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Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture
The Austromarxist era of the 1920s was a unique chapter in socialist history. Trying to carve out a road between reformism and Bolshevism, the Austromarxists embarked on an ambitious journey towards a socialist oasis in the midst of capitalism. Their showpiece, the legendary “Red Vienna,” has worked as a model for socialist urban planning ever since. At the heart of the Austromarxist experiment was the conviction that a socialist revolution had to entail a cultural one. Numerous workers’ institutions and organizations were founded, from education centers to theaters to hiking associations. With the Fascist threat increasing, the physical aspects of the cultural revolution became ever more central as they were considered mandatory for effective defense. At no other time in socialist history did armed struggle, sports, and sobriety become as intertwined in a proletarian attempt to protect socialist achievements as they did in Austria in the early 1930s. Despite the final defeat of the workers’ militias in the Austrian Civil War of 1934 and subsequent Fascist rule, the Austromarxist struggle holds important lessons for socialist theory and practice. Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety contains an introductory essay by Gabriel Kuhn and selected writings by Julius Deutsch, leader of the workers’ militias, president of the Socialist Workers’ Sport International, and a prominent spokesperson for the Austrian workers’ temperance movement. Deutsch represented the physical defense of the working class against its enemies like few others. His texts in this book are being made available in English for the first time.
128 pages, Paperback
Published February 1, 2017
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October 3, 2018
One of the less well-known strands in early-mid 20th century Marxism or left activism more generally was Austromarxism, emerging in the wake of the First World War and the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although not a specialist in its politics, Austromarxism seems to me to have been distinctive for several reasons, most notably that it managed to hold together reformist and revolutionary strands of socialism in the same party (the Communist Party of Austria was small and fairly ineffective), it took culture seriously without falling into the crude reductionism that sees culture as a superstructural element determined by a base, and third although the party (the Social Democratic Workers Party – SDAP) sought socialism, replacing capitalism, it also seems to have tried to build alternative ways of living and working in the now which seems to have been akin to the anarchist approach of building the new world within and while the old still exists. This is significant because in many ways Austromarxism anticipated the so-called Eurocommunism of the 1970s and 1980s by about 50 years but more importantly the tendency took culture seriously and did not treat it as some sort of capitalist epiphenomenon or distraction from the ‘real' struggle, but as a site of struggle and activism.
This short collection of three essays by Deutscher, a leader of the SDAP, and essay by Kuhn, is an intriguing and valuable introduction to Austromarxism and its approach to working class culture, and through a careful historically contextualised reading highlights one of its key deficiencies – timidity. Deutscher’s rhetoric is full of revolutionary fervour – about the need to build a sports culture that rejects the dominance of the individual and chauvinisms linked to what he calls ‘bourgeois’ sport, about the dangers of alcohol (the now almost totally forgotten socialist temperance movement) and the need to self-organise workers’ antifascist militias. Despite this fervour, the antifascist militias of which Deutscher was the leader sought to keep the peace as the events of the Austrian ‘civil war’ broke out in 1934 – only too late did they resist, but at least they did unlike other countries. Workers’ sport was more successful, staging several major multi-national festivals but ultimately did not survive the more hard-core communist split with the Red Sport International and the fascist crackdown of the mid 1930s. Finally, socialist temperance has disappeared. So, as a key advocate for and theorist of these three areas of work, Deutscher seems to have failed, raising the problem of the significance of this collection.
Although this is not the language activists and theorists such as Deutscher would have used, these texts are important because they set about class struggle into everyday life and those banal relations of existence; they track the contours of areas of struggle and the everyday, of ordinary moments of pleasure and joy and of physical as well as ideological struggle. In this vision sport becomes a site of coherence and cooperation, of pleasure for the sake of pleasure and taking part, not of winning. He looks at alcohol as the source of a dulling of the senses undermining the struggle against capitalism, and at the dangers of trusting the state in capitalist society. Deutscher paints a picture of a working class culture that, in its everydayness, is a site and source of political contest and struggle This struggle then is not one revolutionary transformation, before which we all live in a state of proletarian misery, but one where the new world is built in the old. The irony of course is that this is exactly what happens in many revolutionary settings anyway, that party activists and allies in their daily lives build new prefigurative forms of existence.
