News From Austria (1990)

Party News from the December 1990 issue of the Socialist Standard 

The new situation in Europe will surely give us much to do in the foreseeable future. What we have said for so many years has been proved clearly. No trace of socialism in the "Communist” empire. With all the weapons of bloody suppression, the "communists" tried to pretend their state capitalism was the non plus ultra. Now the house of lies falls apart and the inheritance of poverty of mind and in material things is exposed. It seems as though international capitalism has triumphed: “socialism” is at an end and the market economy has triumphed! However the facts throughout the world show there is nothing for the profit system to celebrate. Do they want to celebrate the unseen masses of corpses, ruins and millions of people wounded in body and mind for which the profit system has been responsible this century? Not a day goes by which does not prove that it is not possible for capitalism to produce anything else.

We have just had elections in Austria. As all the parties stand for capitalism, we called for the return of blank ballot papers. It is interesting to note that ever more people oppose the existing parties. In Vienna where there used to be a 90 per cent vote for the main parties. 31 per cent either spoilt their ballot papers or did not vote all all. The SPO lost 121,000 votes. Only because the other major party, the Volkspartei, lost even more votes was it possible for the SPO to remain the strongest party.

The SPO will shortly change its name from "Sozialistische Partei" to "Sozial- demokratische Partei". "Socialism" is no longer "in” in the Party of bankers and millionaires! Still, we must not be unfair . . . a change of name will not make the lies they propagate any less!

Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, 

Vienna