Austrians embrace national chauvinism, U.$. feigns opposition

In an outrageous demonstration of hypocrisy, a number of 
imperialist countries, including the United $tates, Israel, 
Germany and Finland, pretended to be offended that the Freedom 
Party was permitted to join the new Austrian coalition government. 
The U.$. recalled its ambassador "for consultations" and Secretary 
of State Albright proclaimed that there is no place in European 
politics for a political party that "doesn't distance itself 
clearly from the atrocities of the Nazi era and the politics of 
hate." MIM reminds Albright that the U.$. has yet to distance 
itself from the genocide of the indigenous people which was 
carried out to steal the land that now makes up the U.$ and which 
continues to this day.

Jorg Haider, leader of the Freedom Party, on the other hand, 
recently made public statements denouncing the Nazi regime and has 
made promises to Austrian companies to compensate individuals for 
Nazi-era enslavement. This publicity stunt should not fool anyone. 
Even if Haider has given up his past sympathies for Hitler, he is 
currently the leader of an anti-immigrant party which reeks of 
xenophobic national chauvinism.

It is important to note that it was the Social Democrats who were 
in power in Austria for three decades prior to this new 
government. Austrians gave the Freedom Party 28 percent of their 
votes in elections in October, supporting the anti-immigrant 
platform. This is typical of imperialist country social democracy. 
It appears left on the surface, but promotes national chauvinism 
at its core. The people of Austria learned well from years of 
social democracy: immigrants are seen as the cause of economic 
problems and many Austrians clearly consider themselves deserving 
of far more than the majority of the world's people.

Anti-immigrant sentiments are just a thin veil for national 
chauvinism, the ideology that one nation is superior to all 
others. In the U.$. national chauvinism is openly promoted by 
David Duke, Patrick Buchanan and the KKK, but is also promoted by 
both Democrats and Republicans who support closed borders and 
tight immigration restrictions. The hypocrisy of the u.s. 
condemnation of the Freedom Party should be clear to all.

--MC17

Notes: New York Times, 4 February 2000.