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I happened upon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Civil_War and it feels like it's foreshadowing our curre
by nyanpasu64 5y ago
I happened upon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_Civil_War and it feels like it's foreshadowing our current situation.
> A first major incident ensued early in 1927, when members of Hermann Hiltl's Frontkämpfervereinigung ("Front Fighters Union" — a paramilitary association likewise affiliated with the conservative camp) shot and killed an eight-year-old boy and a war veteran marching with the Schutzbund in a peaceful counter-demonstration in Schattendorf (Burgenland).[citation needed] In July, three defendants in the case were acquitted, which led to outrage in the left-wing camp. On 15 July 1927, a general strike occurred, and demonstrations took place in the capital. After the storming of a police station, security forces started shooting at demonstrators. An angry group of people then set fire to the Palace of Justice (Justizpalast), seen as a symbol of a flawed and partial judicial system. Altogether, 89 people (85 of them demonstrators) lost their lives in this July revolt, and many hundreds suffered injury. Surprisingly, the violence soon died down and the factions took their battle from the streets back into the political institutions...
> On 4 March 1933, Christian Social Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß suspended the Austrian Parliament. In a close vote (on railway workers' wages) in the National Council, each of the three presidents of parliament resigned their position in order to cast a ballot, leaving nobody to preside over the meeting. Even though the bylaws could have resolved this situation, Dollfuss used this opportunity to declare that parliament had ceased to function, and blocked all attempts to reconvene it, also threatening to use military force against the parliamentarians, should they try to reconvene. The Social Democratic Party had thus lost its major platform for political action. The conservatives, facing pressure and violence not only from the left but also from Nazis infiltrating from Germany, could now rule by decree on the basis of a 1917 emergency law, without checks on their power, and began to suspend civil liberties. They banned the Schutzbund and imprisoned many of its members...
- gsk22 5y agoIn what way do you see this as foreshadowing? (It's a lot of information, and I don't see many strong parallels -- but maybe I'm missing something)
- nyanpasu64 5y agoFirst violent conflict between protestors fighting against injustices (in their view) and police institutions, followed by overthrowing democratic institutions and replacing with a single-party dictatorship (which hasn't happen so far in the US, but I've heard of democracy being eroded and people fearing that Republicans would overturn the ballot results in 2020).
- FuckedCompany 5y agoRight, so basically you’re LARPing with Godwin.
- danrocks 5y agoBy "our current situation" I supposed you mean the US. If so, I fail to see where the parallels are.