Editors’ Note: As US Communists refound their own party, it makes a great deal of sense to study the experience of other countries.

Information on the Foundation of the Party of Labour of Austria

The founding congress of the Party of Labour of Austria [Partei der Arbeit Österreichs, PdA] will take place on October 12, 2013 in Vienna.

With this congress a revolutionary party of the Austrian working class will exist again. A party firmly grounded on Marxism-Leninism, class struggle, proletarian internationalism and anti-imperialism.

In the draft party constitution it says: “The PdA is a revolutionary party of the Austrian working class and the popular strata that are oppressed by capitalism and imperialism. The PdA advocates and defends the interests of the working population. The PdA strives for the overthrow of capitalism, for the construction of socialism and the realization of a classless society. The PdA takes a stand for peace, democracy, social and ecological progress, and the right of national self-determination.”

The process of the party foundation developed in various phases: As early as 2005 the Communist Initiative [Kommunistische Initiative Österreich, KI] was founded. This served as a collective movement comprising the Marxist-Leninist forces that could no longer be active in the so-called Communist Party of Austria [Kommunistische Partei Österreich, KPÖ] due to its revisionist and postmodern development.
Since then many previously unorganized people and people from other progressive organizations, including former social democrats, have been drawn towards the KI. At the same time the KI developed close cooperation with the Communist Youth of Austria [Kommunistische Jugend Österreichs, KJÖ], the Communist Student Association [Kommunistischer StudentInnenverband, KSV] as well as migrant and minority organizations.
In 2009 the trade union alliance Communist Trade Union Initiative – International [Kommunistische Gewerkschaftsinitiative – International, KOMintern] was founded and won a seat in the Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer) – the official representative body of Austrian employees – at the first attempt.

Based on these positive developments, over the last two years people from the above- mentioned organizations have initiated concrete steps towards the construction of a revolutionary party on the initiative of KI members. These included organizational, structural, strategic, theoretical, and fundamental practical steps.

In February 2013 the Party of Labour was officially registered at the Austrian Interior Ministry, so that it already exists from a judicial point of view. In almost all regions of Austria local and regional committees have been established which are building the foundation for the organizations of the party.

An elected founding committee will serve as the provisional central committee until the first party congress this year. Outlines of the foundation document, the draft of a party programme and the party constitution have been worked out and discussed. These documents will be presented to the party congress for approval. Last but not least, the party has started the process of admitting members.

Among the membership of the PdA – and this is already clear – will be a large number of active or former works council members, active and former representatives of the Chamber of Labour, representatives of various bodies of the Austrian Trade Union Federation [Österreichischer Gewerkschafsbund, ÖGB], former members, functionaries, officials and municipal council members of the Social Democratic Party [Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, SPÖ], former members, functionaries and officials of the KPÖ, former members, functionaries and officials of the Socialist Youth of Austria [Sozialistische Jugend Österreichs, SJÖ], former members, functionaries and officials of other social-democratic organizations as well as members, functionaries and officials of the KJÖ, the KSV and, of course, the KI.

With its founding congress the PdA membership will already exhibit quantitative and qualitative breadth and excellence shaped by fundamental political experience, and – also worth mentioning – will have a young average age.

The essential task – education, mobilization and organization of relevant parts of the working class – is by far the greater challenge, but it will be possible to meet on the basis of the existing fundamentals. It is certain that the PdA will find its place among the class by unyieldingly and sincerely participating in the struggles ahead.

The PdA is also ready to take its place internationally. In this regard the outline of the party constitution emphasizes: “The PdA is a party of proletarian internationalism. The PdA views itself as a part of the international workers’ movement and the collective of communist and workers’ parties.” Based on these principles and in accordance with proletarian internationalism and international solidarity we are hoping to strengthen and expand the international ties of the PdA in the course of time.

Statement by the provisional Central Committee of the PdA, Vienna, July 2013

 

Declaration of the Foundation and Principles of the Party of Labour of Austria

Preamble

The Austrian workers’ movement has an honourable and fighting history. Its milestones are the foundation of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) in 1888/89 and the Communist Party (KPÖ) in 1918. In 1918 the Austrian workers’ movement was on the verge of a possible overthrow of capitalism. In 1934 it rose up against the Austro-fascist putsch. It bore the main burden of the fight against the two fascist dictatorships between 1934 and 1945 and in the national liberation struggle from 1938 to 1945. In the first and second Austrian republics it won important reforms and democratic and social improvements. It was the pacesetter for social progress, for peace and democracy.

