal of the fascists guilty in murdering workers is only one of many examples. It was this provocative ac- tion of the capitalist court which precipitated the bloody events in Vienna. : And the social-democratic party of Austria, led by the so-called left socialists such as Otto Bauer, Adler, ete., again vindicated itself as the loyal ser- vant of capitalism. While the governmental troops were shooting down the workers, murdering their women and children, the trade union reactionaries and the socialist leaders were demoralizing the ranks of the workers by attacking their militants, divid- ing their ranks and paralyzing their fighting spirit generally. Now the socialist leaders are carrying on “peace negotiations” with the Austrian government for the only purpose of completing the suppression of the workers. In this effort Bauer and Co. will most likely succeed for the present, and Austrian capi- talism will be saved for another while. But the (Continued on Page Two) This Magazine Section Appears Every Saturday in The DAILY WORKER. ALEX BITTELMAN, Editor Drawing by Fred Ellis The Danger of War in Permanency yan the danger of sanguinary conflict in the revolutionary class war is at its highest, social patriotic treachery is nearest. The truth of this adapted proverb has once more been proved in the days of the highest tension between Great Britain and the Soviet Union. The lackeys of the bour- geoisie, in their pale red liveries, have increased their attacks against the Soviet’ Union at almost the same rate as have their masters; and whilst, at the beginning of the tension between Great Bri- tain and Russia, even the Berlin “Vorwarts” only wished to remain neutral, when there is a clash be- tween revolution and counter-revolution, even the Prague “Sozialdemocrat,” in whose case, in view of its insignificance from the point of view of the international bourgeoisie, it can be nothing but a work of supererogation, has, during the last few days, raved against the Soviet Union with an acri- mony and a zeal which betrays that the alliance between the Social Patriots and the bourgeoisie is beginning to turn from an objective community of interests into a sentimental community of souls. For this reason we can sympathize with these noble souls that they remain callous and cool when Eng- lish warships slaughter 7,000 Chinese in Nanking, but that they foam at the mouth when a few Rus- sian aristocrats are shot in Moscow. Every day is not Sunday, and the week day comes into its own again. Then it becomes a question of resuming the everyday work for the bourgeoisie, And since today war against the Soviet Union does not yet seem opportune to the bourgeoisie, since The New Conquest Hail the Conquerors! Spanning the Atlantic And the Pacific On swift wings, Breaking down the barriers of distance And of the oceans in warfare, Sweeping the frontiers of earth, Making obsolete big navies, Stretching the long arm of conquest, Spreading the gospel of empire! Hail the Conquerors! Bringers of a new terror, Delighting the Lord of War! - HENRY REICH, JR, By CARL KREIBICH (Prague) __ the worker need not yet be stirred up to direct fra tricide, the work must be resumed which the bour- geoisie regards as appropriate when it is preparing for war, until the moment when it resolves to strike out—at which moment immediate war propaganda begins—the work of soothing the masses, of hush- ing up the danger, of representing any resistance to the threatened danger of war as “war clamor,” and in this way bringing things to such a path that the bourgeoisie takes the masses by surprise with the war, that it throws over their head the steel net of a state of war before they have resolved on any defensive action. One of the best tried methods by which the bour- geoisie rules, is that of deceiving the working classes as to the true character of the period of history of the moment. A classical example of this is pro- vided by the policy of the bourgeoisie in the period from the beginning of the imperialist epoch until the great war. That was the first period in world politics in which the governments had to take into consideration the interest taken by the masses in their policy, to consider the moods of the masses and their movements of opposition. The epoch of the bourgeois revolution and of the formation of the National States was closed in Europe by the Peace of Frankfort in 1871; the Balkans alone lagged behind in the rear in 1878, without at that time causing any appreciable unrest. in other parts of Europe. If we make the experiment of circulating a questionnaire amongst the workers of Central Eur- ope, we can bet a hundred to one that in the memory of most of those who answer, the period from 1871 to 1914 or, at any rate, from 1878 to 1912 (Balkan wars) remains in their memory as an epoch of peace (from their experience, their reading and lec- tures they have heard). But what was in reality the aspect of this period? With Great Britain’s campaigns against the Afchans in 1878 and 1879 and against the Zulu. Kaffirs, a chain of colonial wars began which was never to be broken, and these were soon followed by the wars of the imperialist powers among themselves for the colonies (1898 the Spanish-American war) -and spheres of interest and for the dividing up of the world.. If we follow up the history of this epoch from 1878 to 1914, we have a clear picture of how the net of the threatened imperialist world war was being drawn closer and closer; we can, so to speak, see the war in the offing. If, however, we (Continued on Page Five)