This year marks the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi-fascism. Numerous anti-fascists, democrats and revolutionaries participated in the liberation ceremony in Mauthausen. After three years of low attendance, due to the Corona Measures policy, hundreds more participated this year.
The concentration camp (KZ) Mauthausen has a special meaning for anti-fascists, revolutionaries and communists. It was a concentration camp where many anti-fascists and interbrigadists, who were already fighting against the Spanish Franco fascism, were imprisoned. Many Red Army soldiers were also imprisoned in this concentration camp. They tried to break the resistance against fascism with the cruelest methods and in the most abominable conditions. It was precisely these forces of resistance that also organized in the concentration camp and attempted an escape with the members of the Red Army. Even if the attempt to break out failed, the resistance was not broken and shows until today the lesson that union and organization are important tools in the struggle against exploitation and oppression.
Today, billions of people are exploited and oppressed. Under the guise of "globalization", large-scale imperialist projects are being built on the backs of oppressed peoples and nations. These large-scale imperialist projects, including many today under the name of "green energy" and "against the climate crisis", mean displacement, persecution and death for millions of people, as well as dismantling and erosion of democratic and social rights. Behind these large-scale imperialist projects are the interests of the capitalist class, the rulers.
The "Action for Democratic Rights of the People" (ADRV) (LINK) held a commemorative speech at the Soviet Monument. There it said, among other things: "It was a concentration camp in which the anti-fascists and communists were to be destroyed, proletarian internationalists were to be murdered. ... The attempted escape of the Red Army shows with its heroic example that even under the worst and most brutal conditions the struggle for liberation against the unjust war and for the equality of nations can be waged."
Unjust wars are being waged today as well. The war drum of the rulers is beaten louder and louder. In Austria, over 16 billion euros are to be invested in the next few years in armament alone. At the same time, the austerity pencil has been applied in the health sector for decades and continues to be applied, and democratic, social and labor rights are being eroded.