Hunting the crisis in happy Vienna
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Locals talk about the powerful and wealthy state which intervened early on and absorbed the crisis-shock. Others remark that things usually come to conservative Austria about two years after happening elsewhere. This time it seems though that anti-crisis / anti capitalism movements are there well in advance. Tour around Vienna's commercial hub
A KostNixLaden is a place where you bring things you don't need. Others will find here things they need, and be able to just take them away (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
There is no money involved, except if you'd like to help with a donation. It's not exchanging, it's sharing (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
Clemens was one of the first to introduce me to this concept and to leftist movements in general (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
Bikekitchen is another very interesting place where money don't play a role. Functioning around an association of bicycle enthusiasts, people meet at Bikekitchen once a week to socialise, work on their bikes or give others a helping hand (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
Here you can also find spare parts and lots of tools which are free to use. There's often someone cooking for the group and not seldom things end up in a party (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
This is a very open collective which is socially involved, non-profit oriented and crazy about all kinds of bikes (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
People come together for a spontaneous protest against the deportation of members of the FC Sans Papiers ('without legal documents') football club. FC Sans Papiers is a football club and a political platform which fights for the essential human rights of immigrants. On 29 April most of the club members were arrested during their training, most later released but two of them scheduled for repatriation to Nigeria although they had been living in Austria for about seven years. As many as 250 people joined the spontaneous protest asking for the recognition of basic human rights (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
Over the last five years, the Wiener Deewan Pakistani restaurant allows you to eat as much as you want and pay as much as you wish, following UK models. The owners couldn't be happier, and often cater for events (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
The rise of the extreme-right in Austria has caught the attention of the press for a long time now (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
It feels good to see that there is actually a strong movement against these eccentricities (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
People of all ages have come together to protest with a torch-lit march on the evening before 1 May (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
During the traditional leftist demonstrations on this day, people used the opportunity to protest against the crisis as well as against capitalism in general (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
Even though the crisis can't yet be seen directly in Austria, people are concerned about the situations in Greece for example, but also in other European countries where Austrian companies have invested (Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
(Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)
(Image: ©Lucian Stanescu/ blog.stanescoo.com)