The present is different. The leadership of social democracy switched to the side of capitalism, imperialism and counter-revolution a century ago. Today in essence the SPÖ is a capitalist party that itself represents an important support and profit-oriented participant in state-monopoly capitalism in Austria.

It still only mistakenly has its support and core membership in the working class, namely above all to deceive, dupe and repeatedly betray them. It wears only a mask of friendship to the working class while in its actual policies and its political, economic and personal involvement in the system it is repeatedly revealed as the party of capital.
Nevertheless, it should be recognised that there are upright and honest social democrats and socialists in its base who hope to be able to change this party for the better again, that is for the social and the socialist. But the result of these efforts has been the same for many years: it is not these members with the best intentions who change the party but the party changes the members and their intentions. And anyone who does not fit in will sooner or later have no influence any longer and will be removed from their seats and functions.

The smaller workers’ party, the KPÖ, has reached the zero point of social relevance as a national party – and it also bears the responsibility for this itself. Inasmuch as it has abandoned the working class, the class struggle, revolution and thereby also socialism as a point of reference, it is today indeed critical of capitalism but otherwise it is a party that is completely alienated from the working class, ideologically arbitrary, a general left party that hopes for the transformation of capitalism into a "society of solidarity" and propagates erroneous, petty-bourgeois and reformist ideas.

This is neither something that addresses the working class nor what the class needs, and neither in content or strategy is it an expression of the revolutionary workers’ movement and its scientific world view, from which the KPÖ consciously distances itself.
Nevertheless, in parts of the KPÖ there are thoroughly practically committed and theoretically well-grounded members who stand for honest working-class politics, anti-imperialist positions and revolutionary aims. But they form a clear minority, whose influence in the party is and will remain limited to regions or municipalities, their honest commitment will continue to have no effect on the policies of the KPÖ, they will become worn down and resigned.

It may be regrettable that the two classical previous workers’ parties of Austria no longer correspond to their original character, indeed, no longer wish to correspond to it, that they are therefore hardly of any use to the working class any more. But that is their decision, more or less to position themselves as integral parts of the bourgeois party spectrum, and this has to be recognised.

However, precisely as a result of this, the need arises to fill the gaps that are left – not primarily but also because otherwise right-wing and extreme right-wing groups, although they are in reality spearheads of capital, are attempting to present themselves as the representatives of the "ordinary people" and to mislead workers with false promises and demagogic lies and to incite them against one another, so that they are diverted and are no longer active against the real enemy, capitalism.

The main fact, however, is that the present situation already and certainly the future demand a independent, fighting and ultimately revolutionary party of the working class again, which bases itself on class struggle instead of on "class harmony" subjugation to capital.

A party that bases itself on the mobilisation and self-activity of workers, instead of proxy politics, on effective social and labour struggle instead of "social partnership" pleading in the face of capital, on social progress instead of a-social counter-reformism, on honesty and truthfulness instead of opportunism, on internationalism instead of anti-national cosmopolitanism. Which bases itself on anti-imperialism instead of chauvinistic EU Europeanism, on a peace policy instead of militarism and on the realisation of socialism instead of on the perpetuation of crisis capitalism.
Such a party is necessary. The working class needs it.

It is time to take up the best traditions of the Austrian workers’ movement once again and to take them forward.

It is time to reorganise and form the workers’ movement under the changed conditions of the 21st century.

It is time take up again and consistently wage the struggle of the workers’ movement against capitalism and imperialism and their destructive effects.

It is time for workers and the allied strata of the population to have a fighting and revolutionary party for these ends.

I. Foundation

Based on these considerations the foundation and constitution of the Party of Labour [German: Partei der Arbeit, PdA] is hereby declared.

This formal act is not an isolated one. It has been extensively prepared for both theoretically and practically. Naturally, subsequently it demands the further targeted structural development and extension of the party organisations, the development of comprehensive activities and operations and constant analysis of the strategy and political practice of the PdA.

It is self-evident that a new revolutionary party of the working class will not become one through a declaration, but that it will and must be developed through consistent work in and with the class, through sincere participation in its struggles and through honest interaction with the masses.

