Walter Baier (politician)

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Walter Baier (born February 9, 1954 in Vienna ) is an Austrian politician of the KPÖ .

Life

Walter Baier comes from a communist family. His father survived his imprisonment in Dachau and Auschwitz . As a schoolboy he joined the Association of Socialist Middle Schools and joined the KPÖ in 1972. In 1974 Walter Baier began studying economics at the University of Vienna. As an elected student representative, he worked in various functions in the Austrian student body. In 1977, Baier was elected chairman of the Communist Student Union at the time and was elected to the KPÖ Central Committee.

In 1981, on behalf of the Communist Students' Union, he and the Association of Socialist Students challenged the student body elections based on the candidacy of a neo-Nazi group, which in 1985 led to a landmark decision by the Constitutional Court and the dissolution of the ANR and NDP.

In 1981 he was one of the organizers of the great peace demonstration “Preventing Nuclear War - Disarmament” and in 1983 he was a speaker on the Peace March of the 100,000.

After completing basic military service and completing his studies, he became a political functionary of the KPÖ in Vienna in 1982. In 1987 he was elected to the Politburo of the KPÖ, in 1991 as Federal Secretary and in 1994 as chairman of the KPÖ. In addition to his work in the party, he was editor of the weekly Volksstimme until 2003 .

When the KPÖ had lost a decade-long process for their party assets against the Federal Republic of Germany in 2003, Baier implemented a dramatic cost-cutting program in the KPÖ, including the general termination of all employees, the suspension of subsidies to the party's own weekly newspaper and the sale of everyone property not used for political purposes by the KPÖ.

Baier was confronted with massive criticism and some prominent party withdrawals in 2004 after he had sold the occupied Ernst-Kirchweger-Haus to suspected right-wing extremists.

In 2004 Baier was elected chairman of the KPÖ for the fourth time at the 33rd party congress of the KPÖ. This ended an internal dispute over the direction of the party that had lasted for years.

In 2004 Baier was involved in founding the party of the European Left .

In 2005 Baier graduated from the Vienna University of Economics with a doctorate.

On February 27, 2006 he announced his resignation from the post of party chairman, but remained on the national board of the KPÖ.

Since 2006 he has been the coordinator of the European research and education network “transform! europe - network for alternative thinking and political dialogue ”, which is formed from 31 left-wing magazines and“ think tanks ”in 21 European countries. The network is recognized as the foundation associated with the Party of the European Left. He is co-editor of a yearbook of the same name that appears in five languages. Between 2003 and 2017, this network was also represented in the International Council of the World Social Forum (WSF).

Walter Baier has been engaged in dialogues with the Protestant and Catholic Churches since 2000. In 2011, at the suggestion of the Focolare Movement, he participated as one of five atheist intellectuals in an interreligious peace meeting called by Pope Benedict XVI in Assisi.

In the 2015 Viennese municipal council elections, he ran for the electoral alliance Wien Anders (KPÖ, Piraten, Echt Grün and Independent), which received 1.07 percent of the votes cast.

He is a member of the movement Democracy in Europe 2025 (DiEM25) founded in 2016.

Works

  • The short century: communism in Austria. KPÖ 1918 to 2008. Edition Steinbauer, Vienna 2009. ISBN 978-3902494399
  • Austria's Communists 1918 - 2008: Constantly Moving. An essay. (PDF; 477 kB) Federal Board of the KPÖ, Vienna 2008
  • Otto Bauer and Austromarxism - Integral Socialism and Today's Left (edited together with Lisbeth N. Trallori and Derek Weber) Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008. ISBN 978-3-320-02134-4
  • Principle disappointment. From the great stories to the new language of politics VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2007. ISBN 978-3-89965-260-4
  • Stalin and Us: Stalinism and the Rehabilitation of Austrian Victims. Globus-Verlag, Vienna 2001. ISBN 3-901421-51-3
  • Early writings by Karl Marx. Diploma thesis at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, 1983

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brigitte Bailer: The “Ban on Re-Engagement in National Socialist Activity” as a Social and Political Counter-strategy. (pdf, 266 kB) In: Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance . March 19, 2015, pp. 9–11 , accessed on March 7, 2018 (English).
  2. ↑ Thomas Schönfeld: Prevent nuclear war - disarm. In: Communications from the Alfred Klahr Society . 2002, accessed March 7, 2018 .
  3. ↑ About us. Retrieved March 7, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Walter Baier. In: transform-network.net. Accessed February 28, 2019 .
  5. ^ Pope received EU politicians on the left. In: ORF.at . September 19, 2014, accessed February 28, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Baier, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian politician (KPÖ)
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna