Jewish Students Join Committee for Anti-fascist Action

The Federation of Jewish Students in Vienna has joined the Committee for Anti-Fascist Action, organized by 24 Austrian organizations, a spokesman said today. “We joined the committee to counteract growing neo-Nazism in Austria,” the spokesman said. “We do not share the political opinions of the other members, but the danger of a revival of anti-Semitism leaves no other way.”

Most organizations of the committee have strong leftist tendencies. They include the youth organizations of the ruling Socialist Party, the Communist Party and three Trotskyist groups. “Left-wing groups have always opposed neo-Nazi activities, they do not share the anti-Semitic policies of some ruling Communist parties,” the spokesman said. Along with the Jewish students, the Federation of Austrian Resistance Against the Nazi Regime supports the committee. The Jewish Federation has about 400 followers.

In recent years Austrian neo-Nazis have concentrated their activities around the National Democratic Party (NDP), a rightist splinter group with strongholds in at least two Viennese districts. The neo-Nazis had disguised their nature in such “innocent” activities as the performances of folkloristic dancing, before returning to political life. They also supported indicted Nazi criminals who were sentenced to relatively short terms in jail by Austrian courts.

Another Nazi organization, the “Federation of National Democratic Students,” banned by Austrian police last week, consists of 80 members who have a background in student fencing guilds. The police decision to ban the organization followed demands by Jewish students and the Committee. The demands to prohibit the NDP were consistently ignored by Austrian authorities although Austrian law prohibits any neo-Nazi activity.