The PdA’s understanding of itself, its essence, its tasks and objectives will be explained in the following chapters, which contain the political, ideological and programmatic foundations of the PdA.

II. Identity

Article 1. The PdA is a party of the working people. The working class is the repressed and exploited class in capitalism: the capitalist purchases the labour power of a worker and receives the product of their labour. However, this is of greater value than the wage the worker receives.

The difference – the surplus value – is appropriated by the capitalists as profit. They thus get the worker to work for them partly without reward, do not engage in productive work themselves but draw off the wealth for themselves, whereas the workers are permitted only the necessary subsistence.
While the capitalists form the reactionary class, the working class is the revolutionary class within capitalism. Its independent organisation is the precondition for its ability to successfully wage their struggle for its own liberation and that of the whole of humanity.

Article 2. The PdA is an anti-capitalist party. Capitalism is a global system of repression and exploitation, of the division of humanity into a small minority of capitalist owners and a large majority of propertyless workers, into rich and poor. Capitalist wage-labour is the instrument for the amassing of ever greater wealth on the part of the exploiting class of capitalists, the bourgeoisie, and permanent existential insecurity and material scarcity for the working people.
However, this repeatedly leads to a situation in which the workers in their role as consumers can at some time no longer afford the products they have created, which is why the capitalists are left sitting on their commodities: this is the most fundamental cause of every capitalist crisis.
The system of capitalism and of wage-labour is based on the fact that the means of production are monopolised by the capitalists while the workers own nothing except their physical and mental labour power. The historically necessary overthrow of capitalism therefore requires the abolition of capitalist private ownership of the means of production and its transformation into social property.

Article 3. The PdA is a revolutionary party of class struggle. Class struggle is the means and the driving force of social change. The PdA wages class struggle against the bourgeoisie and the instruments of bourgeois rule on political, economic and ideological terrain. The integral highpoint of the class struggle of the working class is its social revolution in which the capitalist class is removed from power and the monopolised means of production in their hands is expropriated.

Article 4. The PdA is a socialist and communist party. And in the actual meaning of the word: its strategic goal is socialist revolution and the construction of socialism. The socialist state as the democratic rule of the organised working class and strata associated with it ac- companied by the simultaneous suppression of counter-revolutionary elements is the precon- dition for the later transition to a classless society (communism) and thereby the abolition of dominance of any kind.

Article 5. The PdA is an anti-imperialist party. The world system of imperialism divides the earth into imperialist powers and dependent countries that are oppressed and exploited by the former. The PdA always stands on the side of the oppressed and threatened. It defends the right of peoples to self-determination, stands for national sovereignty and independence and supports anti-imperialist liberation movements. It fights the various national imperialisms, whether it is US imperialism or the imperialist alliance of the powers combined in the European Union, in particular the aggressive German imperialism, which – not least through the vehicle of the EU – also seeks to rob Austria of its national and democratic sovereignty.

In this sense, the PdA stands for Austria’s exit from the EU and the break-up of that organisation. Instead, it strives for the union of peoples on the basis of solidarity and equality. At the same time the PdA fights the imperialist activities of Austrian big capital, which represents the main enemy of the Austrian working class and in some countries of eastern and southeastern Europe bears the main responsibility for their imperialist oppression and exploitation.

Article 6. The PdA is an Austrian party. It defends the national sovereignty and independence of Austria as well as its population’s democratic right to self-determination. It fights for the interests of the working people in this country regardless of their origin or language. The PdA determines its tasks according to the national particularities and specific concrete conditions of Austria and the dynamic composition of its working class.

Article 7. The PdA is an internationalist party. The actual field of struggle for the PdA is in Austria. This is where the class struggle must be carried out, this is where capital must be forced back and overthrown. To pursue and fulfill this task, with all its consequences, is the best contribution to the joint international revolutionary struggle of the international working class and its parties. In this sense the PdA understands itself as an integral part and as the Austrian section of the international movement of communist and workers’ parties.

The internationalism of the PdA consists in the conscious solidarity with, in the mutual support and the active cooperation and consultation with revolutionary parties of other countries. In this context the PdA is also against any form of nationalism and chauvinism, against racism and xenophobia. Wherever the working people of a country, a continent or even the whole planet come from, they have common class interests and must not allow themselves to be divided and played off against one another by the bourgeoisie on the basis of nationality, language, skin colour, gender or religion – not at national level and not in the international context.

