Austria: Pfingstseminar 2025 – long live international solidarity!

With a total of almost 260 participants, the Pfingstseminar 2025 was the largest in our history and a great success. It was brimming with the spirit of proletarian internationalism, with guests from Germany, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Italy and Great Britain.

[Originally published at derfunke.at]

This year's Pfingstseminar took place from 6 to 9 June in the Mühlviertel region of Upper Austria. The motto of the seminar was: “there can be no revolutionary movement without revolutionary theory”.

A lot has happened since the last Pfingstseminar. Last summer, we founded the Revolutionary Communist International (RCI), and in autumn we founded the Revolutionary Communist Party (RKP) in Austria.

We also participated in the protests against the blue-black coalition (ÖVP and the FPÖ) with a class struggle programme and celebrated great successes with our ‘Books not bombs’ campaign in the Austrian National Union of Students (ÖH) elections. Many potential and newly recruited communists came to this year's Pfingstseminar to educate themselves in the ideas of revolutionary Marxism and to engage in discussion about the building of sections of the RCI in different countries.

Revolutionary perspectives in a chaotic world

Our first session was on our perspectives for world revolution, and was introduced by Niklas Albin Svensson from London. It marked the start of our preparations for the first World Congress of the RCI.

The whole world is in turmoil: from the genocide in Gaza to the defeat of western imperialism in Ukraine, to rising tariffs and the mountain of debt looming over world capitalism. Niklas traced the history and development of the crisis since 2008, both politically and economically.

In the discussion that followed, several comrades raised the revolutionary movement in Serbia, as well as the crisis in the Middle East and the position communists should take towards the liberation of Palestine. As they explained, communists must keep a cool head and prepare for the coming social explosions.

We also used the opportunity to discuss the international solidarity campaign of the RCI: in Gilgit Baltistan, leading members of the Awami Action Committee have been imprisoned and are being persecuted for their activism. For over a decade, the committee has been the undisputed leader of a popular movement in Gilgit Baltistan against attacks by the Pakistani regime, austerity measures and the plundering of the region.

Marxism offers a method with which all aspects of social life (and nature) can be understood. This depth of Marxist ideas was reflected in the 16 different workshops held during the Pfingstseminar. These included ‘The German Peasants' War of 1524-1526’, ‘How can Palestine be free?’, ‘The democratic counter-revolution after 1945’, ‘Culture, music and communism’, ‘Marxism and language’ and the ‘Dialectics of nature.’

Revolution vs. liberal hypocrisy

Now that our ÖH election campaign has come to an end, the RKP is focusing on educating its ranks in Marxist ideas. To this end, Der Funke editor Emanuel Tomaselli led a session on the tasks of communists in Austria.

For almost two years now, the Austrian bourgeoisie has based itself, ideologically, entirely on its support for the genocide in Gaza. They have used this as an excuse to promote racism and austerity. Now this is beginning to crumble, and they are hypocritically trying to backpedal on minor points.

The liberals of Der Standard or the executive of the Vienna Students' Association, for example, clarify in articles where they see the boundary between ‘acceptable’, bourgeois, cautious criticism of Israel and ‘going too far’: on the question of whether this is merely about war and oppression, and in explicitly criticising the RKP for linking these questions to capitalism. That we are being criticised by the liberals shows that we have earned a reputation for our political clarity and the tireless defence of our ideas throughout two years of the Palestine movement.

The RKP has started – and will continue – to establish itself as an unmissable factor in the political landscape, with a consistent, internationalist, class-struggle and revolutionary outlook.

Internationalism in action

The palpable enthusiasm at the seminar, as well as its seriousness, withstood even the most adverse weather conditions. Everyone helped to make this self-organised and self-financed seminar a great success.

This meant that we were able to cover all the seminar costs ourselves. The great thirst for theory was evident in the sale of books and pamphlets, worth approximately €5,500, at the literature stand. This is more than twice as much literature as was bought last year. In addition, seven participants decided to join the RKP right there at the seminar!

Our internationalism was also expressed in material terms. The launch of our summer fundraising appeal raised €37,000 for the development of the RCI. We also collected €800 for several of our German comrades, who are facing court proceedings because of their solidarity with Palestine, as well as €400 for our comrades in Graz, who are facing completely unjustified fines because of a street stall they organised, and their homemade merchandise.

Sport and culture were not neglected either. The traditional Funke Football Tournament (FuFuTu) took place again, and on the last day we ended by jointly singing workers' songs. A band made up of RKP comrades, ‘Diese Roten Pisser’, performed anti-militarism classics such as ‘War Pigs’ by Black Sabbath. Hip-hop talent MC Rosi contributed almost €500 to the summer contribution from money raised by her performance.

After the best Pfingstseminar ever, we are now continuing with a programme of education to prepare us for the coming class struggles and the first World Congress of the RCI. Let's make socialism a reality in our lifetime!