Social Democratic party of austria

The Social Democratic Party of Austria (German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs, or SPÖ) is one of the oldest parties in Austria. The SPÖ is one of the major parties in Austria and has particularly strong ties to labor unions and the Austrian Chamber of Labour (Arbeiterkammer). The SPÖ is among the few mainstream European social democratic parties that have preserved their strongly socialist roots and reject neoliberalism[citation needed]. In fact the old social democratic greeting still remains the word "Freundschaft" ("Friendship")

From the beginnings until 1918
Socialist worker movements and associations had already started to form in Austria by the mid-19th century. The party's first meeting took place in 1874 in Neudörfl in Burgenland. In the following years there was factional infighting and the party split into moderate and anarchistic factions. It was united in 1889 as Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs (SDAPÖ) (German: Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria), especially through the work of Doctor Victor Adler. At the party congress in Hainfeld, the party decided to accept Adler's “Prinzipienerklärung” (Declaration of Principles). December 30, 1888 to January 1, 1889 is therefore considered the founding date. On July 12, 1889 the first issue of the party newspaper the Arbeiter-Zeitung was printed. The party was initially close to Marxism and continued to grow especially in Vienna, the industrial areas of Bohemia, Moravia, Styria, Lower- and Upper Austria.

The party participated in the founding of the Second International in Paris on July 14, 1889. The party campaigned for more rights for workers including their right to vote. In the Brünner Programm of September 1899, the Socialists demanded that the Austro-Hungarian Empire be reformed into a democratic, federal state.

The Socialists were allowed to run in the City Council (Gemeinderat) elections of Vienna on May 30, 1890. However suffrage was only granted after a general strike in 1907. In the elections to the House of Deputies in the Reichsrat, the Socialists were able to win many votes. Out of a total of 516 seats, the party won 87 seats, becoming second strongest fraction in parliament after the Christian Social Party. Eventually by 1911 the Socialists became the strongest party in parliament.

The party initially supported the declaration of war against Serbia after the Assassination in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg in 1914, but soon realized that the disastrous war was untenable. After the death of Emperor Franz Joseph, the first peace-meeting was held in December 1916. By January 1918, strikes were breaking out, calling for an end of the war and the terrible suffering of the people, especially the worker's families, had to endure.

By October, a provisional national assembly (“Provisorische Nationalversammlung”) was convened under the social-democrat Karl Renner, which tried to work out a provisional constitution (Provisorische Verfassung) under the leadership of a new state council led by the new state chancellor Renner. The social-democrats wanted a new form of government and on November 12, 1918, the republic was proclaimed by Renner.

[edit] In Trieste
In Trieste, the Italian Lega social-democrate decided at its congress in December 1897 to change its name to 'Adriatic Italian Section of the Socialist Workers Party in Austria'. Notably, the Italian Trieste socialists preferred to use the name 'socialist' rather than 'social democrat'.[4]