Kuhn bookends the text with a long historical introduction and short biography, while a little over half the book is Deutscher’s three essays that have, in many respects, aged adequately and for the most part remain both current and relevant. There are provocative and challenging ideas here for the Left, especially as in these bad times we need to set aside many of our petty tribalisms and tedious sectarianisms in favour of a common focus and struggle. Equally, for historians – especially those of us who deal with these cultural and social forms – there are useful and insightful ways to think about and explore struggles around politics and culture, and for those of us who do not read German these are among the few texts of the period before World War Two that take culture and everyday life seriously.
This is not likely to attract many readers (we need to be honest that this kind of work falls on dry, often fallow, land) but here we have broadly socialist and progressive approaches to culture and the everyday in the context of a leftist politics that incorporates tendencies usually at odds rather than cooperation. As the timidity of the anti-fascist militias shows there is much avoid in the Austromarxist experience, but there is also much to learn from: Kuhn is clear about his motivation here – in these bad times, let’s learn from the successes and failures of our precursors. My principle compliant is that two of the three essays are extracts of abridged versions of much longer pieces, but then in a small market there is only so much a small press like the excellent PM can do.
Well worth a look.
This short collection of three essays by Deutscher, a leader of the SDAP, and essay by Kuhn, is an intriguing and valuable introduction to Austromarxism and its approach to working class culture, and through a careful historically contextualised reading highlights one of its key deficiencies – timidity. Deutscher’s rhetoric is full of revolutionary fervour – about the need to build a sports culture that rejects the dominance of the individual and chauvinisms linked to what he calls ‘bourgeois’ sport, about the dangers of alcohol (the now almost totally forgotten socialist temperance movement) and the need to self-organise workers’ antifascist militias. Despite this fervour, the antifascist militias of which Deutscher was the leader sought to keep the peace as the events of the Austrian ‘civil war’ broke out in 1934 – only too late did they resist, but at least they did unlike other countries. Workers’ sport was more successful, staging several major multi-national festivals but ultimately did not survive the more hard-core communist split with the Red Sport International and the fascist crackdown of the mid 1930s. Finally, socialist temperance has disappeared. So, as a key advocate for and theorist of these three areas of work, Deutscher seems to have failed, raising the problem of the significance of this collection.
Although this is not the language activists and theorists such as Deutscher would have used, these texts are important because they set about class struggle into everyday life and those banal relations of existence; they track the contours of areas of struggle and the everyday, of ordinary moments of pleasure and joy and of physical as well as ideological struggle. In this vision sport becomes a site of coherence and cooperation, of pleasure for the sake of pleasure and taking part, not of winning. He looks at alcohol as the source of a dulling of the senses undermining the struggle against capitalism, and at the dangers of trusting the state in capitalist society. Deutscher paints a picture of a working class culture that, in its everydayness, is a site and source of political contest and struggle This struggle then is not one revolutionary transformation, before which we all live in a state of proletarian misery, but one where the new world is built in the old. The irony of course is that this is exactly what happens in many revolutionary settings anyway, that party activists and allies in their daily lives build new prefigurative forms of existence.
Kuhn bookends the text with a long historical introduction and short biography, while a little over half the book is Deutscher’s three essays that have, in many respects, aged adequately and for the most part remain both current and relevant. There are provocative and challenging ideas here for the Left, especially as in these bad times we need to set aside many of our petty tribalisms and tedious sectarianisms in favour of a common focus and struggle. Equally, for historians – especially those of us who deal with these cultural and social forms – there are useful and insightful ways to think about and explore struggles around politics and culture, and for those of us who do not read German these are among the few texts of the period before World War Two that take culture and everyday life seriously.