Article 8. The PdA is an anti-fascist party. It vehemently fights against all attempts at creeping fascism of the state apparatus "from above" as much as against the activities of fascist groups "from below". In this connection it unconditionally defends bourgeois democracy, the rule of law and liberal society against fascism, in the knowledge that these too are elements of bourgeois rule.
It underlines the character of fascism as a special form of monopoly capitalist rule, as the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary and aggressive sections of monopoly and finance capital, and thereby as the child of imperialism and capitalism. A consistent anti-fascism that wishes to banish the threat of fascism for ever therefore also means anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism.

Article 9. The PdA is an anti-militarist party. It fights against war, militarism, armament and imperialist interventions and occupations. It stands for the dissolution of military alliances, in particular of NATO, which is the main threat to peace. It rejects the militarisation of the EU and the participation of the Austrian army in EU military and occupation activities. It defends Austrian neutrality and on this basis demands that the Austrian state pursue an international crisis-resolution and peace policy.
However, the PdA is aware that imperialism itself cannot be peaceable, because the various main imperialist powers and their allies are in constant competition for raw materials, markets, investment opportunities, cheap labour and spheres of influence – it can only be compelled to peace for particular periods, under particular conditions and through the effect of a strong peace movement. A guarantee of peace exists only beyond imperialism as a world system.

Article 10. The PdA is an emancipatory party. It regards the struggle for complete equality, self-determination and liberation of women as an obligatory part of the class struggle of the working class for their rights and for socialism. The PdA rejects gender-specific discrimination, sexism, reactionary role models and patriarchal hierarchies and campaigns for their overthrow.

Article 11. The PdA is an ecological party. The human ability to intervene in the flora and fauna, shaping the landscape and even the climate in decisive areas of nature, intentionally or unintentionally to change them, brings with it the obligation to act in a sustainable way and to protect threatened life forms and ecosystems, in our own interest and in the interest of future generations.

The PdA therefore commits itself to comprehensive environmental protection, to sustainable production, agriculture and use of resources, to human and environmentally friendly forms of transport and construction and to a renewable and secure energy economy. It opposes the reckless capitalist primacy of profit at the expense of people, animals and the environment and measures scientific, technological and productive advance against its ecological compatibility.

Article 12. The PdA is a democratic party. It is organised internally on the principles of democratic centralism. This includes rights and obligations of members, of party organisations and party organs. The party statute gives precise information on the norms of party development and party life determined and agreed democratically by the membership itself on this basis.

Article 13. The PdA is a Marxist-Leninist party. Its entire work is based on the fundamental theoretical findings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and V. I. Lenin. The task of the PdA is to apply and creatively develop Marxism-Leninism. It defends Marxism-Leninism against distortions and attacks, whether they are of a revisionist or a "left-radical" nature.

III. Aims

Article 14. The strategy of the PdA is directed at the main aim of a socialist revolution and the construction of socialism in Austria. This cannot be replaced by a "social democracy", a "society of solidarity", a "social market economy" or the like, because these either remain within the framework of capitalism or constitute a contradiction in themselves.

The two central elements of socialist revolution are the political power of the organised working class and the socialisation of the means of production. On this basis, socialism has some further fundamentals: the planned increase in productivity; through this, the securing of the material life of all people; the abolition of the exploitation of person by person; the overcoming of the division of society into classes; the elimination of wars from human life; ecologically sustainable production; the promotion of socialist consciousness.
These principles have general validity. Apart from this, however, there is no patent recipe or finished model for socialism to implement or imitate. Socialism in Austria will be an Austrian socialism that arises on the basis of the analysis of its own preconditions and specific features and consciously relies on a scientific basis.

Article 15. With the pursuit of this main aim, the PdA as part of an international, worldwide revolutionary workers’ movement is contributing to the worldwide overthrow of capitalism. Just as the Austrian road to socialism and to a classless society will be a self-determined one, conversely it is impermissible to seek to lay down prescriptions for other nations.
From this perspective the PdA recognises and defends the significance of "early socialism" in Europe and the USSR in the 20th century. In the same sense, the PdA declares its solidarity with existing socialist or socialist-oriented countries.
Neither of these, however, relieves the PdA of its duty to subject past, present and also future socialist revolutions and states to its own critical analysis and observation. This alone makes it possible to learn from international experience – whether positive or negative.

