Sudruh_Lebkavic

Austria

  • 2 Posts
  • 84 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 29th, 2023

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  • Talking to members of the KPÖ can be exhausting; any time one speaks positively about Stalin or AES, one is met with criticism. In my experience, the Communist Party is a mix of different camps, and while there is a small group of anti-German scum who are pro-Israel, this is fortunately a very limited faction.

    The KPÖ in Styria, however, differs notably from the broader organization. I think 2004, the Styrian KPÖ diverged from the rest of the party to some extent, due to ideological differences, for instance, on the EU. Though recent election campaigns have shown improved unity. Politically, I find the Styrian KPÖ to be more based compared to, for example, the Vienna branch, and it is also centralized in its operations, differently from the Vienna branch, as it depends on large part on the initiative of individual members, which is the case for most KPÖ organisations.

    The National Council election campaign and results showcase a few other flaws within the KPÖ, namely, that it is social democratic, as it stands. If you look at the KPÖ election program, you’ll notice the absence of a clear class standpoint. While they critique “excess profits,” they fail to address the root causes behind these issues. Also, the party’s national focus on housing, though regionally relevant (such as in Vienna), was a really stupid choice for a primary campaign issue on the national stage. This explains why only 18% of KPÖ voters supported the party based on its program, while the radical right-wing FPÖ gained 60% of its voters specifically because of its program, first and foremost its position on migration.

    In Vienna, KPÖ chose to run with a left-liberal party called LINKS, because they feared that they may not get enough votes. This decision, made by a few long-time members without broader consultation, was widely criticized and has since been viewed as a mistake by, I’d say, most members, not however those that made the choice, mind you. Additionally, the KPÖ simply doesn’t have any implementation of Criticism and Self-Criticism, which makes identifying and correcting errors within the party challenging.

    It is worth noting that the KPÖ was once Austria’s wealthiest party, benefiting from the economy of the GDR, including profits from Turmöl, which flowed in a big part to the KPÖ. After the fall of socialism, Germany pursued lawsuits against the KPÖ, claiming that KPÖ’s assets were German property. These legal battles continued until relatively recently, forcing the KPÖ to sell significant land and property to cover the legal costs. I think one has to take that into account.

    On a positive note, the faction pushing to remove “communist” from the party name has essentially disappeared. While very few older members may still harbor this view, it’s no longer taken seriously, they’re essentially dying out.

    Despite the challenges posed by the diverse nature of the KPÖ, we Marxist-Leninists find an opportunity here. The KPÖ is currently quite malleable, and there is a chance to reshape it into a genuine workers’ party. I personally believe this transformation is achievable. At one point, an attempt was made to create an alternative to the Communist Party of Austria by forming the PdA, the Partei der Arbeit. This failed, however, because the PdA became dogmatic.

    To answer your question more directly now, IMO the “bad takes” stem from its ideological fragmentation, historical compromises, and a lack of strong Marxist-Leninist principles guiding its decisions. The party’s structure is loosely centralized, and different branches exhibit varying political directions, which weakens overall cohesion and leads to inconsistent stances. This has led to policies and alliances, such as those with left-liberal groups, that compromise a strong class-based foundation. To add insult to injury, the absence of Criticism and Self-Criticism within the KPÖ stifles internal growth and ideological clarity.







  • I don’t agree with ppl saying it’s a waste of time to debate others. Depending on the person ure talking with, it may be very possible that you help them move into the right difection. Or maybe the ppl listening. That’s partially how i got here.

    I have a friend who continuously asks questions abt communism, but will then counter my answers with an assumptions of his, but in a friendly, devil’s advocate kinda way. That’s pretty much a debate, I think and so far I could help him understand certain concepts. When I’m outta answers I simply say that I have no clue atm and know that I have to look up that certain topic and learn more abt it. So it’s helpful to myself as well.

    While I don’t have anything to recommend for forming better arguments, in my experience, the better you understand a topic the better you are at arguing for it. Very often it’s simply abt not falling for the usually false, misinformed premise ur ‘opponent’ presents u with. I’ve also found that it’s best not to engage people at all who are just looking for a fight. Hope this helped.



  • Oooh, swimming is rly cool for this. When going swimming with your friends it’s easy to alternate between playing or whatever and swimming with proper form for as long as possible. It may not be a replacement for a complete workout, but I like to use it as a substitute for triceps and lat workout for instance. Apart from that, I think it’s good for like lung capacity and it’s also healthy for ur joints. Other watersports concerning: I did some Kajaking last summer and I gotta tell you, ur arms are gonna be sore af from that. Only bummer is, ur legs are left out completely there.

    Apart from that, I personally think running in itself is fun. But thinking of actually fun ways to run, then Football, Baseball or Parkour come to mind. Since I know a person that hates running, but loves cycling, ig cycling is a good substitute for running.

    Presently, I prefer to just do weight lifting. Since I’m still a student, i also get to do other sports easily, as that is a mandatory subject. Once i’m finished with school tho I imagine I’ll stick with weight lifting. Tho I’m itching to try out MMA as well. Jiujitsu is another sport u may wanna try out. I did it for a few years and it’s a very social sport where ure bound to meet new ppl.

    Hope this helped OwO





  • …my condolences. I didn’t know shit was hitting the fan like this in Belgium. This sounds so fckn illegal fr. Was that in response to the actions of the harbor unions?

    In Austria the terrorism threat has been hightened; that’s all I know abt. Like there’s gonna be more soldiers stationed at the parliament and whatnot. Oh and it’s illegal to cover your face significantly for a few years now. So at unauthorized demonstrations what might happen is police reminding ppl it’s illegal to cover ones face and once the demonstrators are kettled, they might get an additional fine to the normal one. Tho if every protestor would object, any lawsuit would prolly be retracted; that is if enough ppl r affected.


  • There’s a German/Austrian greenwashed alternative called Avocadostore. Might wanna take a look at that. It says it has several requirements if one wants to sell anything on there, regarding ones business’ “climate friendliness” or so. Most stuff on there is on the more expensive side of things as one could imagine and I got no idea abt the quality. Regarding shipping, even to Austria the costs are like 10€ or so. Been a while since I took a look at it… Might be worth checking it out.


  • They’re trying to scare off ppl from protesting… These are our so-called democracies every lib loves so much. In school I once learned protesting was one of our most important rights under democracies. Whatever happened to that o.O

    Meanwhile incredible activists around me are losing their jobs for standing up to genocide. Hearing abt these cases just makes me wanna raise my voice even further. Tho I wouldn’t know what I’d do if I literally lost all my job opportunities. Literally only cuz I stood up against the cowardly slaughter of babies. At least I did the right thing then.