[Fwd: News from Vienna [Women's Art Connection]]

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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From: WomensARTconnection <WomensARTconnection@xxxxxxxxx>
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INTERNATIONALES

this is a mail to our international friends who are concearned about
what is going on in Austria.
if you agree with the content, please forward it to others.
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WE ARE CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT IS DONE TO HUMAN RIGHTS
AND HUMAN DIGNITY IN OUR COUNTRY.

We do not feel obliged to claim Austria's "innocence".
The to-be government is in support of the majority
of Austria's population.
We have no reason to claim Haider is "just another" populist.
He is not.
He is a populist that operates with xenophobia,
racism and the denial of the Holocaust.

The major threat is not the increase of direct
violence against minorities. The major threat is the signal
that far right agitation and action is not only ok but
earns you a place in government.
As opportunism is one of the most prominent features of
the "Austrian mentality", this is a severe political danger.

We have reason to be afraid of
* the final end of refugee or integration policies
* increasing xenophobia, racism and even antisemitism,
   because Austia has never faced its past and now people
   have governmental legitimation for such attitudes
* law and order policies instead of co-operative strategies
   to deal with crime and conflict
* abolition of progressive women's policies (e.g. the post of
   the minister for women's affairs will be cancelled and
   replaced by an extended family ministery)
* severe restrictions to freedom of art, especially
   where it puts a finger on the state of the Austrian society
   (already, in Carinthia, artists are faced with
   political limitations to their work)
* restrictions to the freedom of press, because subsidies
   for critical media products will most certainly be cut down

we don't know yet what to do about it.
we need both your solidarity and your ongoing critisism.
don't stop looking at our country.


To the international community

Declaration of the Austrian antiracist movement

In this moment of Austrian history we are deeply concerned with the
political developments in our country. For more than 10 years, many NGOs,
initiatives and smaller parties have tried to change the austrian racist
reality
without success.

In the new millenium, Austria still is not a democracy but a national
democracy. More than 10 % of our population is systematically denied all
political rights and participation, often even for decades, they are
kept in the status of ?foreigners?. Even in the trade-unions,
there are no equal voting rights for all workers and employees.
This system, guaranteeing equality not to human beeings but to
citizens only, is unique in Europe. Since a democratic
system has been imposed on Austria after World War II, not only the
conservatives and the right wing, but also the governing social
democrats fortified this system of nationalistic and racist
segregation and exclusion. This lack of balance in the political
system led to the uprising of a party that is openly promoting
a revision of Nazi history, using racism as an effective
political tool due to the lack of a counterveilling power.

Even the killing of Marcus Omofuma during his deportation
on May 1st 1999 did not lead to any antiracist measures.
On the contrary, police action, especially against people with
African background, increased drastically.
Charles O., major activist, writer and poet from Nigeria, was even
accused of being a drug-boss and imprisoned for 3 months,
before he had to be released due to complete lack of evidence
and major charges were dropped.
Nevertheless these practices led to significant intimidation of the
Black communities in their political campaigning.

Under such unfair conditions of criminalisation and the lack of
democratic rights, we welcome initiatives from the side of the
international community that put pressure on Austrian representatives.
Austria is facing a drastic swing to the right. With a
right-conservative
government things will even get worse for people discriminated
on grounds of racism, including the Jewish minority,
as well as for people discriminated on the grounds
of sexual orientation, sexual identity or on the grounds
of being physically handicaped.

For some years now, Austria is known in the European Union
for its attempts to radically alter the politics towards a demontage
of the Geneva Convention and the denial of asylum for refugees.
Austria has become the home-base for right-wing policies,
threatening emancipatory movements all over Europe.
Therefore it is in the self-interest of all democratic powers in Europe
to try to reverse the political currents in Austria. We want to
encourage all
international steps in this direction, hoping that the European Union at
least has learned from history, while the official Austria has not.

Under any government to come, Austria should finally change towards
a fairdemocratic system which includes the right to vote for all
permanent inhabitants, in which there is an anti-discrimination-law
with respectiveenforcement, in which immigrants are not treated
as enemies and in which human rights are really respected.

