The Party of Labour of Austria (PdA) issued a statement on the newly elected government in Austria underlining its reactionary character and also warning against the opposition of social democrats.
ICP, 30 December 2017
The statement issued by the Central Committee of the Party of Labour of Austria underlined that the new government in Austria would strengthen the capitalists position in the country to the detriment of the working class. Some of the most reactionary members of the bourgeois political personnel would occupy ministerial positions in the new government. The country’s integration to imperialist alliences would be strengthened. The PdA also warned against the social democrat bourgeios opposition in the country and expressed the need to organize the independent political struggle of the working class.
The full statement is as follows:
The new government is fixed. The last weeks of coalition negotiations between ÖVP (Austrian People's Party) and FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) already rudimentarily showed what awaits the working class and the Austrian people. The implementation of the decided measures and reforms would lead to an immediate deterioration of the working and living conditions of the wide majority of the population. The primary goal is to strengthen capital's position in the country. With the 12-hour-working day and the 60-hour-working week – already a reality for quite some time for a lot of workers in several branches – we return to conditions which once seemed to be long ago obsolete. Not only workers' rights, but also hard-won democratic rights are being threatened.
The occupation of ministerial posts, which are supposed to administrate and lead the armed wing of the bourgeois state, by some of the most reactionary members of the bourgeois political personnel of the country, is definitely an alarming development. A main topic of this government, which shall serve as a smoke-grenade for the lamination of the social ferocities, is also the restriction in the refugee-policy. Benefits are to be cut; the human right to shelter is to be largely abolished. Of course, the problems of the labour market are not at all being solved in this way.
As far as international relations are concerned, it becomes obvious that the new government – exactly as all the previous ones – will not only not question Austria's position in the EU and other imperialist alliances, but will even strive to strengthen it. In the interest of the Austrian and foreign monopoly capital, neutrality has already long ago become an empty shell; now full integration in the military structures of the EU and NATO is impending. The consequences of such a development can only be devastating for the Austrian people and other peoples, as thereby Austria will be involved more and more in the armament plans and the imperialist deployment plans of the "West". This will also lead to an increase in military spending.
Resistance against the anti-workers and anti-peoples policies can be waged only from below, from the people themselves. To rely on the bourgeois opposition parties or even to leave them the initiative will lead to defeats and disappointments in the longer term. The recent past showed that. It is also certain that within the framework of contradictions between the bourgeois parties and the different capital-fractions there will be various forces that will attempt to exploit the frustration and anger of the population to serve their interests.
The SPÖ (Social Democratic Party of Austria) already attempts to present itself as a "progressive" and "workers-friendly" opposition and alternative, in order to keep the working people trapped within the established system. With its dominance in the trade union and workers' movement it remains eventually the decisive column of capital it always was, by making in advance every protest and struggle toothless and maintaining parliamentary illusions among the workers.
After all, the new government program is basically the continuation of the anti-peoples policy of the SPÖ-ÖVP-governments under aggravated conditions and as the so-called "Plan A" (of SPÖ) already have shown, social democracy set by itself the course to make "compromises" on central questions – such as the flexibilisation of working time –possible. However, with rotten compromises, empty promises and false hopes the situation will change only to the worse.
Against such practices, it must be sought that the measures and reforms won't be implemented. This can be achieved only through consistent resistance and actual mass actions. Only if this policy meets determined resistance, can it be prevented. This presupposes that the working people and all affected popular strata become conscious of their own interests and, in order to defend them, organise themselves independently and become themselves active, without becoming the vehicle of bourgeois parties on their way to governmental power. To wait for the election of a new government, which promises a change of policy, can only lead to passivity, impotence and new disappointments.
Especially the working class must play a leading role in this struggle. For this, it must deprive the employer-friendly forces of "social partnership" of its confidence in trade unions, the workers' chamber and all mass organisations and take up the struggle together with the forces of class struggle. It takes strong class-oriented trade unions and mass organisations. It takes an alliance with all popular strata in town and country affected by the policies of the governments of capital and monopoly capital, with the working, student and school youth, with a militant women's movement and a consistent movement against any participation of Austria in imperialist alliances.
Under these conditions, the Party of Labour of Austria wants with its principles and its political proposition to give an actual alternative and perspective to the people. It is a political party independent from the interests and influence of any fraction of the ruling class and monopoly capital. It feels devoted and obliged only to the working class, the people of Austria and the international solidarity among the workers.
It sees as its historical task to help the working people to empower themselves and obtain through their own struggle what they deserve: a life that corresponds to the modern needs and is possible under today's tremendous development of productive forces; a life without overwork, deprivations, fear of unemployment and poverty; a life beyond lack of medical maintenance and care, education and cultural offers for the wider masses; a life without exploitation, wars and pauperisation. It is on the side of the working people and not in their place that the PdA and its members commit themselves for these goals. In order that this system and their representatives tremble with fear of the people and keep their hand off our hard-won rights, we must here and now organise and struggle!