On the occasion of the recent terrorist attack on November 2 in Vienna, we would like to publish the statement of the Antifascist Action - Vienna :
[source: afainfoblatt.com]
Terror in Vienna
On the evening of November 2, the eve of the second lockdown, a bloody attack was carried out in the inner city of Vienna by a reactionary who felt he belonged to the "Islamic State" (IS). His inhuman and despicable act resulted in several dead and seriously injured. The political consequences are already clear, the ruling class is using them for the implementation of their own plans…
The last terrorist attacks in Vienna (excluding the federal territory) took place not quite 30 years ago, in 1993. While on November 2 of that year it was an IS-influenced reactionary, at that time it was Nazi, German nationalist forces that sent letter bombs. The fact that this is hardly ever mentioned, and that it is usually wrongly written about the fact that the last attack was about 40 years ago, is part of the political strategy of the ruling class, which wants to enforce the equation "Muslims = danger". The terror of the letter-bomb Nazis and murderers of the Roma of Oberdorf is thus systematically excluded. The Seitenstettengasse in Vienna's first district, where the attack of November 2 began, has a symbolic meaning in connection with a terrorist attack inasmuch as it was also the scene of an attack on the synagogue located there in 1981. Of course, it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether this location was deliberately chosen in the most recent attack.
The attack of November 2 is a crime that cannot be justified, a crime that shows the inhuman ideology of the perpetrator (or perpetrators) and with which it was directed specifically against ordinary people, such as the shot waitress in one of the inner city restaurants. As reactionary as the perpetrator was undoubtedly, it must be emphasized that acts like these do not "fall from the sky" but that their cause ultimately lies in the tradition of European colonialism and imperialism, in state racism and in the impoverishment of ever larger sections of the population. Even if the active military involvement of the Austrian ruling class abroad is not particularly intense (but highly specialized), it is an indisputable fact that Austria, with its contributions to the development of an EU army, its NATO partnership and its activities in the context of international operations, is part of the military plans of the great imperialists of EU and the USA. And it is above all U.S. imperialism which has long been pouring rivers of blood over the peoples of the world, creating chaos and destroying societies. It is the same politicians who are strengthening militarism and leading Austria into imperialist military missions who are now pretending to know nothing and that none of this matters. This is a shameless lie and it proves how important and right it is that all democratic, revolutionary and communist forces in Austria are struggling for Austria to leave the NATO partnership and to cancel all contracts for armament and implementation of an EU army, and that all Austrian troops must be withdrawn from abroad!
But the rulers want to go in exactly the opposite direction. For example, shortly after the incident, Chancellor Kurz agreed in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on long-term, stronger cooperation in the military and intelligence fields. Already in August, the Austrian army entered into closer cooperation with the US National Guard through the "State Partnership Program". As if these agreements would really help against terrorism, and not bring about more such conflicts! A similar spirit could be heard in the message of the German Foreign Minister, who called on Austria to join forces more strongly "with Germany and the international leadership of the Western world, the United States"! But this path would bring more terror, which would again be directed primarily against the people, who would pay the bloody price for the imperialist adventures and alliances of the ruling class. Because an alliance with the bloody robbers will lead to the return of the war that the imperialists are carrying out in the world in the form of attacks and terror at the expense of the masses to its countries of origin!
After the attack, all factions of the ruling class emphasized that it was the terrorists who wanted to endanger "social cohesion" and that we had to defend "our freedom, and equality, our way of life". In keeping with this, the "liberal" order was of course emphasized. But what "social cohesion" do they mean when they say that? For example, that "cohesion" that leads to the fact that there are 450,000 unemployed in the country, to whom politics still refuses to increase the ridiculously low unemployment benefits? Or do they mean the "cohesion" that leads to ever-increasing private bankruptcies and to the fact that the number of murders of women increases every year? Where is their alleged "social cohesion" when more than 20 percent of the Austrian population is affected by poverty and what is the alleged "equality" when more and more families can no longer afford the costs of school and education for their children? What the rulers and their politics are spreading in the angry and sad situation of the terrorist attack is cynical propaganda and the fatamorgana of a "social cohesion" that does not exist in reality, which they are the first to betray and sell as soon as it only serves the interests of capital! Their "liberal order" is the order of state racism, oppression and exploitation, their "model of life" means for the majority that they have to work hard every day to pay rent, electricity and gas and at the end of the month they still don't know how to pay the outstanding bills. Their "social cohesion" is the one that exposes retail workers to potentially life-threatening illnesses under poor working conditions during the pandemic, and then, through corrupt bureaucrats, forces collective agreements on them that do not even cover the inflation rate. The solidarity and cohesion that exists in reality is the work of the people themselves, that is the solidarity and cohesion of the people. But the rulers should keep silent about it, because from their mouth it is nothing but disgusting, cheap political chump change at the expense of the victims of the terrorist attack!
And despite the claimed "cohesion", anti-Muslim racism will now continue to be promoted in the mainstream media. There will be more general suspicion and surveillance will be expanded. The terrorist of November 2 provided the pretext for this and thus rendered a valuable service to the ruling class. Not a single one of the massively expanded suppression and surveillance tools, such as automatic facial recognition, helped even remotely against the terrorist attack. Nevertheless, the rulers will now try to expand precisely these measures - in the name of the "fight against terrorism". Such measures and tools will only put further pressure on the people, and in the name of the "defense against terrorism" they will continue to restrict and deprive them of basic rights. It is necessary to prepare already now for resistance against the reactionary wave of measures whose introduction will be justified by the attacks of November 2, 2020. We must resist and struggle against this. It must not be allowed that the attack, carried out by a reactionary, is now the fig-leaf for the fact that all social conflicts under the keyword "social cohesion" are now to be made to "disappear" and at the same time the oppression of the people continues to increase. The rebellion against this is justified, resist and struggle!
Antifascist Action – Vienna, 3rd of November, 2020
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