Re: Weekly Worker on the Austrian elections

["ÁÎ×Ó¹â HenryC.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Correction:
Perhaps the CIA will now see the demonization of communism as NOT as
simplistically desirable as it had been during the Cold War.

"ÁÎ×Ó¹â HenryC.K.Liu ¹ù¤l¥ú" wrote:

> My understand of European politics is limited and dependent on the
> untrustworthy Western media.
> This report coinsides with my hunch that the internalization of facism within
> capitalistic democracy has made it imperative for the neo-liberals to
> grandstand against extreme facism, particularly as a political institution.
>
> My view is that the re-emergence of facist political parties and governments
> represent an opportunity, and a return to reality, for hitherto eclipsed
> communist movements and parties.
> Perhaps the CIA will now see the demonization of communism as as
> simplistically desirable as it had been during the Cold War.
>
> Henry
>
> David Welch wrote:
>
> > ===========================================
> > Weekly Worker 322 Thursday February 10 2000
> > ===========================================
> >
> > Our anti-fascism and theirs
> >
> > "Far right takes power in Austria." "Europe in turmoil over far right pact
> > in Austria." "Austria in crisis".
> >
> > These headlines are all references of course to Jrg Haider's Freedom
> > Party, which has entered into a coalition with the conservative People's
> > Party. Slightly unexpectedly, the FP secured the majority of cabinet posts
> > (six out of 10). In another coup for the FP, Haider managed to get his
> > private secretary and close political confidante, Susanne Riess-Passer, in
> > as vice-chancellor. Haider himself will remain governor of the southern
> > province of Carinthia, biding his time.
> >
> > The response of Austria's fellow European Union governments has been loud
> > and disapproving, with Haider's FP becoming the target of politically
> > correct (though historically incorrect) anti-fascist self-righteousness.
> > The European parliament has threatened that Austria's EU membership could
> > be suspended if the Vienna government "veers from European standards of
> > democracy and human rights", as the official communiqu put it.
> >
> > The US government recalled its ambassador from Austria for "consultations"
> > - Israel did likewise, only more militantly. There have been innumerable
> > calls for sanctions and boycotts from a wide range of quarters. Belgium
> > has asked its skiers to refrain from visiting Austria. On Tuesday (the
> > unelected) Prince Charles announced that he would be postponing an
> > official visit planned for May to the 'Britain now' trade fair in Vienna
> > as a protest at the inclusion of the FP in the government.
> >
> > For communists this avalanche of humbug and hypocrisy is quite nauseous.
> > However, it is also very informative. The reaction of the liberal and
> > liberal-left press to Haider's rise is integral to official anti-fascism
> > which seeks to restrict democracy in the name of democracy. We are led to
> > believe that the politics of inconsistent democracy will avert the
> > 'fascist threat' - just as a state ban on the British National Party will
> > also promote democracy, at least according to those who subscribe to
> > 'hardline' politically correct anti-racism.
> >
> > Thus an editorial in The Guardian paternalistically ticked off "the
> > Austrian electorate ... for tolerating and encouraging Mr Haider's rise"
> > and offered the following piece of constitutional advice: "President
> > Klestil can yet head off this calamity, even if the politicians cannot.
> > Under article 29 of the 1920 constitution, he can annul last October's
> > results and call a fresh election. Over 70% of Austrians did not support
> > the FP last time round. And those who did, now more fully aware perhaps of
> > the awful consequences for their country if Mr Haider advances, should
> > also be given the chance to think again, and think very hard" (my
> > emphasis, February 1). The Green Party in Austria has also called for new
> > elections.
> >
> > The Observer added a new twist to the liberal-authoritarian argument of
> > the Green Party and The Guardian: "The post-war liberal consensus, led by
> > philosophers like Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin, was that Hitler's
> > election can and should have been contested. [Haider] and his
> > party fall beyond the pale. It may be that Haider is strengthened by the
> > EU's reaction and Austria eventually leaves the EU. So be it. Austrians
> > may choose to be led by neo-Nazi racists, but the rest of us do not have
