PART 2
>
> _______________________________
>
> ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN
> News * Analysis * Research * Action
> _______________________________
>
> SPECIAL EDITION
> - July 11, 2000 -
>
> [12] The black-and-blue understanding of freedom of speech (1)
>
> With the votes of FPOe and OeVP, the politically occupied curatorship of
> the state broadcasting ORF decided to investigate against the radio series
> "Journal Panorama" regarding the objectivity of the selection of topics
and
> dialogue partners. Speakers of ORF's editors of the information section
> called this an "unprecedented occurrence in the history of broadcasting".
> They see this as an attempt by the government to stop unwanted critical
> reporting and as an attack on the freedom of media.
>
> [13] The black-and-blue understanding of freedom of speech (2)
>
> For the first time in Europe, a party (FPOe) sues a magazine under to the
> fair trading law (!). The reason for this is an advertisement campaign of
> magazine NEWS. Boehmdorfer - at that time simple lawyer and now Minister
of
> Justice - was engaged with this action. These proceedings were possible
due
> to the verdict of a judge who thought that FPOe, as the owner of a party
> newspaper, competes with other newspapers. In a conversation between FPOe
> and NEWS, the FPOe negotiator declared: "If NEWS stops its
> government-critical reporting, FPOe will suspend the execution demand."
> Just recently, Boehmdorfer, as Minister of Justice, increased the
execution
> penalties for such cases from ATS 80.000 to 1.3 million per day. This will
> surely threaten the existence of critical media in the future.
>
> [14] Community servants for sale
>
> Recently, the Ministry of the Interior cut back the daily money for
> community servants from ATS 155.- (about 22 DM or 11 US dollars) to ATS
> 43.- (about 6 DM or 3 US dollars). The nutritional expert of the Ministry
> of the Interior also provided the daily shopping list: 53 grams of roasted
> chicken, 4 grams of spinach (strained), 143 grams of bread, 9 grams of
> cabbage, 18 grams of pasta, 14 grams of tuna fish, 142 millilitres of
fresh
> milk, half a bag of tea, 0.7 eggs. This list was taken from the supply
list
> for emergency cases issued by the Civil Defense Association. Since many
> social organizations are no longer officially supported by this community
> service, the Minister of the Interior Strasser had another brilliant idea:
> Organizations which need community servants can obtain them for just ATS
> 10,500. The slave market is open.
>
> Note: In Austria, military service is compulsory for young men. The
> military service lasts 8 months, the alternative civilian service 12
> months. So anyone who does not want to carry a weapon or to be sentenced
to
> prison for total resistance against military service has to serve 4
> additional months. The community servants are mainly assigned to police,
> hospitals, ambulances, and social institutions like ai or the
Documentation
> Centre of Austrian Resistance (DOeW). Many of these jobs were now
> abolished, and therefore the affected institutions are faced with
financial
> problems. The cutbacks are quite aimed. Human rights organizations and
> hospitals in Vienna (the city is ruled by the Social Democrats) are mostly
> effected, the police not at all. Many community servants now have to wait
> for a long time until they can actually resume their service.
Nevertheless,
> civilian service is still a form of forced labor and leads to wage dumping
> in many professions.
>
> [15] Cold showers in Carinthia
>
> In Carinthia, the magazine "Life in Line" has been distributed in front of
> schools for a while. In various articles, young Carinthians can read and
> learn what it takes to become a real man. A real man does not do civilian
> service, but: "Airborne training is one of the most challenging
> educations". Also sexuality plays an important role in becoming a man, as
> explained in "Life in Line": "Two models of contradictory morals come to
> mind: On the one hand, the rational boy who takes a cold shower every day
> and who keeps looking for his princess. On the other side, the absolute
> "engraver" staggers about. Who has the better cards ... to establish an
> obliging, happy relationship? The ace of hearts is with the fair prince
who
> understands the old school of conquest of hearts in his magnanimity and
who
> is going to make his girl happy." This utter nonsense is supported by the
> Carinthian provincial government (led by FPOe), ORF Carinthia, and the
> newspaper "Kleine Zeitung". In an one and a half pages long article, Joerg
> Haider is allowed to condemn drugs and present himself as a shining
> example. The newspaper portrays him as "the most outstanding head of a
> provincial government in our country's history. Athletic, fit, almost
> everywhere at the same time, always perfectly well informed, always
seeming
> to be straight back from holidays."
>
> [16] The police and the special group for criminal investigation - SEK (1)
>
> The members of SEK always attract attention: masked SEK policemen arrested
> people during the anti-fascist carnival, the refugee and foreigner
> advice-office of the Green Party was the target of an offence, a sauna
> frequented by homosexuals was closed, shooting of a supposed drug dealer
> (Imre B.), racist and sexist rhetoric ("you bimbo/nigger whore") - the
> rambos of civilian police are busy (for details see evil:austria 0600).