This is not likely to attract many readers (we need to be honest that this kind of work falls on dry, often fallow, land) but here we have broadly socialist and progressive approaches to culture and the everyday in the context of a leftist politics that incorporates tendencies usually at odds rather than cooperation. As the timidity of the anti-fascist militias shows there is much avoid in the Austromarxist experience, but there is also much to learn from: Kuhn is clear about his motivation here – in these bad times, let’s learn from the successes and failures of our precursors. My principle compliant is that two of the three essays are extracts of abridged versions of much longer pieces, but then in a small market there is only so much a small press like the excellent PM can do.
Well worth a look.
July 26, 2022
If you think about it, the key to self liberation is abstinence from the destructive escapism of intoxication
May 21, 2018
So much easier to read these excerpts in English translation than to slog through the originals... probably printed in fraktur...
Kuhn's 49 page introduction to Austromarxism, Julius Deutsch, and the Social Democratic sport clubs is excellent, and left me generally more interested in the jockier aspects of Red Vienna. Kuhn also does a good job of balancing left and right critiques of the Schutzbund, and in today's environment, with fascism again on the rise across the world, this history is unfortunately something we need to reconsider.
Deutsch's writings collected here are ephemera, pamphlets and other propaganda that was not meant to be timeless. As with other Austrian historical documents of that time, it is kind of sad to remember all that has been lost. Today, many people view anything to do with the so-called body culture as just a slippery slope back to fascism. Sure the cover photo for this book and the images of that time, the drawings and other artwork that accompanied the posters and pamphlets of these groups looks very macho and anything but "progressive." But Deutsch is already back then making counter arguments, not to the sexism that was doubtless at work in these groups but against the argument that it's all just the flip side of the same oppressive coin... He claims that these working-class sport clubs had a completely different philosophy behind them... against celebrity athletes unhealthily concentrating on one sport or one set of movements... not focusing on record breaking or us-versus-them national identities... instead the focus is on living healthy, being ready to defend ourselves, building an (international) culture of solidarity... and Deutsch is also talking about the Schutzbund here, the armed anti-fascist militias of the interwar period, and he is at pains to make a clear distinction between the militancy he wants to see in the working class and the militarism of our enemies.
I've personally had a number of health issues in the past few months, most of them stress-related. Deutsch's father suffered severe work-related injuries and he lost his mother to tuberculosis and when he calls for sobriety in the final essay collected here, he makes the point that workers are already stuck in some unhealthy situations so why lead a lifestyle that makes it even worse. Yet when I see Vienna's working class today, like I was at Praterstern earlier, and it's like, everyone is either terribly unhealthy, or else tweaked-out on god knows what kind of supplements, and the idea of sports as a way to build a socialist mind-set and even an antifascist fighting force is just lost. It's just hooliganism, doping, freakish bodies that may be super-muscular but are also overweight, and yeah, you know what I mean. I don't know. I'm thinking of checking out the Naturfreunde in Vienna nowadays. Probably they're just about as socialist as the socialist party which is to say, not socialist in any meaningful way. But a walk in the woods with some people who know the way back would probably do me some good.
I'm also more interested in Julius Deutsch now. At the end of this short book is a brief biographical essay. Deutsch fought in the Spanish Civil War and survived it, was one of the guys afterwards in France who wanted to keep fighting fascism... so he probably appears in that book Schalom Libertad! : Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg even though he himself never wrote about his Jewish background. I didn't get through that book, I couldn't stand what happens to everyone who manages to survives the Spanish War and then the World War, and I don't remember if Deutsch was in there or not, but he seems like a pretty right-on kind of guy and I might try his memoir, Ein Weiter Weg someday.
Kuhn's 49 page introduction to Austromarxism, Julius Deutsch, and the Social Democratic sport clubs is excellent, and left me generally more interested in the jockier aspects of Red Vienna. Kuhn also does a good job of balancing left and right critiques of the Schutzbund, and in today's environment, with fascism again on the rise across the world, this history is unfortunately something we need to reconsider.
