Are you really a postmodernist, or simply a hard-core modernist, Mr Dolfuss?
At 10:10 3/02/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Has anyone on this list thought that maybe the Austrians and the Freedom
>Party are correct, and the EU isn't, on this issue? It was my
>understanding that postmodernity meant resistance to grand narratives, and
>surely this one-world governmental ideology that opposes nationalist
>Austrians qualifies as a concept to be deconstructed.
>
>On Thu, 3 Feb 2000 a8805359@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear Foucauldians,
>>
>> Enclosed the Declaration of the Austrian antiracist movement concerning
>> the situation in Austria.
>>
>> You can also check the following links:
>>
>> http://gegenschwarzblau.cjb.net/
>> http://www.t0.or.at/gettoattack/
>> http://www.magenta.nl/crosspoint/haider.html
>>
>> Anton Tantner
>>
>> *************************************************************************
>>
>> (Plattform fuer eine Welt ohne Rassismus, Schottengasse 3A/1/59 1010 Wien)
>>
>> We do not feel obliged to claim Austria's "innocence". The to-be
>> government is in support of the majority of Austria's population. We have
>> no reason to claim Haider is "just another" populist. He is not. He is a
>> populist that operates with xenophobia, racism and the denial of the
>> Holocaust.
>>
>> The major threat is not the increase of direct violence against
>> minorities. The major threat is the signal that far right agitation and
>> action is not only ok but earns you a place in government. As opportunism
>> is one of the most prominent features of the "Austrian mentality", this is
>> a severe political danger.
>>
>> We have reason to be afraid of
>> * the final end of refugee or integration policies
>> * increasing xenophobia, racism and even antisemitism, because Austia has
>> never faced its past and now people have governmental legitimation for
>> such attitudes
>> * law and order policies instead of co-operative strategies to deal with
>> crime and conflict
>> * abolition of progressive women's policies (e.g. the post of the minister
>> for women's affairs will be cancelled and replaced by an extended family
>> ministery)
>> * severe restrictions to freedom of art, especially where it puts a finger
>> on the state of the Austrian society (already, in Carinthia, artists are
>> faced with political limitations to their work)
>> * restrictions to the freedom of press, because subsidies for critical
>> media products will most certainly be cut down
>>
>> we don't know yet what to do about it.
>> we need both your solidarity and your ongoing critisism.
>> don't stop looking at our country.
>>
>> To the international community
>>
>> Declaration of the Austrian antiracist movement
>>
>> In this moment of Austrian history we are deeply concerned with the
>> political developments in our country. For more than 10 years, many NGOs,
>> initiatives and smaller parties have tried to change the austrian racist
>> reality without success.
>>
>> In the new millenium, Austria still is not a democracy but a national
>> democracy. More than 10 % of our population is systematically denied all
>> political rights and participation, often even for decades, they are kept
>> in the status of "foreigners".
>> Even in the trade-unions, there are no equal voting rights for all workers
>> and employees. This system, guaranteeing equality not to human beeings but
>> to citizens only, is unique in Europe. Since a democratic system has been
>> imposed on Austria after World War II, not only the conservatives and the
>> right wing, but also the governing social democrats fortified this system
>> of nationalistic and racist segregation and exclusion. This lack of
>> balance in the political system led to the uprising of a party that is
>> openly promoting a revision of Nazi history, using racism as an effective
>> political tool due to the lack of a counterveilling power.
>>
>> Even the killing of Marcus Omofuma during his deportation on May 1st 1999
>> did not lead to any antiracist measures. On the contrary, police action,
>> especially against people with African background, increased drastically.
>> Charles O., major activist, writer and poet from Nigeria, was even accused
>> of being a drug-boss and imprisoned for 3 months, before he had to be
>> released due to complete lack of evidence and major charges were dropped.
>> Nevertheless these practices led to significant intimidation of the Black
>> communities in their political campaigning.
>>
>> Under such unfair conditions of criminalisation and the lack of democratic
>> rights, we welcome initiatives from the side of the international
>> community that put pressure on Austrian representatives. Austria is facing
>> a drastic swing to the right. With a right-conservative government things
>> will even get worse for people discriminated on grounds of racism,
>> including the Jewish minority, as well as for people discriminated on the
>> grounds of sexual orientation, sexual identity or on the grounds of being
>> physically handicaped.
>>
>> For some years now, Austria is known in the European Union for ist
>> attempts to radically alter the politics towards a demontage of the Geneva
>> Convention and the denial of asylum for refugees. Austria has become the
>> home-base for right-wing policies, threatening emancipatory movements all
>> over Europe. Therefore it is in the self-interest of all democratic powers
>> in Europe to try to reverse the political currents in Austria. We want to
>> encourage all international steps in this direction, hoping that the
>> European Union at least has learned from history, while the official
>> Austria has not.
>>
>> Under any government to come, Austria should finally change towards a fair
>> democratic system which includes the right to vote for all permanent
>> inhabitants, in which there is an anti-discrimination-law with respective
>> enforcement, in which immigrants are not treated as enemies and in which
>> human rights are really respected.