>
> The case of Imre B. goes on: According to the police, the gun went off
> accidentally when the supposed drug dealer opened the door of his car.
Even
> inner circles of the police raise doubts as to this dubious version of the
> incident, and the autopsy clearly speaks against the official version. Now
> it became publically known that the same night the shooter himself (!) -
> who was said to suffer from a post-shooting-trauma - interrogated
> eye-witnesses, a clear violation of the convention against torture (!) and
> also searched houses the following day. Therefore, it now seems
> comprehendable that Imre B.'s passenger "confirmed the official version of
> the incidence", especially since it is known that "witnesses" were beaten,
> threatened, and humiliated during the interrogation.
>
> [17] The police and the special group for criminal investigation - SEK (2)
>
> If police are not able to convict somebody for a crime by legal methods,
> this does not present much of a problem any longer. More than a hundred
> black people have been arrested during "Operation Spring" (a large-scale
> racist-motivated "drug raid" performed since last year). Except for one,
> all of them have been prosecuted and convicted for drug-dealing on the
> basis of no or little evidence. If it is not possible to dig up any
> evidence at all, police try to buy principal witnesses. In particular,
they
> promise reduction of confinement for drug-addicts or persons who are
> involved in drug-dealing themselves, or they simply pay them off. In a
> recent lawsuit the testimony of such a witnesses, named "Anonymous 1" and
> masked with a crashhelmet, was sufficient to bring somebody to jail for
> five years. The system of justice is turned upside down! At another
> occasion the counsel for the defence asked such a "witness" what he
> received from the police for his testimony. The witness answered: "Am I
> expected to answer this in public? And anyway, this is not your cup of
tea!"
>
> The only acquittal of a black person was due to tremendous contradictions
> of the "witness of the prosecution". And, no wonder, these particular
> "witnesses" are often accompanied to court by members of the SEK, and thus
> are being intimidated. Recently, a police officer angrily banged shut the
> door of a court room, after one of "his witnesses" had a sudden change of
> mind, whereas another one patted the shoulder of "his witness" and invited
> him for a beer. Right now, these methods are "only" used against black
> people. The way was prepared by the racist propaganda that has been going
> on for years under the former SPOe/OeVP government. It is simply a matter
> of time until opponents of the government and politically active people
> will be treated in the same way.
>
> [18] Denouncing
>
> A slight change of law makes it feasible: for the first time, a regular
> citizen - who, unlike the police, is not subject to police laws regulating
> the conduct of officers - can do investigations as an 'extension' of the
> police. For the first time, the judiciary allows hobby amateur
> investigators to disclose "observations" in court, totally anonymous and
in
> the absence of defendants. Nobody except police officers knows them,
nobody
> knows what their reward is - according to insiders, they will earn money
> and the goodwill of the police...
>
> Big Brother is watching you. Big Brother is denouncing you.
>
> [19] Drug dealers and the Audi A8
>
> In an interview for the weekly newspaper "Format" (no. 25/19.6.00),
> Viennese chief constable Peter Stiedl was asked if the harassment of Black
> Africans by the police had racist motivations. Stiedl answered:
"Statistics
> prove we do not proceed against Black Africans for racist reasons, but
> because a great number of Black Africans sell drugs." And: "If Black
> Africans sell drugs at a certain time and place, then the appropriate
> controls will be made, and they will be made on black people and not on
> white people." "Format": "So you are saying that the color of skin is a
> criterion for the police". Stiedl: "Let me put it like that: If more cars
> of the brand "Audi A8" get stolen, more Audi A8 will be checked... If
Black
> Africans are suspected of drug-dealing at a certain locality, police are
> going to check Africans who show up."
>
> [20] Arson attack on hostel for foreigners
>
> On June 27, an arson was committed on a building in Salzburg inhabited by
> foreigners. The inhabitants were able to escape from the house in time. As
> usual, police rule out the possibility of a political background from the
> start.
