The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1948-03-18
Austrian Workers
Resist Communist,
Russian Pressures

NiCIild kLI - "A AuSLTldH WOIh-
ers made it clear last week that
they will not be misled by Com
munist maneuvers, backed by Rus
sian occupation forces, to lead their
country down the road that neigh
boring Czechoslovakia has been
forced to take.
The Communist coup in Czecho-
slovakia was followed by tentative
Communist suggestions to Wen
ness workers that they establish
faction committees" in the shops
similar to those in Prague which
had been so useful in the hydra
headed Communist triumph over
Czech democracy.
But, whereas in Czechoslovakia
the Communists had dominated the
regular trade unions, in Austrian
unions they are in distinctly min
ority position. "Action committees"
therefore, would constitute dual or
ganization.
The executive committee of the
Trade Union League Immediately
issued statement to all unionists
and employers reminding them that
the Leagues executive bodies and
those of the affiliated unions are
the only groups authorized to bar
gain for or to speak for Austrian
trade unions. The League said that
it "rejects the action committees
advocated by political party" and
>warned workers that response to
hction committee pronouncements
would be considered a serious
breach of trade union discipline,
punishable by expulsion.
So overwhelming was the re-
sponse of the workers to the Trade
Union League statement that the
following day a Communist polti-
cal leader denied that his party in
tended to attempt the formation
of action committees.
Most Austrian unionists are sup
porters of the Social Democratic
Party. One of its leaders is Deputy
Chancellor Schaerf, who last week
said that Austria would be victim
lied as Czechoslovakia was. The
police are free of Communist influ-
ence he said, and more important
ly so is the leadership of Social
ist Party and the Trade Union Lea
que.
Schaerf denounced Socialist and
trade union leaders in countries to
the east who had yielded to Com
munist rank-and-file workers. He
said that the Austrian Socialist
Party has rejected an invitation
to send a delegate to the conven-
tion of the Hungarian Social Dem
ocratic Party, whose pro-Commu-
mist minority, backed by the gov
ernment, recently purged fright
wing" anti-Communist Socialists
from parliament and the party ex
ecutive committee.
Communists, embarrassed by |
the refusal of the Soviet Union to
agree to a peace treaty for Austria
which would rid it of the four-pow-
er occupation, have accused the two |
major parties, the Catholic Peo-
pies Party and the Social Demo
Gratis Of desiring to retain western |
occupation forces in the country |
Truth is that the two parties in
sist upon a treaty guaranteeing
Austria against aggression and re-
jecting at least portions of the Sow
let demand for control over what |
Russia calls German industrial as
sets in the country.
Last week the Trade Union Lea
que complained to Chancellor Leo
pold Figl, a leader of the Catholic
Peoples Party and to US Gen,
Godfrey Keyes about the low, food
ration and the shortage of shoes
The unionists were assured that the
government and the American
authorities would cooperate in
measures to increase the ration and
obtain shoes but that at the mo-
ment no further additional sup
plies are available.
Figl congratulated the unions
on their refusal to exploit the ma
tion's predicament, and another
leader of his party said that the
Catholic Peoples Party is anxious
to, continue its cooperation with the
Socialists.
These assurances of continued
major party cooperation were well
coined by Austrian workers who
had been shocked after the Czech
coup by statements from lesser
Catholic Party leaders that since
Czech Socialists had yielded to
Communist pressures Austrian So
cialists could not be trusted. In S
fact, last summer it was the So {
cialists who refused to consider
Russian treaty offer that would
have left control of most Of the s
nations heavy industry in Soviet '
hands. t
Both Socialist and Catholic lead
ers have warned against Commun- l
ist provocation, and demonstrated V
their willingness to resist by break
ing up an attempted Communist o
march on the Chancellor's office y
last week. Backbone of the Com f
munist strength is a corps of Sow t
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