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Communist Party of Austria Kommunistische Partei Österreichs | |
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| Abbreviation | KPÖ |
| Leader | Günther Hopfgartner |
| General Secretary | Florian Birngruber |
| Spokespersons | Katerina Anastasiou Rainer Hackauf Günther Hopfgartner Sarah Pansy Tobias Schweiger Natascha Wanek Johan Spricht Veer Sachai |
| Founded | 3 November 1918 |
| Headquarters | Drechslergasse 42 A-1140 Vienna |
| Newspaper | Argument Volksstimme |
| Political orientation | Communism (de jure) Democratic Socialism (de facto) |
| European affiliation | Party of the European Left |
| International affiliation | IMCWP |
| Website | |
| www.kpoe.at | |
| Part of a series on |
| Communist parties |
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The Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), is a party in Austria that claims to be communist whilst acting like a democratic socialist party, and is one of the world's oldest communist parties. The party is particularly active in the states of Styria and Salzburg, holding multiple seats there as well as the mayorship of Graz, Austria's second largest city, since 2021.
History
Founding
The KPÖ was officially established on the 3 November 1918 at a conference in Vienna by comrades inspired by the October Revolution, leading the KPÖ to subsequently join the Comintern in 1919.[1] In its early history the KPÖ made the error of boycotting bourgeois elections, but this mistake was soon rectified in its conference on September 1, 1920 following Vladimir Lenin's Letter to the Austrian Communists in which he informed them of this error.[2]
Modern day
The modern iteration of the KPÖ is a democratic socialist party in all but name despite what it claims, having abandoned revolution in favour of devoting itself to achieving socialism through bourgeois politics whilst denouncing "Stalinist crimes".[3] The success of the party has been increasing in recent years and it currently holds the mayorship of Graz after winning 29% of the vote in Styria, allowing KPÖ member Elke Kahr, to be elected mayor at the head of a coalition of the SPÖ and the Greens.[4]
Positions
Palestine
The KPÖ considers the initiation of Operation Flood of Al-Aqsa against the Zionist Entity to be a terrorist attack and condemns Hamas for fighting Palestine's occupier. It considers "Israeli" settlers to be "civilians" and calls for a ceasefire while parroting imperialist lines on hostages and atrocities committed by Hamas. It considers a two state solution as necessary for peace in Western Asia meaning the KPÖ is de facto Zionist.[5]
References
- ↑ "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Communist Party of Austria" (1979). USSR. Archived from the original on 2023-09-03.
- ↑ Vladimir Lenin (1920). Letter to the Austrian Communists. Lenin’s Collected Works, vol.31 (pp. 267-269). Moscow: Progress Publishers. [MIA]
- ↑ "Grundzüge einer Neuorientierung" (1994-03). Archived from the original on 2024-04-06.
- ↑ "Meet the Communist Running Austria’s Second Largest City" (2021-12-28). Jacobin. Archived from the original on 2024-03-14.
- ↑ "Unsere Anteilnahme und Solidarität gilt der Zivilbevölkerung in Israel und Palästina" (2024-02-21). KPÖ. Archived from the original on 2024-02-29.