In July 2018 the presidency of the EU Council will be passed over from Bulgaria to Austria. In this context an informal summit on the issues of „internal security „and „control of illegal migration„ will take place in Salzburg on 20th of September. For the conservative and right-wing government of Austria this means a possibility to carry its own politics of national isolation and social control to an European level.

In Austria reactionary tendencies get stronger and stronger. Specifically in the means of isolationist policy and the rise of nationalist, right wing movements Austria has a leading role for a long time. Right wing and even neofascist parties and organisations are deeply anchored in public structures.

Not later than 2015 Austria started to be a driving factor within the process of aggressive actions against immigration. An example for that is the „closing of the Balkan route “, that Austria was significantly responsible for.

The consequences of this politics can be seen and felt beyond Europe: The barricading of the European borders is based on cooperation with fascistic regimes like Turkey or rackets in Libya, that are causing massive suffering and violence among the people. Since September 2017 Austria is governed by right wing conservatives and right-wing extremists, who carry the nationalist agitation and the top- down class struggle even further.

Their profoundly reactionary program, which is a mixture of neoliberal disciplining, cuts of social services, authoritarian „Law and Order “, nationalist isolation and exclusion of non- citizens has a lot of supporters among Austrian (and European) society.

When the European leaders of governments and states discuss the future of the EU, what means the discussion about the authoritarian enforcement of competition by exclusion and disciplining, we as the European Left want to be visible and want to be interventionist.

We want neither a deadly „Fortress Europe“ nor their politics of „Internal Security“. The latter means nothing else, than the wide- ranging social control, surveillance and exclusion of those, who got superseded and marginalized. We want the good life for everybody beyond concurrence and nationalist isolation. We don’t want a false comparison of „liberal“ and authoritarian- nationalist perspectives. Actually, they are a perfect match within the capitalist emergency. And if one wants to choose one of them, in order to avoid the worse, one will get both. We don’t want to see the poor existing conditions and their reactionary brutalization as permanent barriers to our visions, but we want to invent the future. There is enough for everybody and nobody should be forced to work. In Salzburg we want to fight for a supportive society. A society, that can’t be planned by the rulers, but only against them. We invite you to come to Salzburg and accompany us part of that way. Together we want to make a clear statement against the far -right as well as the authoritarian management of the existing. With a revolutionary perspective we want to reach beyond the contradictions of society. When the leaders of the European governments meet in Salzburg, we will be there as the alliance of the many. All our different struggles have something in common:

A better future for all is possible beyond capitalism only!

#summitsalzburg #noS20