>>
>>
>> Platform for a world without racism
>>
>> Vienna, 1.2.2000
>>
>> (Please distribute this declaration to your regional and national media as
>> well as to politicians).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
At 10:10 3/02/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Has anyone on this list thought that maybe the Austrians and the Freedom
>Party are correct, and the EU isn't, on this issue? It was my
>understanding that postmodernity meant resistance to grand narratives, and
>surely this one-world governmental ideology that opposes nationalist
>Austrians qualifies as a concept to be deconstructed.
>
>On Thu, 3 Feb 2000 a8805359@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear Foucauldians,
>>
>> Enclosed the Declaration of the Austrian antiracist movement concerning
>> the situation in Austria.
>>
>> You can also check the following links:
>>
>> http://gegenschwarzblau.cjb.net/
>> http://www.t0.or.at/gettoattack/
>> http://www.magenta.nl/crosspoint/haider.html
>>
>> Anton Tantner
>>
>> *************************************************************************
>>
>> (Plattform fuer eine Welt ohne Rassismus, Schottengasse 3A/1/59 1010 Wien)
>>
>> We do not feel obliged to claim Austria's "innocence". The to-be
>> government is in support of the majority of Austria's population. We have
>> no reason to claim Haider is "just another" populist. He is not. He is a
>> populist that operates with xenophobia, racism and the denial of the
>> Holocaust.
>>
>> The major threat is not the increase of direct violence against
>> minorities. The major threat is the signal that far right agitation and
>> action is not only ok but earns you a place in government. As opportunism
>> is one of the most prominent features of the "Austrian mentality", this is
>> a severe political danger.
>>
>> We have reason to be afraid of
>> * the final end of refugee or integration policies
>> * increasing xenophobia, racism and even antisemitism, because Austia has
>> never faced its past and now people have governmental legitimation for
>> such attitudes
>> * law and order policies instead of co-operative strategies to deal with
>> crime and conflict
>> * abolition of progressive women's policies (e.g. the post of the minister
>> for women's affairs will be cancelled and replaced by an extended family
>> ministery)
>> * severe restrictions to freedom of art, especially where it puts a finger
>> on the state of the Austrian society (already, in Carinthia, artists are
>> faced with political limitations to their work)
>> * restrictions to the freedom of press, because subsidies for critical
>> media products will most certainly be cut down
>>
>> we don't know yet what to do about it.
>> we need both your solidarity and your ongoing critisism.
>> don't stop looking at our country.
>>
>> To the international community
>>
>> Declaration of the Austrian antiracist movement
>>
>> In this moment of Austrian history we are deeply concerned with the
>> political developments in our country. For more than 10 years, many NGOs,
>> initiatives and smaller parties have tried to change the austrian racist
>> reality without success.
>>
>> In the new millenium, Austria still is not a democracy but a national
>> democracy. More than 10 % of our population is systematically denied all
>> political rights and participation, often even for decades, they are kept
>> in the status of "foreigners".
>> Even in the trade-unions, there are no equal voting rights for all workers
>> and employees. This system, guaranteeing equality not to human beeings but
>> to citizens only, is unique in Europe. Since a democratic system has been
>> imposed on Austria after World War II, not only the conservatives and the
>> right wing, but also the governing social democrats fortified this system
>> of nationalistic and racist segregation and exclusion. This lack of
>> balance in the political system led to the uprising of a party that is
>> openly promoting a revision of Nazi history, using racism as an effective
>> political tool due to the lack of a counterveilling power.
>>
>> Even the killing of Marcus Omofuma during his deportation on May 1st 1999
>> did not lead to any antiracist measures. On the contrary, police action,
>> especially against people with African background, increased drastically.
>> Charles O., major activist, writer and poet from Nigeria, was even accused
>> of being a drug-boss and imprisoned for 3 months, before he had to be
>> released due to complete lack of evidence and major charges were dropped.
>> Nevertheless these practices led to significant intimidation of the Black
>> communities in their political campaigning.
>>
>> Under such unfair conditions of criminalisation and the lack of democratic
>> rights, we welcome initiatives from the side of the international
>> community that put pressure on Austrian representatives. Austria is facing
>> a drastic swing to the right. With a right-conservative government things
>> will even get worse for people discriminated on grounds of racism,
>> including the Jewish minority, as well as for people discriminated on the
>> grounds of sexual orientation, sexual identity or on the grounds of being
>> physically handicaped.
>>
>> For some years now, Austria is known in the European Union for ist
>> attempts to radically alter the politics towards a demontage of the Geneva
>> Convention and the denial of asylum for refugees. Austria has become the
>> home-base for right-wing policies, threatening emancipatory movements all
>> over Europe. Therefore it is in the self-interest of all democratic powers
>> in Europe to try to reverse the political currents in Austria. We want to
>> encourage all international steps in this direction, hoping that the
>> European Union at least has learned from history, while the official
>> Austria has not.
>>
>> Under any government to come, Austria should finally change towards a fair
>> democratic system which includes the right to vote for all permanent
>> inhabitants, in which there is an anti-discrimination-law with respective
>> enforcement, in which immigrants are not treated as enemies and in which
>> human rights are really respected.
>>
>>
>> Platform for a world without racism
>>
>> Vienna, 1.2.2000
>>
>> (Please distribute this declaration to your regional and national media as
>> well as to politicians).
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>