Austria: biggest strike day for 35 years

28 June is certainly a date to remember in Austria. On this day we saw the first significant strike action of the trade union movement for decades. Our correspondent from the Austrian section of the LRCI reports.

28 June was a day of action for a number of Austrian unions in all the larger Austrian cities. It was directed mainly against a reactionary pension reform which would force older workers to wait another eighteen months before being eligible to collect their pension.

This is of course a cynical pro-capitalist measure because at the same 200,000 people are looking for jobs and productivity and profits are increasing.

The railway workers union - traditionally a highly unionised sector - is in the forefront of the struggle and other public service unions are not far behind. The railway workers held a one hour strike and the busdrivers, tramdrivers and other municipal workers organised in the morning some strike activities.

The printers’ union also struck for some hours causing the evening papers not to appear. Finally, there were also a number of shop floor meetings - de facto strikes - in a number of other sectors like in one of the biggest post offices and the biggest hospital of the country.

All in all some hundreds of thousands were involved in strike action. Management attempts to break the strike failed because of the solidarity of workers and union discipline.

While all this is not very impressive by European standards it is unparalleled for Austria. It is the first generalised strike activity for 35 years! This is also reflected in the bourgeois press which realises that the epoch of social partnership – which was characterised by backdoor deals and no strikes – has ended and a new period of more open class confrontation has begun.

ArbeiterInnenstandpunkt (ASt) – the Austrian section of the LRCI – participated actively in the strike. In the morning we visited bus and tram driver depots, distributing leaflets and discussing with strike pickets about where to take the struggle next.

A number of workers understood the need for further, massive strikes. There was no hostility against “communists” – quiet the opposite we were invited into the depot to join the strikers for breakfast!

Later we joined a smaller union rally outside the headquarters of the bosses’ federation. The rally was mainly an occasion for a handful of top bureaucrats to talk to the press and not for mobilising workers. However we and some activists of Austrian Militant/CWI used the opportunity to debate the leader of the capitalist federation in front of TV which was quiet successful.

After it there was a rally of around a thousand municipal workers. At midday we initiated a rally at the biggest railway station in Vienna in solidarity with the strike at the same time.

The rally was supported by the CP-affiliated fraction in the railway workers union (which is the second strongest faction inside after the social democrats) and Austrian Militant/CWI. Several speeches were made and we were able to talk to many passengers.

A top shop steward also spoke at the railway station. Everyone involved got the impression that only a minority of people opposed the strike and many were supportive.

Again solidarity between railway workers and ASt militants was good so the union activists invited us after the rally into their canteen to share lunch and discuss the day’s events. The workers who had been out on strike were generally agreed that more action was needed.

In our leaflets we argued for a broadening and intensification of the strikes; only an indefinite strike of the unions can defeat the anti-retirement measure. We also argued for rank and file strike committees to take the control of the strike out of the hands of the bureaucrats.

A referendum of all union members is crucial if any deal between the union leadership and the government is reached. Finally the ASt argued for a linking of this struggle with the struggle against racism and the right wing government itself.

All our efforts lead in the direction of getting a general strike to bring down the government and so forestall its programme. Our leaflet was also signed by the CP-affiliated fraction in the railway workers union. But at the same time the COP fraction did not actively fight for an intensification of the strike inside the railway workers union leadership!

However, there is a massive danger that the union bureaucracy will sell out the struggle. This warning strike – as it was called – was already too late and not enough. The bureaucracy is prepared to make many compromises.

It is rather the government which is an obstacle for a rotten deal because it wants to humiliate the union. The coming days will show if the pressure of the rank and file is strong enough to force the union leadership to strike.

Whatever the outcome of this dispute, the coming period will see an increasing number of disputes. Our task is to build a political alternative to the existing reformist leaderships of the workers’ movement. They have nothing learned and nothing forgotten.

Only a new revolutionary party can give the working class a programme and a leadership which meets the task of the present period. The ASt will do its utmost to meet this task.

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