Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety: Forging a Militant Working-Class Culture - Softcover

Deutsch, Julius

Softcover

ISBN 10: 162963154X ISBN 13: 9781629631547

Publisher: PM Press, 2017

Synopsis

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. 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.  Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety contains an introductory essay by Gabriel Kuhn and selected writings by Julius Deutsch, l 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.

About this title

About the Author:

Julius Deutsch (1884–1968) was one of the most renowned representatives of the Austromarxist tendency of the 1920s and ’30s, chairman of the antifascist workers’ militia organization Republikanischer Schutzbund, president of the Socialist Workers’ Sport International, prominent spokesperson for the workers’ temperance movement, and military adviser for the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War. Gabriel Kuhn is an Austrian-born author and translator living in Stockholm, Sweden. Among his publications with PM Press are Sober Living for the Revolution and All Power to the Councils! 

Review:

"An almost completely forgotten episode in labor history." —Murray Bookchin, author of Anarchism, Marxism and the Future of the Left

"A foretaste of the socialist utopia of the future in the present." —Helmut Gruber, author of Red Vienna: Experiment in Working-Class Culture, 1919–1934

"The insurrection of February 1934 . . . left behind the glorious memory of resistance to fascism by arms and not merely by speeches." —E.J. Hobsbawm, author of The Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century, 1914–1991

"One of the big and important class struggles in the history of the international workers’ movement." —Arnold Reisberg, author of Februar 1934: Hintergründe und Folgen

"Austria was ahead of the times and established a precedent for future revolutionary developments." —Ilona Duczynska, author of Workers in Arms: The Austrian Schutzbund and the Civil War of 1934

"Gabriel Kuhn and PM Press have performed a valuable task in shedding light on the literary contribution of a man whose life’s work involved advancing the interests of those who were oppressed by an exploitative economic system." —Mark Hayes, marxandphilosophy.org.uk

"I'll bet Austromarxism was not on the tip of your lips. However, this intriguing little book touches on sports, pacifism, . . . and even teetotalers will feel a bit vindicated." —Red Frog, maydaybookstore.blogspot.de

"Gabriel Kuhn provides a critical focus on aspects of Austrian working class history at a crucial juncture: from the outbreak of the First Imperialist War to the rise of fascism." —Drew Cottle, labourhistorymelbourne.org

"Chosen of one of the 19 books to understand fascisim: Antifascism, Sports, Sobriety. The fascist obsession with the body was succinctly described by Susan Sontag in her essay, 'Fascinating Fascism,' in which she criticized the rehabilitation of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl. In her propaganda film, Olympiad, her record of the 1936 Olympics, Riefenstahl focused on the physical perfection of the athletes, which leads Sontag to write, 'Fascist art displays a utopian aesthetics—that of physical perfection. Painters and sculptors under the Nazis often depicted the nude, but they were forbidden to show any bodily imperfections. Their nudes look like pictures in male health magazines: pinups which are both sanctimoniously asexual and (in a technical sense) pornographic, for they have the perfection of a fantasy.' Klaus Theweleit also addressed fascist attitudes toward the body. Julius Deutsch was an Austrian Marxist who opposed the spread of fascism. He organized workers in Austria into proletarian militias. Because he understood the 'physicality' of the Nazis, he emphasized physical health and strength among those who were to fight them. He organized sports programs for Austrian workers that would give them the physical skills to resist German fighters. Wehrsport combined cross-country running, shooting sports, martial arts, and other types of physical training as part of its 'paramilitary sport.' He also prescribed 'healthful' practices, such as abstaining from alcohol, as part of a program that would build up each individual’s stamina and strength, since the battles ahead would be 'exhausting.' Deutsch’s objection to the more traditional sports—soccer, for instance—is that young men watched those sports, going to the stadiums to watch other men play but not benefitting from the exercise themselves. Deutsch’s programs took parts of the fascist program of health and strength and re-wrote it for the benefit of workers who would battle Nazis in the streets." —https://www.signature-reads.com/2018/09/best-books-to-understand-fascism/

About this edition

• Publisher: PM Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 162963154X
• ISBN 13: 9781629631547
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128