The (Im)Possibility of Creating Counter-Hegemony Against the Radical Right: The Case of Austria

Abstract

The Austrian chapter by Birgit Sauer emphasizes the electoral successes of the radical right, which since the 1990s have triggered the formation of civil society organizations that oppose the mobilization of hate against immigrants. It shows the weakness of Austrian civil society organizations in forging alliances and shifting their activities towards solidarity with other activists, common strategic framing, and transversal politics. It refers to some alliances that go beyond identity issues, but emphasizes that transversal framings of racism that actively include feminism, gender, sexuality, and class are overall missing. Only some civil society organizations explicitly link the issue of voting preferences for the radical right to neoliberal transformations of work and family and thus connect anti-racism to issues of social inequality and marginalization at the intersection of gender and race.