![]() It seemed impossible to organise this new layer of workers, and at the same time many of the old structures collapsed during the first months of the war, because under the new conditions of war these organisations no longer made sense to many party activists.Īlready, in the Winter of 1914/15, the workers of Vienna start to suffer from hunger because of the bad food supply to the Habsburg empire. The old trade union representatives on the shop floor were often frustrated with this new workforce because it was hard to make them join the labour movement. Nevertheless, a job in the armament factories was precious because wages were higher than in other sectors, so nobody wanted to risk their employment. These workers toed the line in the face of militarist discipline, which had been established in these factories by the army bureaucracy. The regime called them the “soldiers of the rear”, and they had no relationship with the unions or the Social Democracy and their organisational traditions. Many of these new workers came from the countryside, nobody in their families had ever worked in a factory before. They were substituted by women and youth. The former – a mostly unionised, organised factory workforce – was decimated, because one cohort after another was recruited into the army. Huge armament factories grew up in the industrial regions of Austria (Vienna, Lower Austria, Styria, Steyr), bringing a new working class into being. The organised working class was sent to the front and replaced by un-unionised women and youths / Image: Austrian public archives The Austro-Hungarian monarchy adapted its economy to the interests of the army, all the material resources were put at the disposal of the military. “Soldiers of the rear”Īgainst all expectations, by Christmas 1914 the war was still going on, with a bloody conflict being waged at the front. The work of 25 years could not be put at stake by a policy of adventurism, like an open protest against the imperialist war machinery. In this situation the only thing left for them was to save the party and trade union structures, which had developed fairly well in the years before the war, from destruction. The coming war was seen like a natural disaster, that no one could stop. In the decisive meeting of the party executive, a feeling of impotence reigned among the leadership. Moreover, for the Social democratic leadership, this was a war against Russian Tsarism: the most reactionary regime in Europe, which was seen as the biggest threat to a democratic and socialist future. Not everybody in the party was happy about this openly nationalist tone, but resistance against the militarism that had dominated for years seemed useless. On the front page of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, the daily newspaper published by the Social Democratic Party, chief editor Friedrich Austerlitz named the day of the declaration of war the “Day of the German nation”, arguing that the Social Democracy must protect the homeland and the “German people”. Even the Social Democrats were not immune to this wave of national enthusiasm. A young boy, the son of a Russian revolutionary living in exile, was shouting “Long live Serbia!” and was beaten up by the other children. ![]() ![]() The flower sellers cheered the troops in their dashing uniforms. ![]() The man in the street suddenly felt a sense of grandeur at the prospect of his nation’s victory. In the streets of the capital of the Habsburg Empire there was huge enthusiasm. When the first soldiers left Vienna in the summer of 1914 to move against Serbia, nobody thought the war would last so long. The workers had endured their fourth winter under war conditions. ![]() After years of hunger and with war-weariness setting in, the revolution in Russia gave the workers hope that another world was possible, inspiring them to take action. 100 years ago, in January 1918, a mass strike shook Austria. ![]()
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