whether I like it or not, there no longer seems to be a place for someone with far left sympathies in the world. The 1980’s and the collapse of communism represented a historic and global defeat which sent the far left in to decline.
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis there were grounds for hope, but it was superficial. There was a revival of interest in Marxism (and Kenysianism) as people came to grips with the failure of neo-liberal capitalism to deliver continuous growth. Income inequality became a political issue with the occupy movement taking to the streets around the world and Thomas Picketty publishing his “capital in the 21st century”. A small cottage industry of intellectuals began to reinvestigate the far left, among them Slavoj Zizek.
The 2015 UK election saw the stirrings of intense green party support amongst young people, culminating in extinction rebellion (UK) and the sunrise movement (US) and greta Thunberg starting a wave of school strikes across the world. This existential threat to our future generated interest in a “Green New Deal” after the 2018 mid-terms with socialists in congress such as Alexandrea Cortez.
We’ve seen the stirrings of a range of movements in “identity politics” such as black lives matter and the me too movement which deals with discrimination and various forms of oppression based on race, gender and sexual orientation. The rise of the far right has been met by antifascists or “antifa” as people try to resist the alt-right.
Polling shows a rise in popularity of socialism and communism amongst young people as millennials recognise that the dreams of the consumer economy will never be realised. The combination of unemployment, job insecurity, low pay, limited opportunities for advancement, a culture of personal debt, the shift towards rented accommodation away from home ownership (assuming we ever leave our parents house), rising price of car insurance, punitive and almost non-existent welfare support from the state and the unpayable burden of university tuition fees come together in a toxic cocktail of resentment and frustration against capitalism as a system.
This has not surprisingly spurred the initial popularity of left wing candidates such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, much to the shock and horror of the more corporate-centrist establishment in both the Labour Party and the Democratic Party.
But all of this suffers an achilles heel (and I say this with some reservations)- it’s passionately anti-Soviet and anti-Stalinist. It hates its own past and refuses to learn from its mistakes and think itself above, beyond or outside of history and exceptional because it is in a present isolated from all precedents. We reject organisation, discipline and theory for spontaneous unrest and “consciousness raising” on social media. It seems it is destined either to repeat past mistakes or else unable to achieve the level of power, influence and “success” of its 20th century counter-parts. We are not heading to communist revolutions in the west (whatever the far right says) and for all the talk about change- everyone shudders at the thought of the next stalin. So right-wing arguments that socialism is opposed to freedom or economic growth remain unchallenged even as demands for social justice gain ground.
It looks away from the history and says “that’s not real socialism” or “that’s fascist-imperialist propaganda”. The level of historical knowledge and theoretical understanding is absolutely minimal and polling datas backs this up. We can see it in how labels of “racist” , “sexist”, “fascist” and “homophobe” are applied as knee jerk reactions and the left has turned against free speech- a major historic reversal from the student unrest in the 60’s and 70’s.
This is all built on the assumption that the present is a unique historical moment devoid of a past- and in doing so- pretty much destroys the capacity to have a future. it burns itself out. Mass movements come and go and no political permanent organisation takes their place able to translate platforms for change in to lasting demands for reform or revolution. When it does come, its an insurgency inside establishment parties (Democrats or Labour) or a pluralistic party of the left that burst on to the scene only then to burn out (Syriza in greece). The establishment wages a civil war to cripple these movements within their parties and hijack popular support in to causes people did not originally set out to support.
[I am focusing on the UK and the US in thinking about this, but you can look around the world at Greece or Venezuela and the signs are that the left cannot sustain its momentum indefinitely.]
we are then surprised when movements on the far right, who are given generous support by wealthy donors and publicity from social media platforms that attack old media (breitbart, infowars) and they are the ones who turn popular resentment in to electoral success (often again insurgencies in established parties such as the Tea Party movement or the Alt-Right). Whilst Corbyn and Sanders get almost no media coverage when they talk about major issues facing ordinary people, Johnson and Trump get wall to wall attention because their incompetence and bigotry is so “entertaining”.
A little more than a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, it has been the far-right (or “alt-right”) that has gained from the resentment and hostility to “elites”. So as we move closer to 2020 and perhaps the most consequential election in US history which would signal a more permanent global shift to right-wing authoritarianism if Donald Trump (or even just Republicans) were re-elected, what do you make of the prospects of a left-wing insurgency so far?
Are we destined to see the success of the far right to continue and the Donald Trump and Boris Johnsons going to become the architects in determining the course of the 21st century? Or will the left make a sustained comeback over the next decade as various social, economic and environmental issues begin to bite?
