Über mayday / about mayday

mayday2000 graz is an antifascist group based in Graz, the capital of the Austrian province of Styria. Our main agendas are opposing the very active rightwing extremist scene – which includes several influential and well-connected organisations – and fighting fascism, racism, sexism, as well as any form of nationalism, which we perceive as inherent parts of the capitalist system. Thus, antifascism also means for us to oppose the many shapes of capitalism.

Our group was founded in February 2000 shortly after the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) and the far-rightwing Freedom Party (FPÖ) formed a government. During that time, the group, consisting mainly of younger people of a variety leftwing backgrounds, played a vital role in organising the protest which took place in Graz, often in cooperation with like-minded groups. Even after the first wave of demonstrations gradually died down, the group continued in its efforts to fight the law changes issued by the right-wing government, using a variety of means ranging from leaflets to staging satiric plays on the streets of Graz. However, we didn't only oppose racist migration laws, but also criticised laws aimed at eliminating social welfare and personal privacy, as public surveillance became an issue even before 9/11. During the first three years of the ÖVP-FPÖ government, we also fought against the more openly displayed xenophobia, usually stirred up by the FPÖ and similar minded politicians. Very often, we use satiric means to fight their campaigns, e.g. when they tried to accuse African migrants of drug-dealing, a “committee of white drugdealers” thanked them for the diversion.
When the Bush administration declared its “War on Terror” first in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, mayday supported the peace demonstrations in Graz. Still, we were also wary of the EU's own border regime which causes the death of several thousand migrants each year as the EU tries to prevent them from entering. Also, during the EU meeting last year in Graz, mayday took part in the protests against the Austrian government's and the EU's neoliberal agendas.
Since 2005 mayday has again focused itself on antifascist agendas. We began to publish the “enterhaken” (the Grappling Hook), an antifacist zine, and took up to oppose the Leopold Stocker Verlag, a Styrian publishing house which maintains a steady supply of books by a variety of far right-wing writers and plays a mayor role in the local “New Rightwing” movement. Actions taken by mayday led to several publications in the Austrian media and even to an inquiry by the Styrian provincial parliament regarding an award the Styrian governor once granted the Stocker-Verlag.