Platform for a world without racism. Vienna, 1.2.2000
(Please distribute this declaration to your regional and
national media as well as to politicians).

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Link: CeiberWeiber-News <http://www.ceiberweiber.at>
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/hofburg.htm> -
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/sos.htm> ....
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/proteste.htm> ....
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/beiprammer.htm>
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/angelobung.htm>
<http://www.ceiberweiber.at/wahl/zivilcourage.htm>

Mails als Html-Datei an <mailto:redaktion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Link: Aktion Zivilcourage! <http://www.aktion-zivilcourage.at/>

Link: gettoattack <http://www.t0.or.at/gettoattack/>

Link: <http://www.sos-mitmensch.at>

Link: <http://www.dasbuntehaus.at>

Mail: Friedensbuero Wien <mailto:pax.vienna@xxxxxx>

Link: AUGE - Alternative und Gruene GewerkschafterInnen/UG
         <http://www.ug-oegb.at>

Link: Arche <http://www.arche.or.at>

Link: Die Lebendigkeit der Geschichte
      <http://www.arche.or.at/arche/conf>

Aktuelle Pressemeldungen finden sie unter <http://www.kpoe.at>

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Protestmail an Dr. Wolfgang Schuessel
<mailto:Wolfgang.Schuessel@xxxxxxx>
***************************************************************

Naechste Grosskundgebung in Wien am 19. Februar
        Max Koch , SOS Mitmensch
        O676/ 310 80 51
        Unser Protest ist auschliesslich und ohne wenn und aber gewaltfrei.
        Deshalb fordern wir alle auf, ausschliesslich mit demokratischen
        Mitteln zu      agieren und von jeder Gewalt Abstand zu nehmen.
        SOS Mitmensch
mehr Info:
netz: <http://www.sos-mitmensch.at>   post:  PF 220, 1071 Wien
fon: ++0043 1 524 9900  fax: ++0043 1 524 9900 9
bank: bawag, blz 14000, knt. - nr: 01910 666 017

__________________________________________________________________________
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Friedensbuero Wien, <pax.vienna@xxxxxx>,
Wiener Friedensbewegung
1030 Wien, Koelblgasse 18/1
Telefon und Fax (01) 796 50 21


Weitere Veranstaltungen im Rahmen der Reihe ?Wehret den Anfaengen?:

Mi., 16. Februar,
Wer heute die Bombe liebt? (Atomruestung), Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Schoenfeld

Mi., 15. Maerz,
Sprachlose Gesellschaft - Jugend und Gewalt, Renate Welsh

Mi., 12. April,
Integration - Erfahrungen aus der Praxis in Schule und Arbeitswelt,
Susanne Horvath (VS-Lehrerin), Ile Zagorac (Arbeiterkammer)

Mi., 17. Mai,
Solidaritaet und soziale Gerechtigkeit in einer ?globalisierten Welt? -
wie koennen Beitraege der oesterreichischen
Aussenpolitik dazu aussehen, MdEP Hans Peter Martin (angefragt)

Mi., 14. Juni,
VertreterInnen der Religionsgemeinschaften in Penzing und
Rudolfsheim-Fuenfhaus ueber ihre Beitraege zum Frieden

Informationen:
Andreas Pecha, Fiedensbuero Tel. (01) 796 50 21
Alois Reisenbichler Tel. d. (01) 749 51 96,
Handy (NEU) (0664) 39 51 809

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Liebe Leute,
Via Bruessel habe ich per E-Mail die neue Regierungserklaerung,
einen Brief von Ursula Stenzel an alle MEP und die Erklaerung
der Praesidentin des Europaeischen Parlaments zur
heutigen Resolution (auf Franzoesisch) erhalten. Ich finde wir sollten
uns das alle sehr genau anschauen, um uns besser wehren zu koennen,
da es aber ein ziemlich grosses mail wird (zusammen ca 450 KB)
frage ich vorher an ob ich es schicken soll.
Sende es jedem weiter der es haben will.
Haenge hier nur die Preambel zur Regierungserklaerung an.
Liebe Gruesse Brigitte Cacioppo
>nicht angehaengt! bitte auch bestellen!
<mailto:aon.912062998@xxxxxx>

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