#wiederdonnerstag

[schneefink]

I waited for nearly an hour in the cold today and then marched with the anti-government protest (also expressing solidarity with the metal workers' union in their yearly fight about wages) for almost two hours. I'm tired, but it felt good: there were several thousand people marching and chanting, and the weekly Thursday protests give me hope. Yes, they're nowhere near as big as they were in 2000 because so much bad stuff has become normalized, but they're happening, now also in other cities, and after almost two months the number of participants seems to be growing. Yes, the political direction Austria is currently on is terrible and the right-wing populists are very good at propaganda, but they haven't won yet.

Comments

[isis]

Yay, good for you!

[schneefink]

I haven't been to most of the previous weekly protests but I'm planning on going to more :)

[jesse_the_k]

Being in a large crowd of determined people is so nourishing for the soul!

Is it just metal workers protesting every Thursday or are other unions swapping in?

[schneefink]

It is :)

The weekly protests are anti-government, but the metal workers started going on strike this week and the protest also supported them and the route went past the chamber of commerce. (I'm not exactly sure on the details, I haven't paid enough attention to that in the past, but the way I understand it is that every union has yearly negotiations with the chamber of commerce and the metal workers' union is traditionally the first, so it also serves as a signpost for the other unions' negotiations.)

[enemyofperfect]

Go you and your fellow protestors! \o/

[schneefink]

To be honest I think the main outcome of the protests rn is to keep up the spirits of the opposition, but hey, good enough.