Page:Resolutions and Theses of the Fourth Congress of the Communist International (1922).djvu/58

 together with the Austrian capitalists to enslave and exploit Austria. That which your governments are now undertaking towards Austria is really nothing more than a war of conquest in which your governments have not yet considered it necessary to use armed warfare. And just as it would be your duty not to tolerate war, so it is your duty to struggle in every possible way against this war of extortion and attrition.

This is not merely in the interests of international solidarity; your own interests demand that you do all you can to oppose your government and aid the Austrian proletariat in its desperate struggle!

International capitalism attributes much importance to the enslavement of Austria, despite the smallness of the country, and this is not without cause. International reaction seeks to make of Austria an important base for action against the world proletariat and world revolution. In Austria the proletariat is still relatively very strong as compared with the bourgeoisie. The Austrian bourgeoisie has found itself compelled to preserve a certain amount of democratic freedom. Austria is also the only country in which the national armed forces are distinctly proletarian, and are not used against the working class. International reaction is greatly interested in the substitution of brutal capitalist dictatorship for the present false democracy. They thus wish to build up a reactionary force in Germany. If the plans matured by the Geneva Conference come to fruition, the English, French, Czecho-Slovakian and Italian working classes will soon feel the increased pressure from capitalistic reaction, the whole world over, which will have grown stronger and more secure. In the approaching decisive struggle between world reaction and world revolution, the former will have gained an important strategic base of support, a new and dangerous stronghold whose importance will be particularly great now after the victory of Fascism in Italy. The enslavement of the Austrian workers is only the first preparatory step towards a similar and much more dangerous oppression of the German workers which will have perilous consequences for the working class of the world. International capital understands why the bourgeoisie have become so presumptuous as to plan the cancellation of this democracy. Now the social democratic leaders claim that a struggle for the defence of democracy would expose the Austrian working class to the danger of death by starvation. But, the pressure of the working class was so strong that the social democrats had at least to make a pretence of fighting. They were compelled to launch a campaign in Austria fearing the possibility of success most of all. The Second and Two-and-a-Half Internationals have called upon the workers of all countries to oppose the enslavement of Austria through the Geneva Agreement. But already the Austrian social democrats have given way and have abandoned even their sham battle. They are prepared to participate in the fulfilment of the Geneva Agreement by forming a masked coalition.