By Gernot Trautsmuth
January 25th, 2000
"Widerstand! Widerstand!" - "Resistance! Resistance!" - that wasthe main slogan of the protest wave which has been shaking Austriafor more than three weeks. When it became clear that the conservativePeoples Party (ÖVP) was to form a coalition with the extremeright-wing Freedom Party of Jörg Haider, this sharp politicalturn sparked a spontaneous movement never seen before in Austria.
Every day thousands of people met in front of the headquarters ofthe ÖVP or in front of the office of the prime minister. On theday of the swearing of the new government there were three differentdemonstrations of several thousand people each. One of them occupiedthe ministry of social affairs. Political ferment was on the streets.All over the city (and not only in Vienna), on the internet, on theradio, everywhere people started to discuss about politics. Themovement affected not only students and youth but people of all agesand social origin. Everywhere you can see people wearing stickers toshow their protest against the new government. This was obviously thebeginning of the most important social movement in Austria since1968.
So why are people protesting? The main reason of thedemonstrations is to say no to a coalition with the FPÖ. Peopleare disgusted by the racist policies and the attempts of Haider andhis party to play down the crimes of the nazi regime. The movement isvery much confused and there is a clear lack of a politicalperspective. Most of the people participating in the demonstrationsare politically active for the first time in their lives. Themovement is still mainly on the level of a moral protest againstracism, against intolerance, against all the conservative ideologiesthe FPÖ stands for. It wants to show the European Union thatthere is also another Austria which is "different", that not allAustrians are evil.
Most of the people who are against this government have no clearidea of their character and why it was possible that the FPÖcould enter the coalition. They blame Schüssel, the leader ofthe ÖVP, arguing that for personal reasons he wanted to becomethe new prime minister. We do not want to underestimate the role ofpersonalities in social processes but it is a fact that the lastelections represented a shif to the right in Austria. The rulingclass gained confidence and were ready to kick the SPÖ out andto risk forming an openly bourgeois coalition in order to launch asevere attack on the living and working conditions of the workingclass. The programme of the new government is more or less the sameas the failed agreement between SP and ÖVP. As we alreadyexplained after the elections, whatever government was to be formed it was clear that it would have a programme of austerity to satisfythe needs of the Austrian bourgeoisie.
Organisers
What we have seen up until now is mainly an "uprising of the civilsociety", as one of the leading organizers of these demos said.Especially among the youth we can see a willingness to fight againstthe right-wing government. The big demonstration on the 19th ofFebruary in Vienna was the first peak of the movement. Even thepolice gave the figure of 150,000 people participating. Theorganizers (the Democratic Offensive and SOS Mitmensch, both a medleyof prominent artists, ex-politicians etc.) said 250-300,000! And theywere probably right.
However, the most important development is the increasingparticipation of the trade unions in these protests. At the beginningof the protest wave the trade unions took part in the demonstrationswith a sizeable number of activists. The trade union bureaucracy didnot support the daily demonstrations but concentrated all theirenergy in mobilising for the big demonstration in Vienna on February19th. And indeed the unions were the backbone of the demonstrationwith tens of thousands of shop stewards and workers from all over thecountry. They even held their own rally in front of the parliament.The trains coming from the regions were full of trade unionactivists. The participation of the unions is focusing the protestsagainst the government on the issue of the struggle against theplanned cuts in the welfare state (pensions, health service,unemployment system, cuts in the public service, privatisations...)This is extremely important and could mean a qualitative step forwardfor the movement.
The union leaders obviously wanted to show the government thatthey are prepared to fight. In the last weeks lots of union leaders(especially in the railway workers unions) have been making fightingspeeches and even threatened the government with strike action-something which was an absolute taboo in the times of "socialpartnership". Now of course they hope that the government will returnto the old ways of negotiating with the unions. Until now, thegovernment has made it clear that there is no alternative to allthese severe cuts. Social partnership is definitely over in the formthat we have known it for decades. For example, on the question ofthe reform of the pension system the government has called in some"experts" to plan the details. The unions will have the right tocomment on the results, but there will be have no possibility to takepart in this round table. At the moment the unions are waiting forthe new budget which will be presented to the public within the nextmonth. Then they will decide what to do. The mood among the unionactivists is in favour of strikes. On the big demonstration in Viennawe talked to many shop stewards who are prepared to fight but theyare still waiting for the union leaders to take the first step.Regional shop stewards conferences have already taken place, but justto inform the rank and file rather than to plan the coming struggles.