Article 16. The aim of the liberation of the working class cannot be achieved under capitalism, but improvements in favour of the working people can be won. For this, it requires a strong workers’ party and militant trade unions that are ready, willing and able to defy capitalism and wring concessions from it.

This, for example, concerns higher wages, better working conditions, workplace co-determination and shorter working hours. It concerns social security for workers and the unemployed, the security and level of pensions and benefits and shifting the main tax burden from the workers to the capitalists, speculators and major owners, to the banks and corporations.

Article 17. The aim of complete equality between people remains reserved to the classless society; only in the higher phase of communist society will the principle "each according to his/her abilities, each according to his/her needs" apply. Even in socialism, inequality will continue, as this serves the principle of work as the basis of the distribution of goods, as well as on grounds of social fairness, which demands the different treatment of differing situations and conditions.
 
But in capitalism, too, the reduction of inequality is also possible, not only in favour of the working people and the poor in relation to the capitalists and the rich, but also between particular groups of people who are unequally treated, worse placed or discriminated against on arbitrary, prevailing ideological and capitalist grounds.
 
This concerns, for example, the rights of women, of national minorities, immigrants, people with disabilities or people whose alternative lifestyles, family or relationship styles or sexual orientations diverge from the bourgeois or conservative standard. However, one needs to be aware the equality in the bourgeois state is and will remain only a formal one, because in its real practice capitalism is once again based on inequality.

Article 18. The aim of a fraternal community and society of solidarity is one of the core tasks of a socialist state. In the bourgeois state and under capitalism only elements of a social solidarity, which are hard to win and must constantly be defended, can be wrested from the politically and economically dominant class, the bourgeoisie and their abetters. Because the capitalist class does not like seeing part of its profits being created and retained for state and communal intuitions that produce no profit for it but benefit working people, the propertyless and poorer strata.
 
A progressive social state not only has the task of providing for the immediate social security of working people, those without work and their dependents, but above and beyond this must also ensure largely free or at least affordable basic public provision, in particular in the fields of health, childcare, education and training, mobility, communication, leisure time and care for the elderly. These are areas that must be removed from capitalist profit-making. Likewise they must be removed from bourgeois elite concepts and social selection and exclusion. If it is possible to win and ensure this, then this also strengthens the concepts of solidarity and community within the working class.

Article 19. The aim of the complete democratic participation and political decision-making authority of the working class and its allies is a fundamental condition of a socialist community. The bourgeois democracy of capitalism only formally concedes full democratic participation to all.
In practice it does not exist – because the economic, political and financial power of the capitalist class, their function as those "giving" or denying work to the working class, their access to the mass media, to the scientific, educational and cultural business, their PR companies, lobby agencies, the far greater resources, the establishment of arbitrary hurdles and the open and hidden corruption obstruct democratic participation and partially cancel out even the general, both active and passive voting rights; general and hard-won achievements of the workers’ movement are being reversed.
The representative parliamentarianism of bourgeois democracy therefore corresponds in practice to a plutocracy, a rule of the wealthy and their willing collaborators. To this extent it is extremely difficult to achieve a democratisation of the state and society within capitalism.
It therefore needs to be fought for all the more vehemently, also in view of the wide ranging process of the dismantling of democracy in many areas. This means that the PdA stands for a radical democratisation, for the actual equality of all votes cast, for the dismantling of all undemocratic obstacles that are put in the way of revolutionary and workers’ parties, for more forms of direct democracy at all levels.
Democratisation, however, does not only concern the usually representative bodies, but democratic participation mechanisms must also be created in factories, in administrative and educational institutions and in the army.
Conversely, at the same time privileges for politicians and parties must be abolished and the salaries for representatives and members of the government must be radically reduced and oriented on workers’ wages. Likewise the financing – hidden corruption – of parties and politicians by corporations and capitalist associations must be banned.
Because this is one additional reason why established politics and the system parties form only their own caste, separated from the people, that is no more than a willing appendage of capital. A further aspect of democracy is the national sovereignty of Austria, which is continually being surrendered by the ruling class to undemocratic EU institutions and to the leading imperialist power of the EU, i.e. Germany. The PdA calls for the re-establishment of the unlimited national sovereignty and political independence of Austria as well as the democratic self-determination of the Austrian people.

