Translation of my article about anti-government protests in Austria, February / March 2000, appearing in the Viennese feminist magazine Anschlaege
Boo-calls, Cops, and Babies at the Ballhaus
Never has a government—already at its onset—been greeted with such resentment
Wi-der-stand [re-sis-tance] roars rhythmically and persistently against the closed doors of the Hofburg. Whistles, drums, pots, and horned instruments sound accompaniment. The barely sworn in government acts as if it’s robbed a bank and flees through the underground crypts. Hundreds of tomatoes and eggs hit the new plastic signs or land next to them as a veritable reminder. The indignation is misunderstood by the executive as a “love of noise.” The messages on the banners are clear: “Against racism and misogyny”; “No oppression of foreigners and homosexuals”; “Pop-fascists and pseudo-Christians, betrayal in the land of fatalists”; “Don’t vacation in Austria”; “VP/FP [People’s Party / Freedom Party] = children, church, kitchen [Kinder Kirche Kueche]”; “Disgusting.”
Neither a Hollywood nor a homeland film, the symbolism harks back to real precedents of resistance: 05 from the end of the Second World War’s Austrian resistance, the strength of the Democratic Offensive, “No coalition with racism,” which was strongly present on 12 November 1999; red-blinking bicycle lights and helmets are reminiscent of the demonstrations that took place in Seattle against the World Trade Organization at the beginning of December, or the International Carnival Against Capital on June 18th in London, Cologne, and other large cities.
As in Seattle and London, electronic media (Internet, cell phones, land lines, radio and daily printed matter) also figure greatly in the Vienna demonstrations. Violence through police force (tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons) was visible and prominent in Seattle and London (police rammed cars into protesters). Passport controls are held in the broader circle of the demonstrations, especially for black young men or those who look vaguely “southern.” On February 3rd the occupied offices of the OeVP [People’s Party] hatched a new symbol. According to the motto “Alle Schluessel gegen Schluessel” [all keys against Schluessel– the chancellor’s name means key]. Then softly, thousands of key rings chime in the air.
Out of the crib of the resistance groups demonstrators developed and deepened their strategies at all levels of media, culture, and symbolism in order to get away from the socio-political double bind and to act peacefully despite immense frustration. Not only is the dismantling of the social net predetermined as a function of EU budget conformity but also, following from NATO ambitions, the readiness to increase the defense budget grows, with all of the symptoms that go along with it: the suspension of neutrality, cuts to social programs, women’s recruitment despite the incidents of hostility toward them, this physical training as opposed to academic learning, and the isolation of women’s issues into the categories of motherhood, family, and entrepreneurship.
The dissolution of the independent Ministry for Women, which had existed since 1983, means the loss of the only women-defined political representation of women’s interests. Instead, it is claimed that women’s oppression will now be somehow overcome because women have been appointed to ministry positions and are supposed to bring women’s issues into their isolated departments. To believe this claim amounts to high treason against the long years of feminist enlightenment. Women politicians, who come to their power positions through loyalty to a xenophobic party represent a target group of mothers (often equated with family) and entrepreneurs touted as national resources.
Instead of judging government politics “according to their actions” [the desperate plea of the new government is to “give them a chance”] (and why not according to their broken promises?), women’s political resistance is taking matters into their own hands. Already at the two-day pre-holiday occupation at the Women’s Ministry, “Operation Vanilla Biscuit” sent eleven delegates from 140 women’s and girl’s organizations and demanded representation for their interests from the SPO / OVP [left and center-right parties] and the implementation of the women’s referendum. After party negotiations broke down, Eva Rossmann (independent women’s forum) described the dissolution of the Women’s Ministry as a step back into the “macho middle ages” and predicted a shadow ministry for women. The Green Party delegate Madeleine Petrovic called the center-right coalition “unlawful and unconstitutional.” Socialist party representative Heidi Ambrosch announced at the Ballhausplatz on February 4th a women’s protest and demanded among other things humanitarian policies for immigrants and asylum seekers. The OGB women’s chair Renate Csoergits warned of a pseudo women’s politics from the new government, and former women’s minister Barbara Prammer [d. 2014] of an appropriating “song and dance.”
Parallel to the “Wandertagen im Schatten des Wasserwerfers” [days of wandering in the shadow of the water cannon] as the headline of an article in The Standard put it [the demonstrations were later known as Thursday Walks – and went on for four years], society is becoming increasingly antagonistic towards women. In Lower Austria alone, three of five women reports sexual harassment. Dependence on wage work through part-time jobs, which are left overwhelmingly to women, is described as “flexible.” State-subsidized and affordable child care is not a topic any more. The social benefits lost to budget cuts are replaced by the new packaging of social policies by the nationalistic right-wing government.
Resistance is the direct expression of the rejection of a system. Resistance is also the description of a uniting of many people and groups. The strength of resistance is not in being “against,” although some of the original signs read, simply, I am against this; its strength grows through the participation of many voices, through the plurality on a common level of communication that counters the “demagogic denial of facts” (according to a FAZ article). Resistance demonstrates the desire to prevent the rejection of diversity.
A woman who acts independently to do something about the situation is Helga Koecher, who last summer organized and moderated a weekly discussion forum called “bridges for peace” in the public arena of the Vienna Volksgarten and with this, acted for peace in Kosovo. She sees resistance as a re-activation of the de-politicized zone between citizens and legislators. Now individuals and groups can have their own forum to speak out in order to arrive at new ways of evoking political interest. The Botschaft Besorgter BuergerInnen [embassy of concerned citizens] has also made resources available for the new demonstrations and provided a tent for coordinating resistance activities at the Ballhaus square.
Women activists are as active now as ever; it is an important concern among many women to set inclusive language in motion. Because language has such a strong impact on our thought processes, using inclusive language is already a huge sign of fairness. When surfing the Internet, then, for fancy resistance websites, one should not overlook the contribution by Alexandra Bader of the CeiberWeiber [cyber women]. As she repeatedly mentions, women have always been active in resistance movements throughout history and yet even within the movements there are setbacks. Being cast into the social abyss under the right-wing government will affect women disproportionately. Solidarity is more important now than ever.