Deutsch's writings collected here are ephemera, pamphlets and other propaganda that was not meant to be timeless. As with other Austrian historical documents of that time, it is kind of sad to remember all that has been lost. Today, many people view anything to do with the so-called body culture as just a slippery slope back to fascism. Sure the cover photo for this book and the images of that time, the drawings and other artwork that accompanied the posters and pamphlets of these groups looks very macho and anything but "progressive." But Deutsch is already back then making counter arguments, not to the sexism that was doubtless at work in these groups but against the argument that it's all just the flip side of the same oppressive coin... He claims that these working-class sport clubs had a completely different philosophy behind them... against celebrity athletes unhealthily concentrating on one sport or one set of movements... not focusing on record breaking or us-versus-them national identities... instead the focus is on living healthy, being ready to defend ourselves, building an (international) culture of solidarity... and Deutsch is also talking about the Schutzbund here, the armed anti-fascist militias of the interwar period, and he is at pains to make a clear distinction between the militancy he wants to see in the working class and the militarism of our enemies.
I've personally had a number of health issues in the past few months, most of them stress-related. Deutsch's father suffered severe work-related injuries and he lost his mother to tuberculosis and when he calls for sobriety in the final essay collected here, he makes the point that workers are already stuck in some unhealthy situations so why lead a lifestyle that makes it even worse. Yet when I see Vienna's working class today, like I was at Praterstern earlier, and it's like, everyone is either terribly unhealthy, or else tweaked-out on god knows what kind of supplements, and the idea of sports as a way to build a socialist mind-set and even an antifascist fighting force is just lost. It's just hooliganism, doping, freakish bodies that may be super-muscular but are also overweight, and yeah, you know what I mean. I don't know. I'm thinking of checking out the Naturfreunde in Vienna nowadays. Probably they're just about as socialist as the socialist party which is to say, not socialist in any meaningful way. But a walk in the woods with some people who know the way back would probably do me some good.
I'm also more interested in Julius Deutsch now. At the end of this short book is a brief biographical essay. Deutsch fought in the Spanish Civil War and survived it, was one of the guys afterwards in France who wanted to keep fighting fascism... so he probably appears in that book Schalom Libertad! : Juden im spanischen Bürgerkrieg even though he himself never wrote about his Jewish background. I didn't get through that book, I couldn't stand what happens to everyone who manages to survives the Spanish War and then the World War, and I don't remember if Deutsch was in there or not, but he seems like a pretty right-on kind of guy and I might try his memoir, Ein Weiter Weg someday.
January 2, 2024
a nice lesson on austromarxism, the proletariat relationship to sports, and sobriety as a necessity in early 1900’s Austria
December 31, 2025
Julius Deutschi huvitavad kirjutised kahe maailmasõja vahelise tööliskultuuri edendamise kohta Viinis, kus sotsiaaldemokraatide võimuga kujundati 15 aasta jooksul ümber kogu linn. Perioodi tuntakse ka "Punase Viinina" (Rotes Wien).
Kirjutised keskenduvad kehakultuurile, karskusliikumisele ja fašismivastasele võitlusele. Kõik need aspektid on tihedalt seotud aktiivse, eneseteadliku ja koostöövalmi töölispõlvkonna kasvatamisega.
Gabriel Kuhni eessõna annab hea ülevaate austromarksismi liikumise ajaloost ning suurimatest õnnestumistest (Punane Viin) ja läbikukkumistest (otsustuskindluse puudumine, mis 1919 ei kehtestanud töölisvabariiki ning 1933 ei astunud otsustavalt vastu fašismile).
Kirjutised keskenduvad kehakultuurile, karskusliikumisele ja fašismivastasele võitlusele. Kõik need aspektid on tihedalt seotud aktiivse, eneseteadliku ja koostöövalmi töölispõlvkonna kasvatamisega.
Gabriel Kuhni eessõna annab hea ülevaate austromarksismi liikumise ajaloost ning suurimatest õnnestumistest (Punane Viin) ja läbikukkumistest (otsustuskindluse puudumine, mis 1919 ei kehtestanud töölisvabariiki ning 1933 ei astunud otsustavalt vastu fašismile).
June 11, 2024
Nou, moet toch maar eens een tripje naar Wenen plannen.