Article 20. The aim of the transfer of the means of production into social ownership and its control through the working class in power, as well as the social planning of the economy, are economically the central elements of socialism. Under capitalism there is temporarily and/or partially state ownership of the means of production, above all of large companies.
However, this situation does not remove their capitalist nature. Capitalist nationalisation is usually just a means of handing over to the state the restructurings or expansions, non-profitable or not sufficiently profitable companies or corporations and banks facing ruin in times of crisis, so that the costs can be shifted onto the working people through this detour through the state budget. If a sector or a state operation is consolidated or the crisis overcome, then the companies are rapidly reprivatised and handed over to domestic or foreign capitalists. Their motto is: nationalise and socialise losses, privatise profits.
The PdA rejects this method and appeals in general for the retention of state property. Above and beyond this, the PdA contrasts this approach with the principle of democratic nationalisation. Here it concerns the transference of the major means of production, in particular all banks, insurance companies and the most important corporations – not least those in foreign ownership – into public ownership.
This form of state ownership must be linked to a democratic right to participation of the workers employed, the integration of the various interest-group associations and their coordination, increased minimum standards in wages, in the social sphere and in education, the orientation of company policy on the general interest as well as the first steps towards a planned economy that is oriented on the needs of the population.
In this sense, the major companies in state ownership can be developed into an antimonopoly bastion of the working class and be taken to the limits of capitalism. However, this is only possible if the general politico-democratic conditions and the corresponding strength of the revolutionary and antimonopoly movement exist.

IV. Functions and Tasks

Article 21. The main task of the PdA consists of the education, mobilisation and organisation of the working class. The liberation of the working class and the overthrow of capitalism must and can only be the own work of the workers; they must therefore be empowered to do this. No party can lead this struggle as a proxy for the workers, but they must become active themselves and also themselves be convinced of the question of socialism on the basis of their own experience and insight.
The task of the PdA is thus to fill the working class with the awareness of their situation, to develop and reproduce revolutionary consciousness in the class, to offer their analysis, strategy, tactics and methods, to make them familiar with the party and carefully to integrate their most advanced sections in it – in short, to make and keep the working class ideologically, structurally and materially ready for battle.
For this reason the PdA is not an end in itself for the representation of special, let alone its own interests, but it fulfils a necessary function in the workers’ movement; it is an offer for the construction of a strong, effective and self-aware party of the working class.

Article 22. It is the task of the PdA to organise the connection with the masses and to fill the working class with comprehensive political awareness. Because the PdA wishes to and must engage in politics not just for but with the working people, it is its duty continuously and repeatedly to build contact with the masses. It is not just an aspect of educating working people, it is also necessary to learn from them.

The PdA therefore is constantly committed to people’s concrete social needs and problems, it seeks to generalise these apparent individual interests and to provide clear and understandable answers that enable people to understand their situation, to become active themselves and to extend their activities. To convey and reveal the insight into the overall social relations, connections, processes and perspectives, beyond the immediate effect as well as in their further consequences. Only when hegemonic views develop among the working masses in this way will the revolutionary idea acquire material force.

Article 23. It is the task of the PdA to fight for positive reforms. The PdA is a revolutionary and anti-capitalist party, but this does not mean that it does not fight for and defend actual and immediate reforms, for social and political improvements in favour of working people within the context of capitalism. But these cannot be begged for from the ruling class or negotiated through "social partnership", but can only be forced through the – primarily extraparliamentary – pressure of the working class. It should be noted, however, that a chain of reforms does not make an automatic progression into socialism or a transformation of capitalism possible.

Article 24. It is the task of the PdA to conduct the fight also inside bourgeois institutions. The bourgeois-democratic representative bodies, the parliament, the provincial assemblies and the municipal councils, trade union bodies and the Chamber of Labour are certainly not tools of socialist revolution, but they are platforms of class struggle.
 
For this reason the PdA will where appropriate decide to participate in elections – as part of an alliance or independently – as the class struggle is also to be carried out here: every electoral campaign but also any possible seats won are already further tribunes for the education of the working class and the exposure of the bourgeois system and of capitalism.
 
