From: TATBLATT@LINK-ATU.COMLINK.DE
Subject: TATblatt Press Statement
Date: Friday, May 19, 1995

     The Austrian press and partly the international press gave
in the last few weeks a large amount of interest to the TATblatt.
Interest with different quality and point of view of course. To
put something against the image of the "leftist terrorists" and
"extremist bomb attackers", we release the following statement.
We ask you to spread information further in your media.

                                             - TATblatt

Statement To The Press About The Recent Developments In Austria:

     On April 12, 1995, two long time members of the militant-
left died in an attempted sabotage attack. Peter Konicek (31
years old) and Gregor Thaler (30) were found by the police one
week later in a forest area south of Vienna (near Ebergassing
village). They had attempted to blow up an electricity pylon with
a home-made bomb. As far as we know from press reports they had
not paid attention to the magnetic field below such a pylon. The
magnetic field triggered off the bombs while Peter and Gregor
prepared the sabotage attack.
     This pylon of a 380 kv power line is one of two existing
central supply lines to Vienna. This power lines connect the West
European power supply systems with Eastern European. From Eastern
Europe cheap nuclear energy is planned to be directed to Western
Europe in near future.
     Until now there are many open questions about this fatal
incident. No statement of the two militants was found (or made
public by the police). Therefore there are many speculations in
the press and even within the left about this. For us only one
fact seems to be clear: two members of the militant left
attempted a sabotage attack for environmental reasons.
     Immediately after the police announced that the two dead
were leftists, the press and rightist politicians started a
campaign against the left. A terrorist left network was published
which included not only militant leftists but also liberal
performers, politicians of the Greens and even Social Democratic
ministers. Most of the attacked persons and groups denounced the
published network as complete nonsense while on the other hand
pointing the finger on the radical left. Many people noticed that
the all-out attack of the right wing has the intention to divert
attention from the terrorist nazi-bombings of the last two years.
     The police announced that at least one further person took
part in the attempted attack in Ebergassing. The search for this
unknown person was taken to justify the following intensive
investigations in the left. On the day the police found the
corpses of Gregor and Peter, the police raided the antifascist
centre in Vienna - the Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus (EKH). The EKH was
squatted 5 years ago and is now a centre of the Austrian militant
left, of a Roma organisation, of a Turkish Communist Party and is
home of refugees from various countries. One of the dead, Gregor
Thaler, had a police registration in EKH. This was the sole big
action of the police so far. Behind the scenes the police
developed intensive activities of interrogations and home
searches. Around 50 leftists were interrogated so far. A further
150 are on the police list, according to press reports and police
statements.

TATblatt

     Following the tragical failure of Ebergassing our radical
left bi-weekly magazine TATblatt became the target of a campaign
to cut of all funding and to search our office. This attack was
initiated by Joerg Haider, leader of the right populist "freedom
movement" (Freiheitliche - F) and taken up by nearly all daily
newspapers and weeklies of Austria. TATblatt was presented as the
"centre of left-extremist terrorism", stating that despite
TATblatt-journalists themselves are not terrorists the immediate
social background is. No evidence of accusations were given that
the saboteurs of Ebergassing had any contacts with TATblatt.
     The smear-campaign against TATblatt is part of the attacks
of Haider - whose contacts to right extremists are well
documented - on left initiatives in Austria. Almost all cultural
groups dealing with left issues like anti-nazism have to face
continual attacks of F-agitators against "public subventions for
left-extremists or perverse cultural activities" for two years.
     But the recent attacks of Haider went far beyond this scope.
A donation of 6,000 Austrian TS (600 US$) from the Minister for
the Interior, Caspar Einem, to TATblatt was reason enough to
demand the resignation of the minister. TATblatt was used by
Haider as a tool to destabilize the current coalition of Social
Democrats and Conservatives. Adding to this Haider ran amok
because of the reason of the donation of Einem; Einem donated to
support a legal trial, because TATblatt published "Joerg Haider
pursues racist baiting" (J.H. betreibt rassistische Hetze) two
years ago. In part Haider's attacks were successfull. All
political parties including the Green Party published statements
to keep aloof "from violence of any sort" including TATblatt,
despite the fact that TATblatt is published legally for 7 years
without a break. All public funding was cut off immediately two
weeks ago.
     The behaviour of the green establishment is in sharp
contrast to so-called "common people". To counter further attacks
on TATblatt and the radical left infrastructure in Austria it is
them and not Green or Social Democrat careerists who give hope,
power and the necessary support to fight nazism, environmental
destruction, sexism and racism not only in this country.

Contact:

TATblatt
Gumpendorferstr. 157/11
A - 1060 Wien
Austria

Tel: 431-222-596 80 78
Fax: 431-222-596 80 784