October 3, 2022
In this short and concise book on early 20th century Austromarxists, Gabriel Kuhn with the help of writings from Julius Deutsch describes the success and failures of one of the strongest Leftist parties in pre-WW2 Europe.
These Austromarxists (SDAP) styled themselves as the “third way” socialism between reformism and Bolshevism, though I personally feel that is not seen to be entirely true. Rather a Social Democratic government, looking to upend revolution through reformism, with inklings of militant militias, syndicalism, etc. When Trotsky says of the SDAP that they are “educated Marxists incapable of applying Marx’s methods… to big problems of politics” or Lenin says “that in practice they absolutely fail to understand the dictatorship of the proletariat…” as they had chosen the path of least resistance. As like many Social Democrats, they are at best puppets of the bourgeoisie and at worst direct hirelings of the bourgeoisie.
Their political and militant dealings were all bark and no bite. As seen by their workers’ militia (Republican Schutzbund) being too scared of escalation to protect workers numerous times. An increasing example, much like Árbenz in Guatemala, to not arm the workers against fascism. The framework for revolutionary potential was there but their hesitancy turned the masses apathetic.
The one saving grace of the SDAP and Julius Deutsch were initiatives like the Socialist Workers’ Sport International where sport was no longer about individualism, tribalism, and commercialism, but rather as a necessary means to shape a proletariat that is mentally and physically prepared to overthrow capitalism. I also believe the discussion on sobriety is important. As liquor can be a unifying experience to enjoy and organize with fellow comrades, it can also largely be demoralizing and corrupting. Shifting away from the typical religious or bourgeois coated temperance movements. I think Kuhn does a great job chronicling the high and lowlights of the Austromarxist movement.
These Austromarxists (SDAP) styled themselves as the “third way” socialism between reformism and Bolshevism, though I personally feel that is not seen to be entirely true. Rather a Social Democratic government, looking to upend revolution through reformism, with inklings of militant militias, syndicalism, etc. When Trotsky says of the SDAP that they are “educated Marxists incapable of applying Marx’s methods… to big problems of politics” or Lenin says “that in practice they absolutely fail to understand the dictatorship of the proletariat…” as they had chosen the path of least resistance. As like many Social Democrats, they are at best puppets of the bourgeoisie and at worst direct hirelings of the bourgeoisie.
Their political and militant dealings were all bark and no bite. As seen by their workers’ militia (Republican Schutzbund) being too scared of escalation to protect workers numerous times. An increasing example, much like Árbenz in Guatemala, to not arm the workers against fascism. The framework for revolutionary potential was there but their hesitancy turned the masses apathetic.
The one saving grace of the SDAP and Julius Deutsch were initiatives like the Socialist Workers’ Sport International where sport was no longer about individualism, tribalism, and commercialism, but rather as a necessary means to shape a proletariat that is mentally and physically prepared to overthrow capitalism. I also believe the discussion on sobriety is important. As liquor can be a unifying experience to enjoy and organize with fellow comrades, it can also largely be demoralizing and corrupting. Shifting away from the typical religious or bourgeois coated temperance movements. I think Kuhn does a great job chronicling the high and lowlights of the Austromarxist movement.
July 10, 2020
Gabriel Kuhn’s book “Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture” is a fascinating look at the political thought of Austromarxism that underlies the experiment in Red Vienna, and the cultural movement emerging there and theorized in partiuclar by Julius Deutsch's. Kuhn’s all to brief book is split into two sections. The first section is a short introduction to the ideas of Austromarxism—a philosophical/political/cultural socialist “third way" somewhere between reformism (social democrats) and bolshevism (revolutionary communism)—and their application in Red Vienna to build a working class culture. The positioning of Austromarxism between social democrats and communists (specifically those most loyal to the USSR) is interesting and not one I was familiar with before this book. That history is interesting and worth exploring, but the insight into the workers militias and their relationship to worker organized and centered sports is way more important here. It built up the individual in terms of health and connection in terms of firmly rooting them in a community that worked and played together. All of this worked towards building a culture of solidarity that extended internationally with the workers olympics.
