New policy
The New Politics was a Marxist - Leninist inspired polemic for the purpose of the ideological argument against revisionism in the Communist Party of Austria from 1969 to 1970.
Function and history
The KPÖ-internal pamphlet Neue Politik , which appears in a monthly cycle, was published from June 1969 to January 1970 and distributed mainly by subscription among the members of the KPÖ. In a total of six issues of this magazine, which comprised an average of 24 pages, numerous articles on domestic political issues and international politics were formulated with regard to independent, Marxist standpoints. In a few, but very pointed contributions by Ernst Wimmer and Walter Hollitscher , the political-revisionist current, that of Ernst Fischerdeveloped and Franz Marek was promoted and which had the liquidation of the KPÖ as an independent communist party as its goal, attacked sharply and countered a Marxist-Leninist position, which argued and also called for the maintenance and further development of the KPÖ as a revolutionary party of the working class. As the owner, editor and publisher of Neue Politik , Walter Hollitscher, Ernst Wimmer and Heinz Zaslawski were responsible for the content of Otto Janecek. The vast majority of the active operators of the New Politics came from the editorial staff of the central organ of the KPÖ, the daily Volksstimme . The new policy was supported by a total of 41 ZK members, numerous other functionaries and activists, as well as union officials. Erwin Scharf , one of the most well-known communist politicians in Austrian post-war politics and member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Austria and during this time also editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Volksstimme , welcomed this initiative of a “communist pamphlet” in the first edition of Neue Politik with an article below the title, "For guidance, ...". The publication of the “Neue Politik” was also a journalistic response to the fact that the “Diary”, originally published as a cultural-political organ of the KPÖ, is an organ of constant polemics in the hands of the revisionists against the decisions of the party and since the 20th party congress against the existence of the KPÖ was transformed. Fischer and Marek's demand for “ideological coexistence” and the creation of a “New Left” implied the abandonment of the independence of the KPÖ as an independent party of the working class . The Neue Politik, on the other hand, saw itself as an organ that had to lead the indispensable ideological debate about the question of the independence of the KPÖ.
The overwhelming majority of the Communists active and successful in this political-ideological-journalistic measure represented the new leadership of the KPÖ for the next 20 years up to the 28th party congress in 1991 as a consequence of the political development of the KPÖ. The New Policy is like for the history of the KPÖ also beyond z. B. the history of the Austrian political parties and the history of the communist and labor movement of striking and historical and thus of noteworthy importance. The political-ideological development of the 1990s around Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika policy, which was judged to be revisionist and counter-revolutionary , once again triggered a dispute over the direction of the KPÖ over the question of the need for an independent, revolutionary party of the working class. In this inner-party, political-ideological dispute, a recently published internal party pamphlet with the name Neue Volksstimme tied in with the political role of the New Politics .
College - proponents
Georg Fuchs, Franz Hager, Erich Hofbauer, Anton Hofer , Hans Kaes, Herbert Kandel, Franz Leitner, Alfred Matzinger, Alois Peter, Otto Podolsky, Heinrich Praxmarer, Josef Progsch, Eduard Rabofsky , Karl Russheim, Thomas Schönfeld , Max Thum, Josef Wodratzka and Friedl Zizlavsky.
editorial staff
Bruno Furch , Walter Hollitscher , Otto Janecek, Ernst Wimmer , Hans Wolker , Heinz Zaslawski .
Other authors
Volker Braun, Felix Falk, Bruno Frei , Georg Fuchs, Elvira Högelmann-Ledwohn, Ernst Hofer, Dieter Klein, Georg Knepler , Jürgen Kuczynski , Franz Ott, Otto Podolsky, R. Owinnikow, Eduard Rabofsky, Thomas Schönfeld , Caspar Schirmeister, Erwin Scharf , Fred Schmid, Eckart Spoo, FH Wend, Arthur West .
literature
- Author collective: The Communist Party of Austria. Contributions to their history and politics . Globus-Verlag, Vienna 1989