Vienna’s district Ottakring, the area around the Brunnenpassage and the subway line U6 have been in the media focus for the past few weeks: As a negative disruptive factor to a supposedly idyllic society, it wasn’t poverty but the poor who were framed as a problem. Structural problems were not addressed, it’s now rather the presence of those who are marked as ‚undesirable‘ that is to be eliminated. In addition to this, alleged No-Go-Areas are being proclaimed: In this process, whole districts, in which there are problems, but which are not as disastrous as often proclaimed, are being portrayed as unsafe to enter. Thereby, further escalating and repressive measures are legitimized.

These dynamics – which we want to analyze in this article – can be observed based on two recent incidents: On the one hand, there is the „drug dealer“-debate focussed on the U6, on the other hand, there are conflicts about a woman who was recently struck dead in Ottakring and the attempted appropriation of her death through right-wing extremists.

The debate about drug trade in Vienna – dealing is increasingly relocating around the stations of the line U6 – is noticeably shaped by right wing rhetoric: Disaster scenarios are fantasised and drug trade – there isn’t even a necessary debate about the random criminalization of certain substances – is presented as a new phenomenon. The fact that Vienna is a large city and that there are, as in any other, social problems, is left out. Social inequality, unemployment and no legal access to the labour market are not being talked about: Thus, in the popular opinion, it is not the capitalistic structuring of society that is forcing people into social deprivation – those who live miserably are framed as the problem. The symptom is being declared as the cause. In addition to this, racist resentments are fueled: The reason for this is to be found in the alleged ‚incompatibility of cultures‘ and the ‚foreigners‘, whereas only those, who use people for racist clichés are able to speak up – not those concerned by all this. Well-off, bourgeoise journalists enter the allegedly uninhabitable districts ‚from outside‘ – although there are so many living there – and use isolated snapshots of poverty and lack of prospects to paint a picture of an unsettling and unbearable catastrophy.

Yes, there are problems. But these problems are not new, they are not caused by the presence of migrants and they are no unsolvable catastrophy that only exists in Vienna. The majority of mainstream news coverage is hyperbolicly focussing on these aspects in order to paint the picture of a district, in which more police and repression are needed: But this does not solve any core problems, it combats – if anything – short-term symptoms. Realistically, such law-and-order policies lead to the criminalization of poverty and racist actions of state authorities.

Similar tendencies can be observed in the discussion and the conflicts about the death of the woman who was recently struck dead near the Yppenplatz. It’s a tragic case – the suspect is a mentally ill, homeless man who was known to the authorities. The people in the district knew him and had he recieved proper treatment on time, it is likely that the death of the woman would not have happened. The right-wing extremist group ‚Identitarians‘ tried to use the death for racist propaganda, connected it to the described disaster scenarios about the area around the Brunnenmarkt and Yppenplatz and tried to frame the narrative of an Austrian society that is endangered by immigrants – the metaphor of Ottakring served as a foreboding composition. The racist agitation that followed is typical: The incident was attributed to the man’s country of origin, racist threat scenarios of a ‚criminal flooding‘ through refugees were fueled and only the reestablishment of an immigration-free Austria, which never existed, was presented as a solution. Thereuopon the neo-fascist group, the ‚Identitarian Movement‘ announced a manifestation, during which they wanted to connect the call for more deportations with nationalistic propaganda. Various leftist groups then announced a counter-mobilization: It was not the commemoration that they opposed, but the appropriation of the commemoration for racist agitation. The Identitarians cancelled their ‚commemoration‘, the leftist mobilization continued – not least because a right-wing extremist announced a wreath-laying ceremony that he intended to exploit similarly as the Identitarians.

On the 8th of May, Victory in Europe Day, the day of the defeat of National Socialism, various antifascist groups gathered to legitimately protest against the racist, neofascist and historical-revisionist exploitation of a death and the appropriation of Victory in Europe Day. The protest passed off peacefully, right-wing extremists were hindered from entering the space and a small spontaneous demonstration of about 100 people took place in the district. When it came to an end, a massive police contingency arrived: A dog unit was sent out, a helicopter circled the district and a police tank was provided. The next day, the notorious procedure set in and clichés and rumours were distributed carelessly and unproven by the media: Chaos in the district – baseball bat – tank. It was not noted that the memorial site was not disturbed by the protests, but by the police, neither was it stated the the baseball bat turned out to be a rumour that was spread by the Identitarians. It was not mentioned that the ordered police tank wasn’t the result of a riot, but of the excessive and escalating actions of the police. Ottakring was now not only portrayed as a district of violent immigrants, but also as one of riots.

On the basis of these events and their medial staging, we believe that there are problematic trends that need to be adressed from a leftist perspective and covered differently: One must not simply reactively discuss certain events. We need to succeed in consequently integrating symptoms into a critique of the national-capitalistic structuring of society. A part of this is not to participate in the fatalastic and dramatizing descriptions of poor districts, but to name causes: racism, capitalism, inequality and exclusion. Social problems won’t be solved, if those, who face them, are prosecuted – we must fight the structures that cause them!