An important initative was the school students strike in Vienna,brought forward by the SAP, a school students organisation. In theend a platform of several left-wing students organisations (includingthe social democratic AKS and the school student wing of one of thetrade unions) was formed to organise the strike. Despite the factthat the ministry of education and most of the headmasters wereagainst this strike and organised a campaign of intimidation in manyschools, 10.000 students came to the demo. There was a big interestin political material and the mood was much better than in thestudent demos of the past years.
This was a further indication of the growing interest in politicsand the willingness to get active among a whole layer of the youth. This school students strike was the first anti-government protestcarried through, not by individuals coming together for ademonstration, but as a specific group in society putting forwardconcrete demands and opposing the plans of cuts and racist policiesof the government in schools. This is big step forward for themovement. Up until now there has been no opportunity for the movementto became more organised, to give itself a structure, and where adiscussion about a programme and perspectives can take place. Peoplejust came to the demos.
Of course public discussions were organised by the several groupsbut we still have an extremely spontaneous movement characterised bythe anger and disgust felt by lots of people. They are prepared tofight but the form of the protest is certainly proof of the fact thatpeople feel impotent. This shows in a very good way the limits of theso-called "civil society". The protests have created aradicalisation, where people are prepared to walk for hours(distances of 15-20 kilometres were normal at the dailydemonstrations!) But apart from "Widerstand!" the movement did notfind slogans or a real political alternative. This could change withthe start of the new term at university. During February universitieswere closed due to the holidays. The Socialist Party and CommunistParty students have already started to plan a mass meeting at theuniversity of Vienna for the second week of March. If this issuccessful, the universities could become the new centre of theresistance against the new government. The mood among students isdefinitely promising.
We are still at the beginning of the movement. This movement whichstarted as a wave of protests against racism will not limit itself tothat. When it becomes clear that this government wants to enforce itsplans of cuts then the movement could really reach a higher stage.
The role of the unions will be of enormous importance in thisprocess. For the last 3-4 weeks Austrian politics was made in thestreets. Parliament and the negotiations of the "social partners"were pushed to the background. However, on the level of traditionalpolitics an important development took place. The Socialist Party hasa new chairman. Viktor Klima and his party manager Rudas resignedwhen it was clear that the Socialist Party was being forced to leavethe government after 30 years. This represented a big defeat for theAustrian followers of the "Third Way".
At the beginning it seemed that Karl Schlögl, the formerminister of the interior, was going to be the successor of Klima. Hewas the symbol of the racist immigration laws passed under theSP-dominated government and he was also the representative of thosein the party who wanted a cooperation between the SP and the FP. Itseemed that he would get a majority within the party but then a waveof protest in the rank and file and especially among the trade unionschanged the whole situation. Schlögl withdrew from the contestand Alfred Gusenbauer was elected as the new chairman. He was thechairman of the Socialist Youth in the 80s when he was influenced byAustro-marxist and Stalinist ideas. But his politics have changed alot since he became a good friend of Schlögl. But in any case heis seen as the representative of that wing of the party which wantsto return to the "old social-democratic values".
In the election campaign he described himself as "Red Fred". Inthe first interviews he gave the impression of someone who wants toput into practice a more political way to lead the party. The SP nowopenly expresses its support for the anti-government protests. Therank and file seems to be happy with the new leadership. Gusenbaueris far from being the "Marxist" that the bourgeois press wants topresent. However, the rank and file of the SP regard this change inthe party leadership as a shift to the left and a return to the "goodold days" of the SP. The developments within the SP will depend verymuch on the course of the ongoing movement.
One thing is clear, the formation of the new government marks anend to decades of "social partnership", and these massive protestsmark the beginning of a new era in Austrian politics, an era in whichclass struggle will be back on the agenda.
From the Austrian Marxist magazine Der Funke
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