In early October, 5,000 school students across Austria went on strike against the government’s recent racist hijab ban in schools, for girls under 14. As part of the strike, demonstrations took place in Vienna, Innsbruck, Graz, Linz, and Bregenz. There were also rallies in Salzburg and Klagenfurt. This law has become symbolic of the reactionary divide-and-rule politics of the government, and the strike was a great political success.

[Originally published on Marxist.com]

This was the first time that a protest of this scale has taken place against the racist and right-wing politics of the government. The school students have taken a stand against the racism that has become a normal occurrence. All the establishment parties united in a campaign against the strike and propagated the idea that the hijab ban serves to protect girls from oppression. It was the youth themselves that saw through these lies and took to the streets, despite betrayal and repression.

The Revolutionäre Kommunistische Partei (RKP)—the Austrian Section of the Revolutionary Communist International—was a decisive factor in the success of the strike. It provided the main ideas for how to organize the strike (strike committees, as existing organizations had failed to give a lead, and flying pickets) as well as committing all the forces of the revolutionary communists to the success of the students.

Earlier in September, the hijab ban for Muslim girls under 14 years old came into effect. Far from protecting girls from oppression, it makes Muslim girls a scapegoat for the real problems in schools. The Austrian government—a coalition of ÖVP (conservative Peoples’ Party), SPÖ (Social Democratic Party), and Neos (a liberal party)—is trying to counteract the rise of the far-right party FPÖ, which is currently at 40% in the polls, by implementing precisely the same policies you would expect from a far-right government.

In the constant chorus of the bourgeois media, the Austrian public hears the same lies every day: “Muslims live on taxpayers’ money,” “Muslims cannot be integrated,” “Muslims rape our women,” “Muslims are a danger to our liberal democracy because they live by their own laws.”

This culture war serves as a distraction from the austerity. There is such a shortage of teaching staff that individual students cannot be taken care of, which creates a breeding ground for bullying, sexism, and aggression. The hijab ban was the cherry on top that sparked these protests.

How was the strike prepared?

The strike was organized by the students themselves in strike committees at schools and on a regional level. This method was suggested by the RKP, who studied the lessons of past student movements and class struggles, such as the school strike in Spain in 1986. The strike won its legitimacy from the support of teachers’ organizations and the Socialist Youth, the biggest left-wing organization in the country.

The bravest students came out despite a media campaign against the strike. In addition, political parties, the government, headmasters, and the police sought to intimidate students in various ways through direct attacks, restrictions and blackmail. The lie was widely spread that it is illegal for school students to strike. Picket lines were guarded or forbidden by the police. One school even locked its students inside, to prevent them joining the strike.

It is clear that the number of students who sympathized with the strike is much larger than the layer that attended the demonstrations. Notably, at schools where there was already a tradition of political activity, the strike was much bolder, as the activists were better prepared to overcome any obstacles. This is an important lesson for those that are now joining the struggle.

Austria is not France. The class struggle has developed more slowly in Austria, because the economic crisis emerged more recently than in other European states. Up until 2020, the economic situation in Austria was relatively stable. After World War II, class collaboration was embedded in the country’s institutions, killing every ounce of spontaneity in the class struggle. As a result, social democracy, union bureaucracy, and the timidity of the Socialist Youth have an objective weight.

Notably, the Communist Party (KPÖ) has decided to be part of the problem. The KPÖ has not spoken out against this racism and its youth organization abstained from participating in the strike. In the second biggest city in Austria, Graz, the communist major decided not to defend the democratic rights of school students to strike against racism, despite the local strike committee calling on them to do so.

This created the conditions for an intense campaign by the state to pressure students in a communist-led city not to participate in the strike. The KPÖ are not willing to stand up against their own ruling class and only join protests if the liberals allow it.

Even though the reformist socialist youth organisations called for the strike, they did not put their full weight behind organising it. On the day of the strike, they were asked how many students were expected to attend, to which they replied “maybe a few hundred.” Such a pessimistic perspective conveys weakness that only invites repression.

The teachers union, GÖD, left the teachers on their own. This is despite the fact that the majority of teachers reject the racist hijab ban, and implementing this law will mean that teachers will have to police their students. As a result of this pressure from above, only a few teachers joined the strike.

The RKP fully supported the strike politically and helped prepare for it. Almost 300 interventions were organized in front of at least 90 schools across the country. We successfully sold our newspaper containing experiences and guidelines on how to organize a school committee, but we also initiated the forming of regional strike committees in Vienna, Graz, Linz, Innsbruck, and Vorarlberg.

The way forward

All over Europe, the youth are on strike. The movements in France, Spain, and Italy are an inspiration to the youth and a glimpse into the future of Austria and Germany, where currently only the most advanced layers of the youth have entered the struggle.

The scale of the strike in Austria was (relative to population) the same as the German school strikes against conscription, which mobilised around 50,000 on each occasion in a country with ten times the population.

This was the first mobilization of the political vanguard of the youth. Notably, Muslim girls stood at the forefront of many of the protests. The strike movement will continue with a consolidation of the forces in the schools and the strike committees, to find the right moment for the next move.

We are fully confident that the movement will win the struggle against the hijab ban. The RKP is calling for a united, all-out strike in the education sector. On October 22, tens of thousands of university staff and students will hit the streets in Vienna, after another 10% cut in the budget for higher education has been announced. There are also calls to join the Europe-wide initiatives on October 31 and November 20.

The concrete wall the reformists have erected against the working class is cracking thanks to the youth. This is only the start!

Long live international solidarity! Down with the racist hijab ban!