But in many respects there must be no illusions: without a strong extra-parliamentary movement it will at most only be possible to implement partially positive measures; bourgeois law, media and realities as well as the distribution of financial funds in society deliberately make the fair participation in elections and the corresponding representation for revolutionary and actual workers’ parties impossible; any elected representatives should not themselves fall prey to the illusion of a purely parliamentary path, because – on the basis of participation in imperialist superprofits – this has been and remains a gateway for opportunism in the workers’ movement.

Article 25 It is the task of the PdA to be capable of building alliances. It must not isolate itself in a sectarian way or behave in an all-knowing and reproving way. It is therefore ready to work together with all socialist, communist, revolutionary and left forces, but also with all democratic, socially progressive, pacifist and anti-fascist forces, if this arises on the basis of concrete agreement, without reservation owing to differences of opinion. The PdA has to prove itself as a reliable ally that is true to its word.

 
In general it is a question of the creation of a dynamic antimonopoly alliance for democracy, social progress, national independence and peace, which also includes social strata such as small farmers and tradespeople, freelances and intellectuals who are objectively just as opposed to imperialism and monopoly capitalism. However, the PdA will not abandon its ideological and organisational independence in any form of alliance.

Article 26. It is the task of the PdA to be tactically flexible and mobile. It must command all forms of political, economic and ideological struggle and also know when to apply them at the right time. Correct tactical approaches arise out of the specific analysis of the respective conditions, of theoretical considerations and historic experience.
 
For all the strategic clarity of goals and firmness of principles, it is not permissible to dispense with tactical manoeuvres, practical methods, flexible structures and meaningful intermediate goals. The PdA is a party of social practice; in accord with its strategic goal it must base its tactics on actual reality and the experience in class struggle, and develop its activity out of practice and constantly test, renew and further develop it on that basis.

Article 27. It is the historic task of the PdA to fight for socialism. The world is in the epoch of the transition of humanity from capitalism to socialism. This is today a global historic necessity for the continued human existence and for civilisation, because capitalism stands for the way to barbarism, which calls the very survival of humanity into question.
 
In the sense of the consistent struggle for socialism, the PdA emphasises the question of ownership (the abolition of the private ownership of the means of production) as the fundamental question of the revolutionary workers’ movement. The central question of socialist revolution is the conquest of political power by the organised working class in order to deprive capitalism of its economic base.
 
There is no "third way" around this, however it may be formulated. The PdA may not regard it as inevitable but certainly as very probable that the road to socialism in Austria will lead through the stage of antimonopoly democracy, on the basis of which the conditions for the struggle for socialism are optimised as a result of a sustainable change in the power relations of society. It orients its revolutionary strategy accordingly.

V. Appeal

Article 28. The PdA is prepared for unity in action with all Marxist, class-related and left forces. Above and beyond that it is prepared to participate in alliances with all advanced and democratic forces. – The PdA calls for cooperation between all these forces, groups and people on the basis of equality, solidarity and democracy.

Article 29. The PdA invites all socialists, communists and Marxists who see the necessity for a revolutionary reorganisation or who are currently unorganised to make contact with it. – The PdA calls on all these people or groups for a joint discussion on the future of the workers’ movement and its organisational form.

Article 30. The PdA will stand by all workers in word and deed, whether they are in employment or unemployed, and support them in independent action. – The PdA calls on them for joint resistance against the oppression and exploitation of capitalism.

Article 31. The PdA calls on all those interested to form their own picture for themselves and to work together in the sphere of the PdA. – Membership of the PdA is open to all, regardless of their social position, origin or nationality, if they recognise the fundamental principles of the PdA and wish to become active on the basis of them.

Article 32. Finally, the PdA calls on all those whose situation is threatened by the conditions of capitalism and imperialism not to accept this as an unalterable fate. Because people become masters of their fate when they are aware of it.

Join together, defend yourselves, learn to fight and become active in the revolutionary workers’ movement where it is possible for you!  In no other way will it ever be possible either to force capital into retreat or to defeat it.

The PdA disdains to conceal its views and aims. With these principles it openly declares that its ends can be attained only by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions. Let the ruling classes tremble at the working-class revolution. The workers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.

Workers of all countries and oppressed peoples, unite!