Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria

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The Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria (MLPÖ) was a small party that was founded on February 12, 1967 at a conference of the organization " Marxist-Leninists Austria ". The MLPÖ initially orientated itself strongly towards the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania , since it rejected the policies of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as revisionist . Since 2006 there has been no more activities and with the death of its former chairman Franz Strobl in 2016, the MLPÖ ceased to exist.

history

After the KPÖ's policy had already been attacked in open letters by anonymous “anti-revisionist communists in Austria” in the summer of 1963 and demanded a “return to the revolutionary traditions” , a magazine published by KPÖ functionary Franz Strobl was published for the first time on October 5, 1963 Red flag with the headline “ Don't leave the party to the revisionists! ". The Rote Fahne , which initially appeared every fortnight, saw itself as the platform of the Marxist-Leninists in the KPÖ , mainly criticized the “revisionism of the Soviet nature” and instead praised the People's Republic of China . At the beginning it was not intended to build a new party, but when the number of expulsions against dissenters in the KPÖ increased, the Rote Fahne called for the “ formation of a preparatory committee for the founding of the Communist Party in Austria ” and for converting to this group. In the next few years the magazine was able to publish numerous resignations from party officials.

On May 1, 1966, the Organization Marxist-Leninists Austria (MLÖ) was founded and Franz Strobl was elected as its chairman . The closer management included u. a. Alfred Jocha , Josef Friedler and Helmut Hronek , who published the youth magazine Funke . In autumn of that year, these three functionaries fell victim to a party purge , which other members voluntarily followed. For the MLPÖ, this faction , which founded the Association of Revolutionary Workers Austria (Marxist-Leninists) (VRA) in 1968 , was provocateurs who acted in the service of the KPÖ. In the near future, both groups fought nightly poster wars and smear campaigns in front of the party headquarters with their propaganda showcases, which made it necessary to set up night security services.

The Marxist-Leninists of Austria took part in the Austrian general election in 1966 with little success.

On February 12, 1967, at a conference of the Marxist-Leninists of Austria in Vienna, the founding of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria (MLPÖ) was announced. A central committee was elected with Franz Strobl as first secretary. Second secretary was Karl Horn, third secretary Viktor Varga. The MLPÖ saw itself as the direct successor to the Communist Party of Austria, which was founded on November 3, 1918. Its own founding had become necessary because “ the KPÖ had transformed into a revisionist organization of the social democratic type ”. The MLPÖ was of the opinion that " the capitalist system must be overthrown by force (..) and the dictatorship of the proletariat established ". The MLPÖ declared that it was “ on the side of the Communist Party of China, the Party of Labor of Albania and other Marxist-Leninist parties in the fight against imperialism and revisionism ” and declared itself to be “a student of the teachings of Mao Tse-tung , the most outstanding Marxist-Leninists of our time ”.

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria (with its predecessors since 1963) profited from the fact that it was one of the first organizations in Western Europe to openly acknowledge the policies of the CCP. The Chinese press became aware of the China-friendly statements in the MLPÖ's Rote Fahne magazine early on and reprinted excerpts from them. Until the end of 1976, statements by the MLPÖ and its secretary Franz Strobl on the world situation (from a China- friendly point of view) were published in the Peking Rundschau . From the end of the sixties the VRAÖ was added and from 1976 the Communist Federation Vienna, later the Communist Federation of Austria (KBÖ). From around 1964 onwards, party delegations also traveled to China and Albania at least once a year. The friendly party of the MLPÖ in the Federal Republic of Germany was the Communist Party of Germany / Marxist-Leninists from 1968 , then from 1977 the group against the current and the group around the magazine " Westberliner Kommunist ".

The MLPÖ probably had the highest number of members in its early years with around 200 - 250.

Until Mao Zedong's death, the MLPÖ followed China's policy without restrictions. Only with the elimination of the so-called. Gang of Four and the takeover Hua Guofeng , the party began a critical look at the policies of the People's Republic of China and the theory of three worlds deal. In her series Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism , she published a number of critical statements by other Marxist-Leninist parties on Chinese politics, but without completely embarking on the Albanian path. From the end of 1976 onwards, the Communist League of Austria (KBÖ) became the most important Austrian organization for the Communist Party of China. The MLPÖ has barely appeared since the early 1980s. In 2006 it held its fourth party congress , at which Franz Strobl resigned from his leadership positions in the MLPÖ and as senior editor of the Rote Fahne . Despite his old age, he still worked because of the lack of cadres in the party's newly elected leadership collectives.

elections

The MLPÖ's attitude towards elections was contradicting itself. In regional elections in two federal states in the fall of 1964, the Rote Fahne asked its readers to vote for the Communist Party of Austria, from which the organizational split had not yet taken place. In the federal presidential election on May 23, 1965, she propagated a protest election with blank ballot papers. Only in the election on March 6, 1966 did the MLPÖ stand with a “workers list” and two candidates in a Viennese constituency (V - Margareten , Favoriten and Simmering ) and achieved 486 votes. Then she recommended in elections in 1967 and 1968 that the ballot papers be provided with the initials of the party, and in 1970 and later called for an election boycott .

