Andreas Babler, Austria's new Social Democratic Party leader
Andreas Babler, Austria's new Social Democratic Party leader
Nick Cosburn has a good article about Andreas Babler, the new head of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ). Unfortunately, the title of the piece, “An Open Marxist Just Became the Head of Austria’s Social Democratic Party,” picks up on the one weak point of Cosburn’s account.1
I can’t improve on his description of Babler’s assumption of the SPÖ leadership. Babler is an articulate social democrat who wants the party to act in the spirit of the militantly pro-union, pro-working-class tradition of the party. Bruno Kreisky2 was head of the SPÖ and who served as Austrian Chancellor 1970-1983 had been heavily influenced by the strong welfare-state emphasis of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. He established an effective version of it in Austria, which had the happy effect of raising Austria’s per capita income in Austria within a couple of decades from one of the lowest in Europe to one of the highest.
Beginning with SPÖ Chancellorship of Franz Vranitsky (1986-1997), which coincided with Austria’s 1995 entry into the European Union, the SPÖ has followed a neoliberal, “third way” type approach to economic policy. Until now.
Babler will now lead a party that has not increased its proportion of seats in parliament since 2002. …
Babler cannot be accused of being unambitious about his party’s future. In his campaign, he proclaimed the “incredible comeback of social democracy.” After his manifesto was labeled a daydream, he retorted, “Dreamer? That’s just another word for Social Democrat.” His optimism has caught on, with thousands of new party members having joined in the past week.
His beliefs are rooted in something different from what we’ve come to expect from the social democratic mainstream in recent decades. They emerge out of an attempt to build on the radical legacies of social democracy by pushing for the further decommodification of society. Whether the Austrian left can break the near-universal trend of accommodation to the norms set by conservative and liberal parties will depend on Babler’s ability to forge a coalition within and outside of his party. Whether such a project is feasible remains an open question. [my emphasis]
I’ve heard Babler speak live a couple of times. He has an engaging style and comes across as both serious and likeable. And he does well on television, too. Austrian political scientist Natascha Ströbl enthusiastically described Babler's climactic campaign speech as "the best political speech of a German-speaking politician in at least 30 years."3
Babler and the M-word
But Cosburn’s explanation of Babler and the M-word could be misleading:
Last month, Babler also raised eyebrows by stating, “I am a Marxist, I am Marxist-oriented, ever since my days in the youth organization.” When pushed on these comments in a further interview, he doubled down, saying that, “I really don’t understand the reaction. Marx was a thinker who shaped the party and the party’s program in many ways.”
For many, it might appear shocking that a leader of a European social democratic party could elect someone as openly left-wing as Babler. His days in the SJÖ [the SPÖ’s youth organization] shaped him into the politician he is today, and he was rewarded for staying true to his beliefs as the organization helped to get his name on the ballot box.
Babler’s position is actually a bit more Mugwumpy than this implies. As Harold Fidler reports:
Corinna Milborn [in an TV interview on the Puls 24 channel] had asked Babler about his "Marxist glasses", which Babler had spoken about several times and which dictators like Stalin had also worn. Babler [said] on Puls 24 about this kind of vision: "Marxism is really a good pair of glasses to understand economic relationships well." And, is he a Marxist? "I am a Marxist, I am Marxist-oriented, since my youth organization. But Marxist, of course, is a harsh word sometimes."
[Armin] Wolf [of the public channel ORF] put this harshness on view in "ZiB 2": the abolition of private property, the socialization of the means of production, the dictatorship of the proletariat, for example. Babler: "I really don't understand the excitement." Marx was "one of the thinkers who shaped the party and also the party program in many areas" ". But [his program has nothing to do with Marxism in this sense, said Babler. Wolf: "So you're not a Marxist, are you?" Babler: "No, not at all. If you interpret it that way."4
In other words, Babler is saying, yeah, I know the rightwingers are gonna call me a commie and what-not. And I know how to toss it back in their faces. And our party program calls for clear reforms, not for some profession of faith to a list of political dogmas.
Another Jacobin profile of him states it this way:
At least since the 1990s, the SPÖ has pursued a neoliberal course that offers no perspective for fundamental social transformation. But Babler still describes himself as a socialist and even refers on occasion to Marxism, which he described in a recent television appearance as “a good lens through which to view the world.” In speeches and interviews, he also emphasizes the SPÖ’s rich history as a workers’ party and his own biography as the child of a working-class family and a former machinist working in a factory. Experiences such as these contextualize his own political approach, which he portrays as a return to Social Democracy’s radical roots.5
Babler’s positioning is helped by the fact that the small Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ)6 has won representation in the Austrian cities of Graz (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home town) and Salzburg (the Sound of Music city) recently. But they don’t really campaign on The Communist Manifesto, the famous 1848 pamphlet by Marx and Frederich Engels, either.
Karl Marx himself died in 1883. Even he himself famously cracked in reference to a French group called the Parti Ouvrier that he found annoying and which called itself Marxist: “what is certain is that I myself am not a Marxist.”7
Babler’s potential to shake up Austrian politics (in a good way!)
