Austrian Communists - October Strike 1950

October Strike 1950

Because the post-war national economy was totally destroyed, the government had to institute an austere programme of recovery. The planned measures (Viertes Lohn- und Preisabkommen, Fourth wage and price-fixing agreement) included substantial price increases but much smaller wage increases and large-scale strike movements formed in protest from September 26 to October 6, 1950. This, the largest strike action in the post-war history of Austria, started in the Steyr and Voest factories and the nitrogen plants in the American zone of occupation. However, the interruption of the strike to legitimise it with a conference of all Austrian work councils took the momentum out of the movement and in the second phase the concentration of strikes shifted to the Soviet zone of occupation. In the Soviet occupied districts of Vienna, communist commandos stormed power stations and tram-depots. The Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) rejected the strike. The KPÖ took a prominent role in this strike, which is why politicians of the grand coalition feared a coup d'état behind the strikes, with the goal of the installation of a people's republic. The KPÖ denied any such intentions.

On October 5 the chairman of the Building and Wood workers Trade Union, Franz Olah, succeeded in the dissolution of the October strikes. Olah organised workers who supported the SPÖ, in clashes with the communists they were able to outnumber and defeat them. This caused great irritation with the communist party and many SPÖ members. The fact that the Soviet Red Army did not interfere also brought the strike to an end.