Publications

  • Rote Fahne, 1st year 1963, No. 1 (October 5) ff. (Changing publication frequency, formats, etc. additions :)
    • Organ of the anti-revisionist communists in Austria
    • Marxist-Leninist tribune in the KPÖ (until no.36.1965)
    • Grandstand of the Austrian Marxist-Leninists (up to No. 52.1966)
    • Organ of the Marxist-Leninists of Austria (MLÖ) (until no.71.1967)
    • Organ of the Central Committee of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria
  • MLPÖ releases. For internal information, 1967, December - 1970, April
  • Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism 1967–1981 (series of brochures, edited in part by the Marxist-Leninist Study Group Vienna , among others :)
    • MLPÖ (Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria). Nature, tasks and goal. Statutes , Ed. Franz Strobl, 18 pages

literature

  • Friedrich-Wilhelm Schlomann , Paulette Friedlingstein: The Maoists. Beijing branches in Western Europe. Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1970, pp. 205-216.
  • Peter Autengruber : Small parties in Austria 1945 to 1966. StudienVerlag, Innsbruck 1997, ISBN 3-7065-1172-X , pp. 260–264, 308.
  • Robert J. Alexander: Maoism in the Developed World. Praeger, Westport 2001, ISBN 0-275-96148-6 , pp. 55f. (heavily abbreviated excerpts from :)
    • Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Hoover Press, Stanford, 1st edition 1966 to 25th edition 1991: especially 1966, pp. 86f .; 1968, p. 31f .; 1970, pp. 124f .; 1971, pp. 125f .; 1972, p. 123; 1973, p. 123.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated September 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.icor.info
  2. ↑ born December 3, 1924, editor in charge of the KPÖ party organ Weg und Ziel until autumn 1961
  3. ↑ temporary addition
  4. ↑ China's Cultural Revolution encourages the revolutionary people of the world. Leading article of the "Red Flag", organ of the Marxist-Leninists of Austria (article with excerpts from the Red Flag ) in: Peking Rundschau No. 40/41 of October 9, 1966, p. 37
  5. ↑ vg. z. B. Rote Fahne No. 85 of October 15, 1967, p. 3f. and No. 94 beginning of March 1968, p. 2
  6. ↑ A thief caught in Rote Fahne No. 88/89 (December 1st / 15th) 1967, p. 6: Activities of a clique , “which merely act in the interest and on behalf of the revisionists and under the false mask of a commitment to Marxism-Leninism have the purpose of torpedoing and destroying the really Marxist-Leninist movement in our country "
  7. ↑ F.-W. Schlomann, P. Friedlingstein, Die Maoisten , 1970, p. 211
  8. ^ The Marxist-Leninist Party of Austria founded , in: Peking Rundschau No. 11 of March 14, 1967, p. 23
  9. ↑ Note as above
  10. ↑ Beijing Review No. 19 (May 1) 1964, p.3 (This Week); PR No. 23 (June 5) 1964, p.3; PR No. 24 (June 12) 1964, p. 24 Austrian Marxist-Leninist Condem Khruchshov (!) Revisionist Group , the spelling error was later corrected
  11. ↑ Peng Dschen gives a festival to Austrian comrades , in Peking Rundschau No. 30 of July 27, 1965, p. 4
  12. ↑ F.-W. Schlomann, P. Friedlingstein, Die Maoisten , 1970, p. 207; the Yearbook on international communist affairs gives several times 500, e.g. B. 1968, p. 31
  13. ^ Declaration by Comrade Franz Strobl at the 4th party congress of the MLPÖ , in Rote Fahne 290 (September 2006)
  14. ↑ F.-W. Schlomann, P. Friedlingstein, Die Maoisten , 1970, p. 213 ( The China Communists and the Elections ). The 486 voices arise in Schlomann "0.11 per cent", in P. Autengruber, small parties , p.20 "share of the cast. Abgeg. valid votes 0.01% "