>Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2000 15:57:08 +0000 (GMT) >From: David Welch <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > >=========================================== >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. > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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