Austrian Labor Committee
The Austrian Labor Committee (ALC) was founded at the end of March 1942 under the leadership of Friedrich Adler in order to represent the interests of the Austrian socialists in the USA after the dissolution of the diplomatic mission of the Austrian Socialists (AVOES) and the USA entered the war . Due to the participation of Friedrich Adler, it was also received as a representative of all Austrian socialists.
history
In principle, Friedlich Adler did not want to found a new organization after the dissolution of AVOES, but had to decide to do so due to pressure from AVOES members and the base. The importance of the ALC as representing the interests of Austrian socialists increased enormously with the entry of the United States into the war, as the status of Austrians as members of an enemy state ( enemy aliens ) threatened to deteriorate in general and the United States now intervened more actively than before in exile policy. With the help of Friedrich Adler, the Secretary of the Second International, the ALC received the status of a successor organization to AVOES. In addition to Friedrich Adler (chairman), the select committee initially included the functionaries Ernst Papanek, Julius Deutsch, Manfred Ackermann , Karl Heinz Sailer and Wieser. In addition to Wilhelm Ellenbogen, who is based in New York, only former SVAP functionaries from other US states were represented in the extended committee: Hugo Breitner , Carl Furtmüller , Jacques Hannak , Karl Heinz , Berthold König and Ernst Winkler. According to the statutes of the organization, which were decisively shaped by Adler, the main goal of the organization was still to prevent the formation of representative Austrian missions abroad or a government in exile, since Adler wanted to secure the right of the Austrian population to decide on their own fate after Hitler. In this sense, the ALC was instrumental in preventing the formation of an Austrian government-in-exile under Willibald Plöchl and Hans Rott, as well as an Austrian battalion under the US flag, which arose from an initiative by Otto Habsburg .
The Moscow Declaration , which established a “free and independent” Austria as an Allied war goal, was enthusiastically received by the Austrian exile, but not by the leadership of the ALC. For Adler, however, the end of the Austrians' self-determination also meant the final failure of the policy of exile he had shaped. In the official organ of the ALC, the Austrian Labor Information (ALI), Adler expressed this in an article entitled “The legend of happy Austria”. There he described the memorandum as a “dictation”, which “does not correspond to the recognition of equal rights for all peoples”. This article provoked severe criticism, some of which came from within our own ranks. Adler was now determined to take this opportunity to finally retire from all functions. It was only with an effort that he could be prevented from doing this in the planned, striking form. At the request of the new management team under Otto Leichter, Adler subsequently continued to take part in the meetings of the ALC. As a result, Adler continued to intervene like a chairman in disputed issues, so that the policy of social democratic exile could not be changed.
The most important functionaries of the ALC besides Friedrich Adler were Otto Leichter and Wilhelm Ellenbogen .
literature
- Eagle archive of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam (IISG)
- RS correspondence from 1938 (official organ of AVOES)
- The socialist struggle (Official organ of AVOES)
- Franz Goldner : The Austrian Emigration. 1938 to 1945 . Herold, Vienna et al. 1972, ( Collection The lonely conscience 6).
- Joseph Buttinger : Using Austria as an example. A historical contribution to the crisis of the socialist movement . Verlag für Politik u. Economy, Cologne 1953.
- Helene Maimann : Politics in the waiting room. Austrian policy in exile in Great Britain 1938–1945 . Böhlau, Wien et al. 1975, ISBN 3-205-08566-3 , ( Publications of the Commission for Modern History of Austria 62), (At the same time: Wien, Univ., Diss., 1975).
- Manfred Marschalek (Ed.): Underground and Exile. Austria's socialists between 1934 and 1945 . Löcker, Vienna 1990, ISBN 3-85409-137-0 , ( Socialist Library Department 1: The History of Austrian Social Democracy 3).
- Hans Egger: The politics of the foreign organizations of the Austrian social democracy in the years 1938 to 1946. Thought structures, strategies, effects . Vienna 2004, (Vienna, Univ., Diss., 2004).