----------------------------------------------------- Smash Austria! Smash Nationalism! The right-wing extremist FPOe (Freiheitliche Partei Oesterreichs - The Freedom Party Of Austria) under Joerg Haider won 27% votes in the Austrian national elections, on October 3rd 1999. Now the FPOe is the second strongest party in Austria (after the SPOe, socialdemocrats). In some regions it is the strongest. Their entire pre-election campaign was concentrated on slogans against "overforeignering and misuse of political asylum. They dont know exactly what the word overforeignering means, but in Hitlers days, it was a symbol of hatred toward all non-Germans. This was probably the first public use of the word, since 1945. Political asylum can hardly be misused in Austria, because over 99% asylum seekers are refused and deported to safe third countries and from there to their countries of origin. the FPOe - was not voted for in spite of their racism, but because of it. With the help of racism, antisemitism, sexism and agitation against social parasites, one can always win elections in Austria. The right-wing extremist, nationalist and racist potential among the population is even bigger. There are many only who voted for the Socialdemocrats because their member and Austrias minister of inner affairs, Carl Schloegl, leads in the racist policy of deporting refugees. It was no coincidence that opinion polls and European elections showed better results for the SPOe after the accidental killing of the Nigerian refugee Marcus Omofuma in may. Minister Schloegl, who claimed not to be responsible and did not resign like his Belgian collegue did in a similar case, became Austrias most popular politician after the incident. The population is also thankful to Schloegl and the SPOe for Austrias important role at closing the borders of Fortress Europe. The FPOe has been forcing the government, a coalition between SPOe and OeVP (Oesterreichische Volkspartei the conservative Austrian People`s Party) to execute their own racist slogans for years. The government willingly does so allegedly to prevent Haider from winning over that kind of voters. The recent elections have proven once more that this strategy doesm`t work. The government`s racist policy only drives the whole political spectrum only further to the right. We should not forget that the situation could still be worse. The FPOe participating in a government would be worse. It would strenghten Austrian racism beyond limits. This is also where the main problem is: An overwhelming majority of the Austrian population is racist, nationalist and antisemitic, and is willing to join every slanderous attack. Authoritarian mentality is the common one, not the exception. And there are surely historical continuities. National Socialist ways of thinking are still present among the Austrian population. Those Austrians, who were enthusiastic about the National Socialist takeover of Austria in 1938, suddenly saw themselves as Hitlers first victims, when the German Reich was militarily beaten in 1945. This strategy of self-victimization also helped the people of the second republic of Austria to get away with it, to escape the responsibility for actively participating in the holocaust. The fact that, making 8% of the total population of Germany, Austrians were 40% of all SS troops was not relevant. No austrian was charged with war crimes after World War II. When Austria was part of Nazi-Germany, there was little resistance and the country had to be conquered by foreign armies, before the regime was replaced. The ideology did not vanish. After a very short and superficial period of de-nazification the same old National-Socialist functionaries sat in their seats again. A re-education of the population didn`t take place and neither did a large-scale voluntary discussion of history. Racism and antisemitism also bloomed after 1945. All the parties (socialdemocrats, conservatives and communists) were already striving for the votes of de-nazified Nazis in 1949, when they all decided to readmit them for elections. At the same time the VdU (Verband der Unabhdngigen association of the independent) was founded, so the old nazis had their own party again. The FPOe derived from the right wing of the VdU, which had split up in 1956. Now, 40 years later, the FPOe is very successful under it`s new leader Joerg Haider. All of these years there has been a good relationship between SPOe, OeVP and FPOe. In 1970 the SPOe had constituted a minority-party government with the support of the FPOe (Haider was not yet head of the party then). After the chief of the Jewish documentation archive of Vienna Simon Wiesenthal, who helped to find nazi war criminals like Adolf Eichmann, informed the public that the then FPOe-chairman Friedrich Peter had formerly been a member of the SS, SPOe-chancellor Bruno Kreisky thought it necessary to come to Peter`s defense and to insult Wiesenthal, using antisemitic stereotypes. In 1983, when