Not left-wing enough

SJ Vorarlberg cuts all ties with the SPÖ

Symbolic image

(Bild: APA/MARKUS LEODOLTER)

The Socialist Youth Vorarlberg made a clear election recommendation for the KPÖ before the national elections and emphasized that federal party leader Andreas Babler was not positioning the SPÖ to the left enough. Now the SJ Vorarlberg is cutting its ties with the party and wants to dock with the Communists.

The basis for this is a corresponding decision by the delegates of the SJ regional conference, as the organization announced in a press release on Thursday. Instead, they want to join the "Revolutionary Communist Party" (RKP), which is to be founded in Vienna on November 9. 

"Decision has been maturing for some time"
"The decision has been a long time coming", said Sonja Kopf, Chairwoman of the SJ Vorarlberg. The election of Babler as SPÖ federal party chairman had not led to a shift to the left in the party. The "same right-wing, bureaucratic networks" continue to set the tone, criticized Kopf. They were prepared to sacrifice the social rights of workers and young people for the government's feeding trough.

After the National Council elections, Kopf noticed a positioning within the SPÖ that signaled a willingness to make deep cuts to pensions and the social system. "The party leadership is preparing itself to be part of a coming austerity government and to smash social achievements side by side with the ÖVP," said the SJ chairwoman. Her troops will "fight in the ranks of the workers' movement, but with a clear perspective of class struggle".

Calmness in the federal organization
The federal organization is taking this somewhat calmly: "You shouldn't stop a traveller." Although the SJ is not an official part of the SPÖ, it is involved in its committees.