Dear colleagues,

as director of a Vienna based international private non-profit research
organisation ("The Iterdisciplinary Centre for Comparative Research in the
Social Sciences") and President of an International Professional
Organisation of European Social Scientist ("The European Association for the
Advancement of Social Sciences") I do feel the obligation to answer to
Hilary's circular (whom I by the way estime highly both in professional and
personal terms).

With reference to the e-mail sent today by Hilary Rose regarding the
political developments in Austria I would like to make the following points:

First, I welcome the e-mail as a call for mobilising against what is now
happening in Austria. Second, however, I strongly disagree with the proposed
means. Boycotting meetings in Austria is just a form of passive opposition
and instead what we now need are forms of active opposition. We need people
to raise their voices, not people who choose the easy (and safe) way out and
opt for non-confrontation.

Active ways of opposition include: a) signing letters of protest to be
published in newspapers; b) calling up or writing to your members of
parliament to express concern; c) participating in conferences and attending
sessions that deal with this and related issues indeed also in Austria to
set a sign; d) taking part in demonstrations (and we already had some in
Austria and more are being planned) ... in brief all types of actions that
involve very clearly naming oneself as part of the opposition, i.e. being
explicitly political and doing this even at the risk of suffering even
further cuts of funds etc. (something that does not affect European social
scientists non-resident in Austria but which certainly is a potential danger
for social scientists resident in Austria).

Allow me also to take this opportunity to call for (at least) social
scientists trying to be better informed about what is going on in Austria
but also other European countries. Some points on this:

1) we ought to be careful about the labelling: to call every extreme
right-wing populist party a neo-nazi party entails two dangers: first that
we do not recognise the substantial dangers represented by the FPÖ which are
very real and serious but which are different from those of a nazi party;
second, that when we are indeed faced with the rise of neo-nazism we do not
recognise it.
2) Haider will himself not be joining the government -- whether this is a
good or a bad thing remains unclear. Indeed many observers in Austria have
noted during the last days that Mr. Haider is intentionally not pushing for
himself to join the government because this allows him to eat his cake and
have it too (be in government but also in opposition at the same time)
3) the positions adhered to by the FPÖ are not very different from those of
the CSU that rules Bavaria nor from those of the Berlusconi coalition back
some years in Italy. Also it is important to recall that right wing populist
parties like that of Mr. Haider have been witnessing strong gains in several
European countries, Switzerland being the latest most obvious example. In
other words, we are here facing a European-wide problem and we ought to
recognise this.
4) back to Austria, it is important to realise that the majority of the
Austrian population is still against an FPÖ participation into government;
so is the Austrian president, the Greens, the Liberals, and the Social
Democrats. It is also important to realise that the blame for this much lies
with the Conservative Party which is now enabling the FPÖ to join the
government, out of opportunist reasons. Nevertheless in order to understand
the increase in strength of the FPÖ it is important to also consider
carefully the negative effects of years of socialist-conservative coalitions
in particular with regards the hegemony of the rules of the political game.

We would call for positive forms of opposition. In this spirit we plan to
organise a conference on right-wing populist parties in Vienna. Insofar as
we would not want to claim public funds for the organisation of this
conference, we would have to rely on your willingness to participate,
including covering your own costs. Please let us know whether you are
interested.




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