the FPOe was in a relatively liberal phase under Norbert Steger, the SPOe even made a coalition with FPOe but this was all over when Haider came to power in 1986 by a party-internal putsch (coup). The new leader led the party from success to success with massive propaganda against foreigners. The liberal intermezzo under Steger had almost costed the FPOe their existence in the parliament, but the racist offensive under Haider made them the second biggest party in the country. Nazi-ideology doesn`t live on only in the FPOe. Of all the (re-)organized (Neo-)nazis, the most important organization was the VAPO (Volkstreue ausserparlamentarische Opposition extra-parliamentary opposition, loyal to the (German) people (Volk)), who trained themselves militarily for a nationalist putsch in the 80ies and were tolerated by many. The racist bombseries in the 90ies, when 4 Roma were killed and other people were injured, was indeed an expression of open racism despite all the displayed shock. The moment Mr. Franz Fuchs was arrested as the bomb brain, the media and politicians began to depoliticise the bombings. The single offender Fuchs is still portrayed as a psychopath without any ideological background. Pro-German nationalist students` associations could and can pursue their activities relatively undisturbed at the universities. Many of the FPOes ideological cadre also Joerg Haider himself came and come from these groups. In 1965 the communist and resistance-fighter Ernst Kirchweger was killed by such a nationalistic student at a demonstration against the antisemitic university-professor Borodajkewycz in Vienna. Kirchweger was only the first political victim of the second Austrian republic. Discussions about the NS-involvement of presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim in 1986 had once more made obvious, that antisemitism has not vanished in Austria. A majority of the Austrian population voted for Waldheim out of a feeling which can be described with Now, more than ever. Criticism was met with antisemitic resentments. The antisemitic and racist mood among the population is also nourished by the biggest daily newspaper Neue Kronenzeitung. This ᠃ 3; yellow paper, which has especially distinguished itself lately with attacks against Black people living in Austria, reaches 40% of the whole circulation of all Austrian daily newspapers, a unique concentration of media power in EU. Fascist worldviews are easily conveyed from one generation to the next. There only has to be someone who awakens and concentrates this ideology, to create a mass movement again. Haider is not a nazi. National-socialism as such will not rise again, it is 60 years too late for that. The FPOe is a party of democratised and modernized fascism. Widespread right-wing exremist attitudes make it easy to believe that Haider is a democrat. Fascist, racist and antisemitic politics are in fact part of a parliamentary democracy. There is no need to abolish the parliamentary system for taking political measures that can be even more racist and authoritarian than those of the SPOe-OeVP coalition. It will be hard for those who are the objects of these attacks: migrants, the unemployed and of course for those who want to stop him uncompromisingly. The FPOe`s success at the elections has unleashed released the mob, which had been waiting for decades, to strike again. Migrants are complaining about an increasing number of abuses and brutal attacks. Ariel Muzicant, president of the Israelitic association, is complaining about a massive increase of attacks against Jews in Austria. The number of threatening letters has increased tenfold. This antisemitism is being intensified by a number of Austrian media and politicians (of SPOe and OeVP). In their reactions to Israels comments of the FPOe success, they argue with secondary antisemitism, which is distinguished by for example accusing Jews of not letting the past be past. Even the few liberal newspapers respond to the Israeli foreign minister`s criticism with the advice that Israel should better look at itself, clean it`s own house first, etc. You can probably imagine the positions of people in pubs and other meeting places of the Volk. Conclusion: Nothing can be expected from the Austrian majority population, with its deeply rooted antisemitism and racism. Joerg Haider`s democratised and modernized fascism will not be destroyed by some suddenly emerging antifascist masses. They do not exist in Austria. That is why we appeal that the international public takes action against Austria and that it fights racism and antisemitism everywhere. ----------------------------------------------------- Arge Kriegsdienstverweigerung und Gewaltfreiheit, Autonome Uni-Antifa (AUA), Basisgruppe WU, B�ndnis Antinationaler Gruppen (BANG), Fachschaft Informatik, Gr�ne Alternatve und Linke an der TU-Wien (GRAL), �kologische Linke (�KOLI), Rosa Antifa Wien (RAW)

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