> > to connive in their choice" (February 6).
> >
> > One of the most significant aspects of the 'Haider crisis' is the
> > considerable light it throws on official ideology - that is, the state
> > promotion of anti-racism, anti-fascism and anti-Nazism. As we have pointed
> > out before in the Weekly Worker, especially over the Macpherson inquiry
> > into the Stephen Lawrence murder, the ruling class and the bourgeois media
> > are rearticulating their ideology and belief-systems. The British
> > establishment has successfully appropriated anti-racism - draining it in
> > the process of much of its democratic content. So much so indeed, that
> > official anti-racism is now a powerful ideological weapon which the
> > bourgeoisie uses to divide the working class, as did the racism of old. It
> > turns us all into ethnic supplicants before the state - which decides
> > who gets the politically correct blessings (and hence a sop hand-out) and
> > who does not. The same essential point can be made about official
> > anti-fascism/Nazism, as the chorus of outrage over Austria demonstrates.
> >
> > What a contrast to the 1920 and 30s. Then the danger to bourgeois rule
> > came from the working class organised in mass socialist and communist
> > parties. Wide sections of the ruling class looked towards and promoted
> > fascist movements in Europe as saviours from Bolshevism - which meant they
> > did not think twice about appealing to racist and anti-semitic bigotry.
> > Big capital in Italy and Germany were hand-in-glove with fascism as
> > counterrevolution. In Poland the nationalist socialist Joseph Pilsudski
> > carried through an anti-communist fascist coup in 1926. Protected from
> > outside intervention, Franco smashed the Spanish revolution. Action
> > Franaise - along with a young Franois Mitterand - was ready to do the same
> > in France. Everywhere the bourgeoisie was up to its neck in fascism.
> >
> > Hence, the Vatican's current abhorrence of Haider sits very uneasily with
> > its past. The deeply anti-semitic Pius XII made a whole series of
> > pro-Mussolini/Hitler pronouncements - the 'killers of Christ' were at last
> > going to get their just deserts.
> >
> > A certain Winston Churchill - and many others in the British ruling class
> > - also expressed approval during the 1920s and 30s of Mussolini's and
> > Hitler's crusade to save Europe from communism. Edward VIII and his
> > partner Mrs Wallace Simpson were 'Nazi monarchs' in waiting.
> > Lord Halifax admired Hitler and his SS methods. So did Lord Rothermere and
> > his Daily Mail - it actively promoted Sir Oswald Mosley's New Party and
> > after that the British Union of Fascists. The US of course was afflicted
> > by a virulent institutional racism/eugenicism and anti-communism, which,
> > with a greater working class challenge, would surely have spawned a mass
> > fascist movement. Randolph Hurst - of 'Citizen Kane' fame - was set to
> > bankroll bloody counterrevolution.
> >
> > In the aftermath of World War II and the holocaust the bourgeoisie had to
> > reinvent itself as noble fighters against fascism and Nazism. The myth was
> > born of Britain fighting World War II, not to save the British empire, but
> > to defeat the Nazi threat to democracy. Across the whole of Europe we are
> > still living with that lie in its various national versions.
> >
> > One thing remains exactly the same though - the politics of national
> > chauvinism. The vile anti-immigrant rhetoric of the FP differs in no
> > substantial way from the mainstream message - and practice - of the
> > People's Party, or the Social Democrats for that matter, as Haider likes
> > to point out. In turn, the current tough talk emanating from Jack Straw
> > about 'bogus' or 'illegal' asylum-seekers/refugees is not a million miles
> > away in tone, to put it mildly, from Haider's more open chauvinist rants.
> >
> > It is apparent that many of those who voted FP are a mixture of former
> > Social Democratic Party (SP) supporters and/or young workers, disgusted by
> > the cosy corruption and patronage which has characterised the 'red'
> > (social democrats) and 'black' (conservatives) Austrian state since 1955.
> > No doubt the FP will soon become equally discredited, once Haider and his
> > colleagues have got their noses in the trough. Instead of demonising those
> > who voted for Haider, implying that the SP and PP are perfectly
> > acceptable, socialists and communists in Austria - as in Britain - must
> > break with bourgeois ideology, left and right, and fight for independent
> > working class politics.