-----Original Message-----
>From: "Mary Heather White" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 09:09:30 -0500
>Subject: ACTION: Austria to close Women`s Directorate
>X-MIME-Autoconverted: from Quoted-printable to 8bit by
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>Sender: [log in to unmask]
>
>Subject: ACTION: Austrian feminists urgently need help!
>
>
>URGENT ALERT FOR ACTION !! (please forward to all)
>
>9 February 2000
>
>Dear women,
>
>Please help us because otherwise most of Austria's women's
>NGOs
>have to close down. The work of decades can be ruined very soon.
>Please,
>remember last week's plea. Send us lists of addresses (preferably
>e-mail)
>of the most important media and politicians in your country!!
>
>Here is our statement which we will ask you to pass on:
>
>
>WOMEN's NGO's THREATENED:
>RIGHT WING AUSTRIAN GOVERNMENT ABOLISHES WOMEN'S MINISTRY
>
>
>Most of the Austrian women's organisations and projects are faced
>with the possibility that they will receive no or not enough state funding
>as a result of the controversial right-wing government's decision to
>abolish the Ministry for Women's Affairs. This not only means that women's
>affairs have been demoted to a junior department in a sprawling Ministry
>of Social Affairs but also that the budget will come to about forty per
>cent of last year's level.
>
>This accords with the overall policy of the new government,
>comprising the conservative People's Party and the populist right-wing
>Freedom Party, which defines its policy with regard to fifty per cent of
>the population basically as an integral part of family policy.
>
>Vice-chancellor Susanne Riess-Passer claimed in a televised interview on
>February 8, 2000 that the former women's ministry had been merely symbolic
>because it had no budget and no powers (both claims untrue). She used this
>argument to justify the ministry's abolition altogether. There will not be
>a larger budget for women; at least not for independent organisations.
>
>Discrediting NGOs
>
>The new coalition partner, the right-wing Freedom Party, is not reticent
>in voicing its opinion on the role of NGOs. For thirty years, they claim,
>they have received funding from a government lead by Social Democrats
>for doing nothing. This not only discredits the invaluable work done by
>NGOs in Austria (and world-wide) and disregards the recognition NGOs have
>received in all the relevant international bodies like the UN and the EU.
>It is slander.
>
>Massive protest in Austria - Since it became clear that for the first time
>in Europe a party whose members praise the Nazi regime and play down its
>atrocities will be allowed into government, a wave of protest has spread
>across the country. Peaceful demonstrations by thousands of people are
>being held every evening. A big rally will be taking place on February 19,
>2000. About a quarter of a million demonstrators from all over Austria are
>expected.
>
>We urge you to support the women's NGOs in their struggle to
>survive and all Austrians who are strictly against allowing racists and
>neo-fascists to govern a country in the European Union!
>
>Please, write letters of protest via E-mail to:
>
>- The new Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel
><[log in to unmask]> who is mainly responsible
>for bringing the Freedom Party into government
>
>- To Austrian President Thomas Klestil
><[log in to unmask]>
>
>MEDIA
>Please, also support us on an international level and address your
>governments to put further pressure on this shameful Austrian Government,
>· address the media in your country to keep reporting on the situation
>
>MONEY
>Please, help us with donations to get us through this crisis: our
>account:
>Verein autonome österreichische Frauenhäuser WAVE our account number: 610
>782 021 our bank details: Bank Austria, Mariahilfer Strasse 70, A-1070
>Vienna, Austria, bank code: 20151, international swift code: BKAUATWW
>____________________
>
>Thank you very, very much!!
>Verena & Birgit
>WAVE Office
>c/o Information Centre Against Violence
>Austrian Women's Shelter Network
>Hofgasse 9/1/4 A-1050 Vienna, Austria
>phone: ++43-1-5482720 fax: ++43-1-5482720-27
>[log in to unmask]
>
>web site: <http://www.wave-network.org
>
>
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