Austromarxism

The Austro-Marxism was an Austrian school of Marxism during the first half of the 20th century.

He was justified in 1904 by Otto Bauer, deputy party leader and leading theorist of the Austrian SDAP (the Austro-Marxism was largely influenced by him ), Max Adler and Rudolf Hilferding. In contrast to the teachings of Marxism and Leninism Bauer made ​​the initiation of social revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat from Langerringen an absolute majority in the actually existing parliamentary democracy depends. The charismatic Otto Bauer knew this particular by Friedrich Adler supported policy against internal resistors ( Renner, elbow ) enforce until about the downfall of the party in 1934 also. This left the Austro-Marxism in the sequence organizations of SDAP, the Revolutionary Socialists (RS ) and the exile organization AVOES the authoritative mindset. Even with the founding of the party in 1945, the ideas of Austro-Marxism were still given space, which however, was of very short duration.

According to Bauer, the word " Austro-Marxism " was first used by the American publicists LB Boudin shortly before the outbreak of the First World War.

History of Austro-Marxism

Some writers are of the opinion that under the generic term " Austro-Marxism " everything had to be subsumed what Austrian socialists thought from 1900 to 1945 and published that the term therefore tends to be more of an origin description in terms of the Austrian school of scientific socialism as the clear basis of a common denominator was content. These writers are part of the Austro-Marxism especially those fundamental thinkers of the party that in 1904 the " leaves on the theory and policy of scientific socialism " or the " Marx- studies " and from 1907, the monthly magazine " The Fight " gave out or published there. This group of people, who ranged from Otto Bauer Max Adler, Rudolf Hilferding, Gustav Eckstein to Karl Renner or Tatiana Grigorovici the only woman in the circle of the Austro-Marxists, but took very different views. It is thus hard to filter out those common denominator is the sum of the scriptures, which could be regarded as an Austrian specialty. With additional attention to the fact that the Austro-Marxists were generally associated with the left wing of the Socialist International, so the assumption seems justified that it was the " Austro-Marxism " but to a clearly defined promarxistische and antireformistische mindset that Otto Bauer as the ideologist of the party by sat pretending and with varying success.

The heir to the Austro-Marxism

The Austrian social democracy draws as a conclusion that the Austro-Marxism did not constitute a viable basis for the achievement of socialism by democratic means, but developed no strategy against burgeoning fascism. With the destruction of the organizations of the labor movement by the Austro-fascism, and certainly with the "Anschluss " of Austria by Nazi Germany, the Austro-Marxist theory was essentially just more represented in the underground or in exile after 1945 she played no significant role more in the SPO. Nevertheless, there are - especially in the Socialist Youth continue Austro-Marxist approaches that reflect dissatisfaction with the reformist in her eyes course of the current party.

The Austro-Marxism can be regarded as the predecessor of the euro -communism. Both worldviews understood as an alternative to Soviet-style socialism.