Jusog

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.

The PdA is a dogmatic party that does not participate in any practice. So they may think well of Stalin, but what use is that if their positions are not influenced at all by practical work? All they do is sit and bullshit about how it's revisionist to even participate in elections and that we need a revolution; and they do nothing beyond that.

Omg China Uncensored. At this point I forgot they exist. Back when the Hong Kong portests broke out I watched their youtube channel on a regular basis and gobbled up everything they spat out. Given all their concern for the Uyghurs, surely they must oppose the Israeli genocide against Palestinians, right? Pretending to care for workers and human rights only until actual war crimes are committed by the war crime professional, the US and its allies. I hate them to the core and the fact that I just didn't question any of their lies back then.

Looking at their channel rn, it's incredible how they're just still going on with the same bs as back then. They're even pulling the China will collapse any second now, pls believe us regularly.

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.

..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.

Yoo totally! Thx for the suggestion, I'll make sure to look into him. Any specific work you'd have in mind?

I am a 5th year Animation student, currently working on my group's and mine second 3d animation short so far. It's anti-capitalist in its message, but I rly wonder how the storytelling could be different in a marxist direction. Obv we weren't exactly taught to create communist films (tho we got at least one communist teacher.) Either way, I'll take anything you can give me o.O

Russia being the bad one in the war with Ukraine. I used to tell my mother, that one can totally be against both Russia and the US, and I just didn't get how she could talk abt them defending themselves from Nato and so on.

And then I became a dirty lil Commie.

Also the term "Tankie". I rly thought (due to influencers like NFKRZ) that tankies were stupid ppl who didn't understand history or so... AND THEN I BECAME A TANKIE - Proudly so.

That's a rly interesting perspective. I too feel like I can't remember important stuff from the books I read cuz the information mushes together in the end, but I never thought abt reading another book to counter that.

Imma try that and see if it works lol

Oh, true. I only read Lenin's "Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism" as of yet. Do you have any specific book recommendations from him?