second largest city in Austria
https://twitter.com/PopulismUpdates/status/1442145119910563840
and article on it
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2021/08/graz-austria-communist-party-red-fortress-class-politics
E: OVP mayor just resigned, seems KPO will also get the mayor too now
Beneficial for whom? I mean I don't even accept the "cousins" part, but beyond that no, the EU is just a huge fucking pain, roadblock and nuisance. The vast majority of radical left parties and orgs in Europe are anti EU, except for some weird trots...
Trotskyism is basically the default for communists in the EU.
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No it's not lol where did you hear this?
Yes it is lol. Or I suppose "Insofar as any specific tendency is followed, Trotskyism is substantially more popular in the EU than Marxist-Leninism" would be more accurate. But I stand by what I said. I don't know where you'd get any other impression honestly.
If you think Europe=the UK then I suppose you would get that impression but no, this is false. Pretty much none of the communist parties which have any kind of real representation in Europe are trotskyist. Almost none of the ones that used to were either (for instance the French communist party or the Italian communist party, both of which were huge at some points). It's only the UK where trots were really big for some reason. In most of the rest of Europe it was either USSR aligned parties or in some places maoists/some titoists. Today the titoists are pretty much completely gone, and a number of new radical leftist parties which consist of many tendencies have sprung uo, but still trotskyists aren't big anywhere, except, again, for the UK. There isn't even a reason to be trotskyist any more, most people who were trots back in the day were trots because they didn't like the USSR. Except in most of Europe these people just went directly to socdem parties (which trots did structurally anyways) and in some places they became maoists or anarchists or whatever. I don't know if you're American or if you are from the UK and that's the reason you have a warped perception about the rest of Europe but it's just not how it is, there's very few trots left outside the anglo sphere. The only places in Europe other than the UK where they are something are Portugal where they are part of a big tent multi tendency party (except Portugal also has an old guard single tendency USSR aligned party in the Parliament) and also I guess Melenchon personally used to be a trot although that doesn't even really count and in France they are vastly outnumbered by more traditional MLs, maoists and various ultras/libertarians.
Also trotskyism is an ML faction.
I mean no. The various trots outnumber the MLs in France but are themselves outnumbered by various groups that don't follow any tendency or are some variety of post left, the only place where MLs really have representation is like Spain with the PCE and Cyprus British trots are famous obviously, but that doesn't make them the only group
And Trotskyism specifically exists in opposition to Marxist-leninism
They really don't. And they definitely didn't use to. France had a huge communist party. Now not so much but at least they do have national assembly and senate representation as opposed to any one trot group. Also yeah as you said they're outnumbered by other people, that's the point, trots are not nearly the "default". That's the point lol
This is wrong. Actually I have no idea why of all places you would pick Spain and especially Cyprus where the party is only ML in name, and even then just barely. Why would you not bring up Portugal and Greece which both have major traditional communist parties in their parliaments, including the EU parliament, which are actually influential? Or the Workers' Party of Belgium? Or Czechia?
And I'm only talking about the old guard, single tendency ML parties here. As you said there are many others who may not be part of a single tendency party and they by far outnumber trots.
Also although they don't typically write it out as "marxist leninist" (actually few non maoist parties in general write it like that any more), trots identify as both marxists and leninists. They're not really some completely different thing in that regard.
:bruh-moment:
I forgot about the KKE. The Belgian workers party is not ML, the KSCM in Czechia is very, very explicitly not ML. That would literally be illegal
The French had a trot prime minister (as pointless as that i, their most famous communist is Mélenchon (A trot), and his platform has delegates and Senate representation and was endorsed by the French communist party for the presidency Nathalie Arthaud and Philippe Poutou also both ran and got 2% of the vote as open trots. I mean sure "No affiliation " probably beats out trot, but as a singular tendency it's the biggest.
Um yes that's why they say they are not lol
What does this have to do with anything? They never had a trotskyist party in power or even represented. Greece had an ex trot prime minister, that doesn't say anything.
...an ex trot who was only a trot like a million years ago who runs a multi tendency party, most of which isn't trotskyist.
...which isn't trotskyist
...which completely pales in comparison to the records of the PCF in the past and in some cases present. Wow, 2 people ran as trots within a multitenency movement for national assembly and got a tiny share of votes. Um OK, so does the PCF, except that one also used to be the second or third most powerful party, and still is influential in local politics.
Trotskyism considers itself to me an authentic interpretation of Marxist-Leninism in opposition to Stalinist Marxist-Leninism which it considers 'deformed'
No. Because the term marxism-leninism is derived from Stalin. He coined the term. No Trotskyist org uses the term as a self descriptor afaik
Fair enough I was wrong, Trotsky did self-identify as both a 'Marxist' and a 'Bolshevik-Leninist' though
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Yes, in the UK it is different. Most communists there are trot adjacent and they became even more friendly towards the EU after the Brexit thing, but it's not typical in Europe, and especially the less powerful countries.