Otto Bauer, The National Question and Social-Democracy, St. Petersburg, 1909.
From §30: “Socialism and the Nationality Principle.”
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p. 534: ...“The socialist community will never be able to include whole nations within its make-up by force. Imagine the masses of the people, enjoying all the blessings of their national culture, taking a full and active part in legislation and administration, and, finally, supplied with arms—would it be possible to subordinate such a nation to the rule of an alien social organism by force? All state power rests on the force of arms. The present-day people’s army, thanks to its ingenious mechanism, still constitutes a tool in the hands of a definite person, family or class, exactly like the knightly or mercenary army of the past. The army of the democratic community of a socialist society is nothing but the people armed, since it consists of highly cultured persons, working without compulsion in socialised workshops and taking full part in all spheres of political life. Under such conditions, any possibility of rule by a foreign nation disappears” (534). |
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A United States of Europe is “not an empty dream”, but the “inevitable end of the road on which the nations set foot long ago” (542).
If a socialist Germany wanted to send part of her work people to the Ukraine, she would not do so “without guaranteeing them their cultural independence” (543) ... (the end of §30).
In §9: “Imperialism and the Nationality Principle” (512-29 of the Russian translation), the author quotes Schulze-Gaevernitz on British imperialism, points to the disintegration of Turkey, to Italy’s attempt to seize Albania: “Allusions will be made to Trento and Trieste, while having Albania in mind” (519). “In this way a predatory imperialist war can be presented to the mass of the Italian nation as a war for national freedom” (519)....
Baghdad, Russia in Persia, etc.—“such are the seeds and elements of those future conflicts” (518)....
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In the same way “British imperialism unfolds before the mass of voters a seductive picture of an empire of 400 million people under the rule of the single British nation, while having in mind the monopoly profits of the iron and steel magnates and speculation on the London Stock Exchange”.... “At some time Russian imperialism will probably pro- claim the freedom and unity of Poland and the Ukraine in order to open new markets to the St. Petersburg, Moscow and Lodz manufacturers” ... “and German imperialism, too, will have to proclaim itself successor to the Greater Germany idea of 1848, and inscribe on its banner the realisation of the single Greater German fatherland, while having in mind the sacrifice of German workers and peasants to safeguard capitalist interests on the Tigris and Euphrates” (522-23).... |
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“The destruction of Austria within capitalist society can only be the work of imperialism” (528)....
“The disintegration of Austria presupposes the triumph of imperialism in Germany, Russia and Italy. But the triumph of imperialism implies the defeat of the working class in these countries” (527). The Austrian workers should not pin their hopes on the triumph of imperialism....
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