Electoral programme – LINKS Wien

Our electoral programme for Vienna

Vienna must become a city for everyone! Together we are working for a just and fair society. Read here our 14-point plan and become part of the change:

To our detailed electoral program

Labour

LINKS strives to distribute and reward work fairly

We, LINKS, stand for a ban of any kind of precarious employment relationships and for full protection under labour law – but above all we demand a significant reduction of working hours to 30 hours per week and a minimum monthly wage of EUR 1,950 net.

With LINKS this will be implemented likewise for the City of Vienna that functions as an employer for 87,000 employees.

We, LINKS, secure livelihoods

LINKS stands for an unconditional minimum standard of subsistence of EUR 1,500,- for all those who are not allowed, cannot or do not want to work. At the same time it is particularly important to us that reproductive work is recognised as work and is therefore, in a first step, at least covered by social, health, accident and pension insurance.

Housing

With LINKS, living space is there for living.

In a city based on solidarity, appartments that have been vacant for a long period of time are to be communalised. Empty apartments must be reported to a public housing authority. The authority then assigns them according to social criteria. Failure in reporting vacant housing will result in high administrative fines, which will cross-finance urban projects to provide quality housing for all. Further, we stand for the expropriation of large real estate companies that have made profits long enough with the basic human right and need of housing.

We, LINKS, demand to abolish limited rental agreements

With LINKS, the security of the resident is more important than "safe investments". As at the moment 87% of new private rentals are limited in time, an essential step towards fairer housing conditions is the prohibition of limited or fixed-term rental agreements in the Tenancy Law Act (at the federal level).¹

With LINKS we decisively upgrade the conciliation office

With LINKS, the conciliation office ² checks the rental contracts of all parties living in the same building if unacceptably high amounts have been collected. In addition, such excessive rental agreements automatically lose their term.

1) Source: https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20180417_OTS0027/ak-online-mietumfrage-zeigt-mieten-zu-hoch-politik-muss-sich-ums-wohnen-annehmen-1

2) On request, the conciliation office checks whether tenants are paying too much rent.

The right to Vote

With LINKS, all Viennese decide

Currently 28% of the Viennese citizens are not allowed to vote because of their nationality, which has to change. With us, LINKS, we are introducing an active and passive right to vote for everybody whose centre of life has been in Vienna for at least a year.

Economy

LINKS will make Vienna's economy fairer again

With LINKS, comissions from the City of Vienna – whose importance as a local business operator is enormous in terms of billions in turnover – will only go to companies that meet the city's social, ecological and diversity criteria: these include a. a minimum hourly wage of EUR 15 net, quota regulations and sustainable supply chains.

Rebuild the city from the bottom up with LINKS

With LINKS, we create neighbourhood centres that are open to use and self-governing: spaces, where young and old can work, play and celebrate together. The neighbourhood workshops set up within those spaces serve as a reloading point for know-how and neighbourhood assistance.

Migration

We, LINKS, will introduce the City Card for all people living in Vienna

What is possible in New York, Paris and Zurich becomes a matter of course with LINKS also in Vienna. Regardless of the residence status, everyone can identify him- or herself, has equal access to democratic processes and to the urban infrastructure as well as their services.

With LINKS, Vienna grants everybody refuge and accomondation

There are currently some 42,000 refugees on the Greek islands – 13,000 people have to be evacuated from Moria alone. In contrast, Vienna alone has 67,816 hotel beds. We call for the reception of all those seeking protection who need it. With LINKS there are decentralised, well-equipped places in Vienna, without restriction of personal freedoms and a financial security that at least correspond to the legal subsistence level.

FLINT* (Women, Lesbian, Inter, Non-binary, Trans*)

Women, lesbians, intersex, non-binary and trans people

With LINKS, we take care together

We, LINKS, want to massively expand free childcare and care facilities. Hence, we stand for a socialization of reproductive work1 and fight, as a first step, in order to not leave FLINT people alone.

With LINKS we create fair representations

LINKS stands for a quota with a maximum of 40% cis-men² in all management positions of the City of Vienna and in companies in which they are involved in. BECAUSE FLINT* people make up half of the population, but are still massively under-represented, especially in leadership positions.

1) The term reproductive work coins all activities that serve the preservation of human life. These for example include Raising and caring for children, caring for the sick, the elderly or people with disabilities, housework, but also emotional work. The majority of these activities are performed by FLINT* people, poorly paid or not paid at all, often under social isolation and working conditions that lead to psychological and physical overload.

2) cis-men: people who were attributed to the male sex at birth and whose gender identity still corresponds to it as such

Environment

With LINKS we fight against the climate catastrophe

We, LINKS, call for a climate levy for all companies based in Vienna, modelled according to the underground tax. It will co-finance the planned exit from oil and gas energy and support a net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2030 in order to reach the 1.5 degree objective by 2030. In addition, for LINKS it is essential that major projects such as the third runway or the Lobau tunnel are stopped immediately.

With LINKS, the traffic in your neighbourhood is reduced and calmed

LINKS stands for the deconstruction of the car, asphalt and concrete city, making room for a variety of uses of public spaces. Superblocks¹ will turn side streets into lively, green places where the neighbourhood comes together and has its peace.