>
> [21] Please love Austria! (1) - the project
>
> "Please love Austria! - First European week of coalition" - is the title
of
> a production of German director Christoph Schlingensief and part of the
> Viennese Festival ("Wiener Festwochen" 11.-17.6.). In the city centre,
next
> to the opera, Schlingensief shacked up 12 asylum-seakers in deportation
> containers. Via internet and screens, applicants were to be observed. By
> TED telephone voting, two applicants were to be elected for deportation
> every day. On top of the container was a picket reading "Foreigners out"
> and below that a banner with the logo of the "Neue Kronenzeitung" (popular
> Austrian daily with the highest circulation). Next to this, there was an
> FPOe flag. Schlingensief wanted to "just practically play through the
> demands of FPOe". At the same time, the project was a mirror for
everybody,
> because - as the director says - "the observer observes himself" and "the
> truth lies in the dark". The borders between fiction and reality quickly
> disappeared. The "Austrian natives" who were the actual principal
actresses
> and actors gave their best - or their worst. A permanent crowd gathered
> around the container village. There were heated arguments and yelling
> ("Nazi, Nazi, we are who we are, we do not need any negros here. No Jews
> either"), and also vehement pro and contra discussions in the internet
> forums. Tuesday night saw attacks on the container village (attempted
> arsons, two men with knives forced their way into the area of the
> containers and tried to destroy the "Foreigners out" banner). Early
> Thursday afternoon, strangers threw butyric acid bombs into the container
> village.
>
> Almost as reflex actions, political debates followed: OeVP thought that
the
> Schlingensief project was "questionable and counterproductive", it would
> lead many tourists to "completely wrong impressions and to unjustified
> emotions against Austria" (OeVP Secretary General Maria Rauch-Kallat).
FPOe
> announced a motion of no confidence against OeVP cultural councillor Peter
> Marboe. Hilmar Kabas (party leader of Viennese FPOe local): "The
> indignation of citizens has reached a boiling-point." The "Kronenzeitung"
> calls Marboe a "tax money wasting washout". Typical phrases out of
> "Kronenzeitung" and FPOe's repertoire of flowery language were used:
> indignant citizens, (ab)use of tax money, denigration of Austria,
> exploitation of envious feelings, this is not art...
>
> [22] Please, love Austria! (2) - the consequences
>
> The project of Christoph Schlingensief is also going to give rise to a
pile
> of charges. FPOe sued the Viennese Festival for slander of honour and
> damage of credibility, an anonymous private person reported "derision of
> the state". The banner of "Kronenzeitung" was removed already on the
second
> day of the action and the newspaper sued because of the usage of their
> logo, argueing that this is "illegal and injurious to the interests of the
> company". Schlingensiefs comment: "I am sad about the behaviour of
> "Kronenzeitung", one does not loose such good friends every day." While
the
> chairman of Lower Austrian FPOe, Windholz, got away with using a slogan of
> Waffen-SS ("Our honor means faith", see evil:austria 0600) with the excuse
> that it was an ad-lib thought (the fact that he is good friends with a
> "veteran" of the SS who is known to enjoy telling stories about "the good
> old days" does not surprise many people), the action artist Christoph
> Schlingensief is sued for violation of the law against the revival of
> National Socialist propaganda (this particular law only exists in
Austria).
> The reason for this charge was a banner with a satirical reference to this
> quote he had fixed to the "Please love Austria" containers. The Minister
of
> Justice, Boehmdorfer, insisted on calling up various newspapers in order
to
> personally inform them about the proceedings in the Schlingensief case.
>
> Oddly: Four FPOe members of the State Parliament filed charges against
> Schlingensief for "committing of punishable offences, in particular
> suspicion of incitement". The "Foreigners out" banner would obviously
> invite hostile actions against foreigners in Austria. FPOe propaganda,
> however, used slogans like "Stop the foreign infiltration", "Against abuse
> of asylum rights" and "Vienna must not become Chicago" in various election
> campaigns.
>
> [23] Please, love Austria! (3) - "Indians take the fort"
>
> Participants of the weekly Thursday-demonstrations against the government
> climbed on the roof of the container, destroyed the "Foreigners out"
picket
> and sprayed "Resistance" and "Fight racism" on it. Some of them forced
> their way into the container and symbolically "rescued" the surprised
> asylum-seekers. Other demonstrators removed the hoods from the truck of an
> OeVP-associated group that said the Schlingensief production was ONLY a
> "dangerous game with emotions". The "storm of the Indians on the Western
> fort" (Schlingensief) was doubtlessly meant as an intervention into the
> "deportation game" showing solidarity with it. Still, the opinions
differed
> and caused discussions.
>
> [24] Why an economic conference was stopped
>
> After visiting the container of Christoph Schlingensief, about 200
> demonstrators made a run at the stylish Marriott hotel where an
> international economic conference of the National Bank took place. They
> interrupted Minister of Finance Grasser (FPOe) who was about to threaten
> with plans for reforms of pensions for employees of Austrian Federal
> Railways (OeBB). Whistling and a chorus of voices ("Resistance", "We want
> Schuessel") stopped his speech. After about twenty minutes, the
> demonstraters left the hotel. Federal Chancellor Schuessel cancelled his
> appearance, the conference was stopped and not continued until the next
> day. Actions because of "trespassing" and "resistance against the
executive
> power" were announced.
>
> EPILOGUE
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> Rosa Antifa Wien (RAW)
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