Babler was well-known among SPÖ members and activists. He was mainly known as the mayor of Traiskirchen, which hosts the main reception center in Austria for refugees. He has done a good job managing the real challenges of that situation. And he has pushed back consistently against xenophobic politics.
Walter Ötsch and Nina Horaczek devoted a section of their most recent book to Babler’s work in Traiskirchen and his optimistic politics, labelling it “a better future on a small scale”. 8
But now that he’s a leading national politician, the oppo researchers have of course been hard at work to find any of his past comments that look controversial or that can easily be taken out of context. For instance, he has made critical comments in the past about the European Union and is still critical of the destructive elements of its neoliberal economic policies.
Now, in Austria, conservatives and rightwingers bitch and moan all the time about the EU, usually in the context of whining about its refugee policies. For many of them - at least in their rhetoric - it isn’t nearly savage enough.9 In 2016, former Foreign Minister and later Chancellor Sebastian Kurz notoriously said in defense of the refugee policy he was advocating, “It won’t happen without ugly images. ("Es wird nicht ohne hässliche Bilder gehen.")10 Those ugly images are still coming.
Babler’s becoming the SPÖ leader apparently caught veteran Austrian journalist and editor Peter Michael Lingens by surprise. He wrote immediately after the event:
My shock is not so much that Babler calls himself a Marxist – I no longer think he understands what that is – but because in view of his statements about the EU, I don’t credit him with the intellectual capacity to lead a party that would head a government.11
A week later, the shock seemed to be wearing off a bit:
[Babler] can be a captivating speaker, although his demands differ little from those of his predecessor Pamela Rendi-Wagner or the governor of Burgenland, Hans Peter Doskozil [who was Babler’s main competition for the leadership]. But he accompanies them with new words: that it is important to "restore the dignity of social democracy" or that "social democrats are not supplicants". Red [social-democratic] functionaries and left-wing sympathizers apparently long for such words, and this is not incomprehensible to me: The trade unions, as the real center of power of social democracy, have taken steps backwards for two decades instead of making progress: The fact that employers can unilaterally order the twelve-hour day [under a conservative-led government] was the latest defeat of this kind. [my emphasis]12
A social-democratic party that fights for its own side. Imagine that! It is also “not incomprehensible” to me, either, that the party base would find that attractive.
But there is a big difference between Babler and Doskozil on immigration and refugee issues. Doskozil basically takes a demagogic, xenophobic position. Babler not only knows the ins-and-outs of both the politics and the practical realities of refugee issues. And that means that one of the largest three Austrian parties now is headed by someone who will actively push back against dishonest xenophobic rhetoric from the leaders of the conservative (ÖVP) and far-right (FPÖ) parties.
And that’s a welcome change!
Cosburn, Nick (2023): An Open Marxist Just Became the Head of Austria’s Social Democratic Party. Jacobin 06/136/2023). <https://jacobin.com/2023/06/andreas-babler-marxist-austria-social-democratic-party-leadership> (Accessed: 2023-14-06).
Bruno Kreisky. Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, n/d. <https://www.kreisky-forum.org/en/bruno-kreisky/> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Ströbl, Natascha (2023): Twitter 06/05/2023. <https://twitter.com/Natascha_Strobl/status/1665593508193787904?s=20> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Fidler, Harold (2023): Zwischen Milborn und Wolf lässt Babler den Marxisten liegen. Der Standard 25.Mai.2023. <https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000103623/zwischen-milborn-und-wolf-laesst-babler-den-marxisten-liegen> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Baltner, Adam (2023): Austria’s Bernie Sanders Beat the Establishment and Became Party Leader. Jacobin 06/15/2023. <https://jacobin.com/2023/06/austria-andreas-babler-bernie-sanders-social-democrats-establishment-neoliberalism> (Accessed: 2023-16-
Communist Party of Austria. Wikipedia 06/06/2023). <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Communist_Party_of_Austria&oldid=1158830569> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
The Programme of the Parti Ouvrier. Marxists.org, n.d. <https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/05/parti-ouvrier.htm#n5> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Ötsch, Walter & Horaczek, Nina (2021): Wir wollen unsere Zukunft zurück! Streitschrift für meh Phantasie in der Politik, 146-151. Frankfurt/Main: Westend Verlag GmbH.
Smith, Helena & Henley, John (2023): Greece shipwreck: up to 100 children were below deck, survivors say. The Guardian 06/15/2023. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/15/greece-refugee-shipwreck-rescuers-scour-sea-for-survivors> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Groß-Lobkowicz, Stefan (2021): Null Flüchtlinge für Österreich: Warum Kanzler Kurz das Afghanistan-Drama egal ist. Focus Online 25.08.2021. <https://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/knallhartkurs-in-wien-null-fluechtlinge-fuer-oesterreich-warum-kanzler-kurz-afghanistan-einfach-egal-ist_id_20116500.html> (Accessed: 2023-15-06).
Lingens, Peter Michael (2023): Babler und Biden. Falter 23 (07.Juni.2023), 8. My translation from the German.
Lingens, Peter Michael (2023): Was kann Andreas Babler umsetzen?. Falter 24 (14.Juni.2023), 8. My translation from the German.