Hexbear

9 points

9 months ago

Not much point in voting for them though, polls show KOOS will get less than 2% of votes.

This is the wrong way to think about parliamentary elections. Every vote cast for a party that is anti-war decreases the percentage of votes of the pro-war parties and thus their legitimacy.

Ideally you would have a communist party that you could vote for, even if it’s a small one which is not likely to get a lot of votes. But if that’s not an option a pro-Russian party seems like the least bad choice in the present circumstances.

Liberals always like to talk about the lesser evil, well in this case this is that. You say yourself that they are not going to even get a seat anyway so you won’t be doing any real harm nor really endorsing their socially conservative views, but you will still have cast a protest vote against war and against russophobia.

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Arlaerion@lemmygrad.ml

4 points

9 months ago

Not OP, but an important point in some countries:

We got a communist party, but the only party openly pro-russia ist the far right ones. The ones that wish for fascism like in the ‘old days’. I know, centrists are not much better, bur voting fot the exact opposite of the communists seems not right.

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2 points

9 months ago

Sounds to me like you don’t have a communist party.

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Arlaerion@lemmygrad.ml

3 points

9 months ago

Im from Austria. The popular opinion here on many things is just plain stupid.

Telling others that china is not as bad as media wants us to believe, or being anti-zionist, or claiming NATO has fucked up so much in Europe will be met with weird reactions, ignorance, aggression or questioning your sanity…

So our communist party is careful in the way they speak…

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5 points

9 months ago

By the way, you don’t have to vote for the socdem KPÖ. You have the PdA (Partei der Arbeit) in Austria, which, judging by their publication at least, seems a much more serious and principled ML party. There’s also the ISA (Internationale Sozialistische Alternative), though as the name gives away they are Trotskyists and as such have a lot of bad takes on Russia and China.

I’m just saying, there’s not just the one “communist” party in most European countries. Usually if you look into it you will find that other smaller ones exist too and they may be more principled and more in line with your values.

Now i don’t know whether these two which i mentioned are on the ballot in this EU election given that both of these parties are much smaller than the KPÖ, but you should be aware that usually there are alternatives.

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Arlaerion@lemmygrad.ml

2 points

8 months ago

Thank you! They have not been on the ballot, but I’ll check it out.

For now i did vote, but after some studying I’m not so sure anymore if I want to support this system.

I thought: Support the KPÖ, they’re the most left we have on the ballot. The chance that people actually see what the left (although liberal) is about. And maybe they can easier be convinced to read more on socialism/communism.

But after reading that seems reformative and even damaging the revolutionary part of ML.

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4 points

9 months ago

Im from Austria.

Ah yes, i know the KPÖ. They are “eurocommunists”. They associate with the “Party of the European Left” at the EU level. This puts them firmly in the camp of pro-EU social democrats. They are fully on board the anti-Russia bandwagon on the Ukraine issue.

So our communist party is careful in the way they speak…

So they are opportunists tailing the liberal mainstream consensus.

They have made a conscious choice to fall in line. That is the price many of these kinds of parties believe they have to pay in order to be allowed a seat at the table. They do what they think they have to do in order to be allowed to acquire political power in the bourgeois system.

The only thing i can say about that has already been said by comrade Vladimir Ilyich:

“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”

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