In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis there were grounds for hope, but it was superficial. There was a revival of interest in Marxism (and Kenysianism) as people came to grips with the failure of neo-liberal capitalism to deliver continuous growth. Income inequality became a political issue with the occupy movement taking to the streets around the world and Thomas Picketty publishing his “capital in the 21st century”. A small cottage industry of intellectuals began to reinvestigate the far left, among them Slavoj Zizek.
The 2015 UK election saw the stirrings of intense green party support amongst young people, culminating in extinction rebellion (UK) and the sunrise movement (US) and greta Thunberg starting a wave of school strikes across the world. This existential threat to our future generated interest in a “Green New Deal” after the 2018 mid-terms with socialists in congress such as Alexandrea Cortez.
We’ve seen the stirrings of a range of movements in “identity politics” such as black lives matter and the me too movement which deals with discrimination and various forms of oppression based on race, gender and sexual orientation. The rise of the far right has been met by antifascists or “antifa” as people try to resist the alt-right.
Polling shows a rise in popularity of socialism and communism amongst young people as millennials recognise that the dreams of the consumer economy will never be realised. The combination of unemployment, job insecurity, low pay, limited opportunities for advancement, a culture of personal debt, the shift towards rented accommodation away from home ownership (assuming we ever leave our parents house), rising price of car insurance, punitive and almost non-existent welfare support from the state and the unpayable burden of university tuition fees come together in a toxic cocktail of resentment and frustration against capitalism as a system.
This has not surprisingly spurred the initial popularity of left wing candidates such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders, much to the shock and horror of the more corporate-centrist establishment in both the Labour Party and the Democratic Party.
But all of this suffers an achilles heel (and I say this with some reservations)- it’s passionately anti-Soviet and anti-Stalinist. It hates its own past and refuses to learn from its mistakes and think itself above, beyond or outside of history and exceptional because it is in a present isolated from all precedents. We reject organisation, discipline and theory for spontaneous unrest and “consciousness raising” on social media. It seems it is destined either to repeat past mistakes or else unable to achieve the level of power, influence and “success” of its 20th century counter-parts. We are not heading to communist revolutions in the west (whatever the far right says) and for all the talk about change- everyone shudders at the thought of the next stalin. So right-wing arguments that socialism is opposed to freedom or economic growth remain unchallenged even as demands for social justice gain ground.
It looks away from the history and says “that’s not real socialism” or “that’s fascist-imperialist propaganda”. The level of historical knowledge and theoretical understanding is absolutely minimal and polling datas backs this up. We can see it in how labels of “racist” , “sexist”, “fascist” and “homophobe” are applied as knee jerk reactions and the left has turned against free speech- a major historic reversal from the student unrest in the 60’s and 70’s.
This is all built on the assumption that the present is a unique historical moment devoid of a past- and in doing so- pretty much destroys the capacity to have a future. it burns itself out. Mass movements come and go and no political permanent organisation takes their place able to translate platforms for change in to lasting demands for reform or revolution. When it does come, its an insurgency inside establishment parties (Democrats or Labour) or a pluralistic party of the left that burst on to the scene only then to burn out (Syriza in greece). The establishment wages a civil war to cripple these movements within their parties and hijack popular support in to causes people did not originally set out to support.
[I am focusing on the UK and the US in thinking about this, but you can look around the world at Greece or Venezuela and the signs are that the left cannot sustain its momentum indefinitely.]
we are then surprised when movements on the far right, who are given generous support by wealthy donors and publicity from social media platforms that attack old media (breitbart, infowars) and they are the ones who turn popular resentment in to electoral success (often again insurgencies in established parties such as the Tea Party movement or the Alt-Right). Whilst Corbyn and Sanders get almost no media coverage when they talk about major issues facing ordinary people, Johnson and Trump get wall to wall attention because their incompetence and bigotry is so “entertaining”.
A little more than a decade after the 2008 financial crisis, it has been the far-right (or “alt-right”) that has gained from the resentment and hostility to “elites”. So as we move closer to 2020 and perhaps the most consequential election in US history which would signal a more permanent global shift to right-wing authoritarianism if Donald Trump (or even just Republicans) were re-elected, what do you make of the prospects of a left-wing insurgency so far?
Are we destined to see the success of the far right to continue and the Donald Trump and Boris Johnsons going to become the architects in determining the course of the 21st century? Or will the left make a sustained comeback over the next decade as various social, economic and environmental issues begin to bite?
