The Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party in the Republic of Austria was a political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

, working amongst the Czech minority. The party was founded on December 7, 1919, as the Vienna branch of the of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers Party

Czech Social Democratic Party

The Czech Social Democratic Party is a social-democratic political party in the Czech Republic.-History:The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria was founded on 7 April 1878 in Austria-Hungary representing the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament...

 separated itself from the party centre in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 (with the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian empire the party branches in Vienna and Prague were now parts of two different states). The party worked closely together with the Social Democratic Workers Party of Austria (SDAPÖ), and cooperated with the Austrian Social Democrats on all political issues. The party contested parliamentary elections on joint lists together with SDAPÖ.

History

The first, and constituent, party congress was held in 1921. The congress adopted a party programme, which included demands such as the right to education in mother language, the unification of the Vienna urban and rural areas into a single electoral constituency, judicial reform, lowering the voting age to 18 years, full press freedom and direct popular intervention in the legislative. Most of the social demands of the party were similar to those raised by SDAPÖ.

On May 1927 the party congress adopted a new party programme, following the lines of the SDAPÖ Linz Programme.

The party was banned in February 1934. The party then began to operate as an underground organization. Publications were printed in neighbouring Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

, and smuggled into Austria.

Organization

The party was organized on the principle of individual membership. As of 1928, the party claimed a membership of around 14,200, out of whom 3,700 were women. The highest organ of the party was the party congress, held every two years. The congress elected a Party Presidium and Secretariat. The activists of the party were active in the Austrian trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

 movement. The youth wing of the party had, as of 1928, 2,825 members. In close connection to the party was the educational association, Máj, the Workers Gymnastics Union (DTJ) and cycling clubs. There was also a Czech section of the Republikanischer Schutzbund

Republikanischer Schutzbund

The Republikanischer Schutzbund was a paramilitary organization established in 1923 by the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs to secure power in the face of rising political radicalization after World War I....

, connected to the party.

The party had offices almost all of the districts of the country

Districts of Austria

Austria is divided into 84 political districts , and 15 Statutarstädte which form their own districts.-Function:The Austrian Bezirk is roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany and County in the United States. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft is headed by the...

. These offices also served as offices for the district branches of the youth and women's wings of the party.

Leadership

As of 1925, Lesak was Chairman of the Party Presidium. In 1928 he had been replaced by W. Filar and in 1931 by Čeněk Sahanek. Other prominent leaders of the party included the parliamentarian František Dvořák, Antonín Machát (municipal councillor on behalf of the Czech minority in Vienna during the Second World War), František Strnad, Bedřich Čepelka and Josef Petrů.

As of 1928, the Party Presidium consisted of Filar (chairman), Drahozal, Kopecká, Skranc, Zedniček, Čižek, Strnad, Skřivan (secretary), Adámek, Hajn, Pechowá and Kohl.

Press

The central organ of the party was Vídeňské dělnické listy ('Viennoise Workers' Paper').

International affiliation

The party was affiliated to the Labour and Socialist International

Labour and Socialist International

The Labour and Socialist International was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The LSI was a forerunner of the present-day Socialist International....

between 1923 and 1940. Alois Wawrousek represented the party in the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International between August 1925 to 1937.