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Workers Power Global, Austria: 18 May 2003
During the last two weeks Austria has experienced its first mass strike action since 1950. On the 6 May 500,000 workers participated in strikes, demonstrations and street blockades. This is nearly every fifth worker or - to make an international comparison - if three million went on strike in Italy or four million in France or Britain. Most enterprises with more than 500 employees were hit by the strike, as were many public services, teachers, transport and health service.
A week later, on 13 May, a national mobilisation was called by the Austrian trade union federation (ÖGB). In fact it was also a day of strikes since not only did 70,000 teachers hold a one-day strike but also tens of thousands workers from the provinces went to the capital, i.e. going in fact on strike for this day. The response was beyond the expectations even of the organisers: 200,000 workers and youth marched through the streets of Vienna.
This was not only the biggest workers demonstration since decades. It was even more impressive given the concrete circumstances in which it took place. Before and during the demonstrations Vienna and Eastern Austria experienced one of the worst thunderstorms for decades. The demonstrators took to the streets despite extremely heavy rain and the streets were white with hailstones!
This mass demonstration reflected the enormous determination of the working class and youth to fight back against the government offensive. This historic strike action was provoked by an unprecedented attack by the right-wing government on the pension system. In effect the ruling class wants to cut the state pensions of workers by 40-50 per cent.
This struggle is also a historic break with the (terrible) tradition of the Austrian workers' movement ever since World War Two. The ÖGB has a history of avoiding strikes at all costs and to stick to the traditional "Austrian way" of working within the framework of "social partnership" with the bosses.
Characteristically in a recent strike statistic among the OECD countries (calculated by working days lost per 1,000 employees between 1992-2001) Austria was in bottom place! Social partnership is an institutionalised form of extremely close class collaboration in which concessions were given to the working class in return for renouncing strikes. But this system has become too costly for the bourgeoisie so it ended it a few years ago. The union leadership under Fritz Verzetnitsch hoped to continue doing back-door deals without going on strike but the bourgeoisie - surprise, surprise! - didn't take up its offer.
But this "no-strike-at-any-costs" policy of the union leadership could not be sustained any longer. Many workers and youth are so enraged about the government's attacks that the leadership had to act and organise strikes.
Despite the reactionary media propaganda that the Austrian population would hate strikes, the opposite is the case. The support among the population for the strike is huge and rising. According to a poll published this week 53 per cent of those polled support a continuation of the protests while 40 per cent call for it to end. The highest proportion of strike supporters is among the 18 to 29-year-olds which makes the bourgeois lies (repeated by many reformist bureaucrats) that the younger workers are more backward and not interested in working class actions look risible.
The main danger at the moment is that the union leadership calls an end to the struggle since some sectors of the bourgeoisie are calling for negotiations. As a result the Austrian president initiated the formation of a "round table" in which all parties represented in parliament, the bosses and the unions should take part. Verzetnitsch and his friends might be ready to drop the strikes to show the capitalists that they are "reliable partners".
ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt, the Austrian section of the LFI, and the youth organisation REVOLUTION intervened massively both in the strike on 6 May and the mass mobilisation on 13 May. We mobilised for it in many schools and work places. At a central demonstration our contingent played a leading role. Noah - a 13-year-old school student and REVOLUTION supporter called for a general strike at the rally before the march began. Similarly Axel Magnus, chief shop steward of a Viennese social-service enterprise and a militant of ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt - spoke at the final rally which was also addressed by the leader of the biggest single-branch union and the university students. Axel was the only speaker to call for a general strike - a call which was met with an enthusiastic response by the crowds.
We have initiated a model resolution opposing any cuts in the pensions system, for the formation of action committees to organise strikes until the government plans are withdrawn. This resolution has already been taken up by workers in the social service, postal service and education sector.
Our main slogans for the movement are: "For a general strike until the attacks are withdrawn!" and "For the formation of strike committees in the enterprises!". It is crucial that rank and file workers organise themselves independently to put more pressure on the leadership and to organise resistance themselves if the leadership drops it. For the same reason we are seeking to get a national conference of shop stewards off the ground to decide on the course of the struggle. And we also demand the union leadership does not participate in the "round table".
While it is too early to say how the struggle will end, one thing is clear: Austria is no longer a "strike-free" country. It has joined other countries where the working class fights back. The biggest obstacle is the union bureaucracy that wants to hinder and derail the struggle as soon as possible. This demonstrates the enormous crisis of leadership of the working class. It is the task of revolutionary Marxists to address this crisis of leadership and to do everything possible to help overcoming it. With this perspective ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt and REVOLUTION are determined to intervene and fight for those steps that can lead the workers' movement to victory.
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