Austria – ADRV: “No stability to the new normality: Active electoral boycott!”
We publish an unofficial translation of a leaflet from the “Action for the democratic rights of the people” (ADRV) published by Rote Fahne Austria.
No stability to the new normality: Active electoral boycott!
As part of the electoral campaign for the National Council elections on September 29, Chancellor Nehammer is being pictured next to the slogan “Stability for Austria”. The type of “stability” he is referring to has been demonstrated in recent years: a stability for the “new normality” of dismantling social and democratic rights, of censorship, inflation, wage cuts, armament… The credo that it is normal to have to “tighten our belts” in times of crisis and war is to be spread quickly. The rulers want “stability” in order to better assert their interests, thus the population should “tighten their belts”. It is an illusion that the struggle for democratic and social rights, against warmongering and fascization can be won at the ballot box of the ruling class. We call on you: Don’t vote, resist and combat! For an active electoral boycott!
No stability for the warmongers: Electoral boycott!
Bans on demonstrations, police violence and threats of dismissal for expressing political opinions have increasingly revealed the openly repressive face of the bourgeois State apparatus in recent years. Attempts have been made to normalize such conditions, particularly with regard to the movement against the coronavirus measures and, more recently, the Palestine solidarity movement. With “Schutzschild 2024 (Protective Shield 2024; translator’s note)”, the largest military maneuver for over 10 years took place in Austria, which, among other things, was very openly an exercise to crush protests and rebellions in the interior. In recent years, the Black-Green government has clearly shown how much it believes in “democracy” and neutrality, regardless of what is said in many a Sunday speech (or election campaign). Internationally, the imperialists, particularly the USA and the EU (and here especially Germany), are beating the drums for militarization and armament. The rulers in Austria are following this line, as demonstrated once again by the new “Austrian security strategy”.
Those parties that want to present themselves as the “true opposition” on the parliamentary stage all agree with this course in one form or another. The FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria; translator’s note) complains about NATO arms transports through Austria, which it itself legally enabled as the governing party (1) and its Vienna regional party leader Nepp ties in with the practice of a “deployment of the Bundesheer (Austrian army; translator’s note) inside Austria” in line with the ÖVP/Green Party’s Corona policy. The SPÖ (Social Democratic Party of Austria; translator’s note) has included a “ban on arms exports from Austria to war and crisis zones” in its party manifesto, while its group in the EU Parliament recently voted in favor of the resolution on “support for Ukraine”. This resolution obliges each member state to provide at least 0.25% of its GDP for arms deliveries of any kind to Ukraine. KPÖ (“Communist Party of Austria”; translator’s note) top candidate Tobias Schweiger believes that Austria would be supplying “no cannons to Ukraine” anyway, while arms deliveries are of course also co-financed by Austria via the so-called “European Peace Facility”. While exploitation and oppression of the population are being intensified, we are being incited to war against other peoples. These conditions cannot be eliminated by simply going to the ballot box, but only through revolutionary struggle against the rulers – only the political power of the workers and the people will be able to put an end to the warmongering that is being carried out on the backs of the people.
No stability for social cuts and wage theft: electoral boycott!
Before the election, (almost) all parties seem to take a keen interest in the concerns of the population: “wild” debates are held on security, taxes, healthcare and education systems. The fact is, however, that the course of social cuts and real wage reductions has been pursued on a massive scale since the 1990s and has been supported in one form or another by the various parties. The consequences of this policy are borne by the masses. The collective wage agreements of recent years have lagged behind price increases – especially the rise in energy, rent and food prices. This wage theft was supported by the trade union leaderships, as well as numerous dismissals and “savings” in various companies.
ÖVP (Austrian People’s Party; translator’s note)Education Minister Martin Polaschek saw ‘no teacher shortage’ before the start of the school year, and thereby underscored once again that those in power only want to see the problems they can use for vote-catching during the electoral campaign. Debates about small improvements are meant to obscure the fact that labor rights and a health and education system in the interest of the people have never been the gift of one party or another, but always the result of struggles.
No stability for the old system: Electoral boycott!
The crisis of the modern capitalist system has long since become a permanent phenomenon, and none of its elections can save the ruling class from this crisis. Every attempt to overcome a crisis already contains the next, even deeper and more comprehensive crisis within it. The temporary ‘stability’ that this election aims to achieve means further deterioration for the population. Therefore, we, as ADRV, advocate for a democratic, revolutionary and independent unity of workers, employees, the unemployed, students, and small self-employed individuals. Instead of settling for the ‘least evil’ that this election has to offer, we fight to “overthrow all those conditions in which man is an abased, enslaved, abandoned, contemptible being” (Karl Marx). For an active electoral boycott!
(1) Amendment of the War Material Act under Schwarz-Blau II (coalition government in Austria formed by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which governed from December 2017 to May 2019; translator’s note)
Against rearmament and militarization
For the restoration of neutrality!
No to the dismantling of democracy and social rights
For real wage increases and the defense of labor rights and jobs!
Against the warmongering
Down with imperialism!
For the democratic and revolutionary consolidation of the people
Join the ADRV!”