The second part of Kuhn’s book presents three essays by Julius Deutsch. Deutsch’s essay like the rest of the book is short, but I find extremely relevant given how sports have been successful sites of resistance. Deutsh explains the differences between organized sports as building community solidarity verses compentitive bourgeois individualism. He explores the difference between the discipline of sports and working class organization as opposed to militarism. Although some of his points seem dated, what is critical is re-thinking sports as sites of resistance and turning individual athletes political expressions into collective expressions (much like Premier League teams ‘Black Lives Matter’ moment of silence, jerseys, etc and Philly Union’s jerseys).
My sole critique is that the book is too short! Nonetheless, the book provides great insights into how sports have always been political and can be used as an important cultural force that radicals should embrace, rather than pretend sports are simply capitalist distraction.
The second part of Kuhn’s book presents three essays by Julius Deutsch. Deutsch’s essay like the rest of the book is short, but I find extremely relevant given how sports have been successful sites of resistance. Deutsh explains the differences between organized sports as building community solidarity verses compentitive bourgeois individualism. He explores the difference between the discipline of sports and working class organization as opposed to militarism. Although some of his points seem dated, what is critical is re-thinking sports as sites of resistance and turning individual athletes political expressions into collective expressions (much like Premier League teams ‘Black Lives Matter’ moment of silence, jerseys, etc and Philly Union’s jerseys).
My sole critique is that the book is too short! Nonetheless, the book provides great insights into how sports have always been political and can be used as an important cultural force that radicals should embrace, rather than pretend sports are simply capitalist distraction.
June 4, 2025
Fascinating book, exploring aspects of socialism that I haven't given much time. Austromarxism was ultimately proven wrong in its approach, for reasons that Kuhn wonderfully elucidates. However, there is still plenty to be taken from the tendency. Deutsch's thoughts on sports, sobriety, and culture are interesting and challenge some of the other tendencies in unique ways. Though the rigidity of the Austromarxists in regard to sobriety also ended up being wrong, the baseline formations that Deutsch puts forth illuminate how we need to rethink the way we approach both sport and sobriety. My only qualm with the book is that I wanted more, this is just a brief foray into those topics.
February 22, 2025
A great introduction to Austro-Marxism with a great, critical essay from Kuhn and source material from Deutsch. I think Austro-Marxism is served well to be written about by an anarchist, or at least someone with those sympathies, and Kuhn does an admirable job describing the faults of what is otherwise a very enticing idea: namely, turning the working class struggle for socialism into a cultural struggle.
Well worth a read.
Well worth a read.
July 9, 2025
A brief but intriguing look at the Austromarxists of the early 20th century. The essays contained herein give a small insight of how reformist and radical factions can come together to take on a common enemy. Well worth a deeper dive into their movement to see how they were able to grow, and also learn lessons about how their movement was eventually defeated. THAT would be ultimately prescient for today’s political reality.
March 16, 2022
A good introductory book to the Austromarxist school and their role in the creation of voluntary proletarian sports and recreation leagues in the first half of the 20th century. It details the importance of sport, recreation, and sobriety in the ethos of the Austrian Social Democrat party.
Short, can be finished in a couple of hours.
Short, can be finished in a couple of hours.
December 18, 2025
super interesting look at cultural elements of the socialist movement in austria pre-wwII and how that can apply to modern movements. i loved how the book was framed, looking first at the history of the austromarxist movement in practice versus its idealistic components. would recommend to anyone interested in history or leftist theory
April 19, 2025
nothing super surprising here, but i could appreciate some of the perspectives. the contraposition of workers’ sport and bourgeois sport was particularly trenchant.
March 14, 2018
"the clarity and elegance of Kuhn's translation [are] equal to the clarity and elegance of his previously published collection of extracts from the anarchist Eric Muhsam. At a time when several projects are underway to make available in English a greater proportion of Red Viennese literature, Kuhn's contributions are a blessing without disguise. " Full review at:
http://theorangepress.com/woid/woid21...
http://theorangepress.com/woid/woid21...
April 28, 2022
A bit slight but some good stuff in this one re: self-defense for leftist organizations and sport as a participant rather than observer
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