1) Superblocks: "A superblock is defined as a street block of about 400 by 400 metres or three by three blocks of houses in which motor vehicle traffic is reorganised. A sophisticated system of one-way streets prevents the roads within these zones from being used for passage." (www.vcoe.at/news/details/superblocks-mehr-platz-fuer-gruenes-und-schoenes)

Urban planning

With LINKS, living space is there for living

With LINKS, vacant housing that has not been occupied for a long period of time must be reported to the public housing authority, which then allocates the apartments and spaces according to social criteria. Failure in reporting vacant housing will result in high administrative fines, which will cross-finance urban projects to provide quality housing for all.

With LINKS we forbid speculations with real estate

LINKS deprives investors who only buy houses that need renovation in order to be able to demolish them sooner or later, of the grounds by determining the use of the space anew before starting new constructions for housing. This way, gaps between buildings become parks and commercial areas become spaces for non-profit housing.

Education

With LINKS there is a right to have access to good childcare

With LINKS, there is a legal entitlement to free nurseries from the age of two requiring a minimum of two nusery teachers for 15 children in all groups. This benefits all children and especially FLINT people, who still provide for the majority of childcare.

With LINKS, children can go longer to school

We, LINKS, want to introduce an unconditional implementation of the joint schools for all children up to 16 years of age in every neighbourhood. This way, we put an end to the situation in which parents with the appropriate financial background seek "the best" for their children (and pay for it), leaving the rest of educational offers to socially disadvantaged children and families.

Health Care

With LINKS we fight against the two-class system health care

LINKS will create 500 new health insurance offices in Vienna (plus one third, 2018: 1,590). Since although the population has grown by more than 10% since 2010, the number of health insurance offices in Vienna has fallen by almost 10%. Leading to a situation like the current one in Floridsdorf, where there is not a single lung specialist with a health insurance contract for a district that has the same number of inhabitants as the city of Salzburg.

With LINKS everyone in Vienna is covered by health insurance

The City Card demanded by LINKS guarantees access to the health care system for all people living in Vienna. With LINKS, the stigmatising status of not being insured does not exist in Vienna. This is to the benefit of everyone. It is precisely through Corona that we have seen how dangerous it is if not everyone can seek medical help without fear.

Consumption

Cooking bonnets with LINKS in Viennese canteens

With LINKS we introduce fresh kitchens in all municipal facilities that use ecological and fair products, making simple but good food, and cater to the special needs of those who are cooked for: in Vienna 31% of young people are overweight and up to 85% of nursing home residents are malnourished.

With LINKS Vienna becomes the city with the least use of packaging in Europe

With LINKS we are introducing a Vienna-wide reusable cup as a pilot project, which all shops and restaurants offering coffee-to-go use and clean accordingly. So we can carry the Wiener Melange with attitude. With LINKS, we promote a lack of packaging, a lack from which nothing can be earned, which is why nobody else has introduced it so far.

Art & Culture

Radically democratising art with LINKS

We, LINKS, will introduce the end of admission fees for city citizens and residents at museums, theatres and all other publicly funded cultural events with the City Card that will grant uncomplicated access. We stand for a cultural programme that is open and affordable to all and does not produce exclusion through financial barriers to access.

With LINKS we end the precariousness of artists

With LINKS we put an end to the competition system and the project logic of cultural funding, because they mean precariousness for all cultural workers. We stand for a funding policy that provides more spaces, such as studios, exhibition spaces, concert halls, theatres, etc. that will also be available for smaller, non-commercial cultural productions.

In particular, existing cultural areas represent an important infrastructure of the municipal urban space. Similar to the Tree Protection Act, with LINKS we will introduce a "Spatial Protection Act" which protects cultural areas from privatisation, marketing and profiteering.

Transparency & Monitoring

We, LINKS, defy Racial Profiling

LINKS will introduce a low-threshold documentation and advice centre for victims of police violence and an independent investigation centre for complaints against official arbitrariness and police violence. For we reject any institution that generates or perpetuates structural racism. The problem begins with surveillance algorithms, which classify People of Colour as suspicious more often, and ends with the police, who are responsible for existential, financial and physical threats as well as psychological injuries through Racial Profiling, which also regularly causes fatalities in Austria.

With LINKS vs. Big Brother

With LINKS comes the Vienna monitoring account. We carry out a complete survey of all surveillance measures and databases containing personal data, followed by a critical assessment of whether they fulfil their purpose. In a further step, all those who "overshoot their purpose" will be abolished.

In addition, we, LINKS, will dismantle police surveillance cameras in public places – specifically at Karlsplatz and Praterstern. Furthermore, we oppose the use of facial recognition software and advocate strict monitoring of compliance with data protection standards for private surveillance cameras in public places.

Pensioners

Being elderly with LINKS, but not poor

LINKS fights against old-age poverty and we not only want to raise the minimum pension from EUR 966.65 to 1,500 at federal level. The city government will also make its contribution with LINKS to make the last third of life affordable and worth living for everyone living in Vienna. LINKS will provide immediate free vaccinations for all over 60s, free travel on public transport, a free multilingual cultural programme for seniors and a legal entitlement to affordable communally run senior shared flats.