[News] On the New Face of 21st Century Neo-Fascism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

April 02, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/02/left-white-solidarity/


*On the New Face of 21st Century Neo-Fascism*


  Left-White Solidarity?

by AJAMU BARAKA

    "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

    -- George Santayana

Some years ago Italian anarchist Camillo Berneri 
<http://robertgraham.wordpress.com/?s=Camillo+Berneri&submit=Search> 
suggested that while not always visible in the social practices of 
everyday European life, the racist foundation for European fascism was 
still present, safely confined to a space in the European psyche but 
always ready to explode in what he called a racist delirium.

Today, white workers and the middle classes in Europe and the U.S., 
traumatized by the new realities imposed on them by the decline of the 
Western imperialist project and the turn to neoliberalism, are 
increasingly embracing a retrograde form of white supremacist politics.

This dangerous political phenomenon is developing in countries 
throughout the European Union and in the U.S. Just recently, the 
National Front, a racist, authoritarian party that labored on the 
fringes of French politics for years, has emerged as one of the dominant 
forces in French politics. The Tea Party in the U.S., Golden Dawn in 
Greece, the People's Party in Spain, the Partij Voor de Vrijheid in the 
Netherlands -- in these and other countries, a transatlantic radical 
racist movement is emerging and gaining respectability.

The hard turn to the right is not a surprise for those of us who have a 
clear-eyed view of Euro-American history and politics. In all the 20th 
Century fascist movements in Europe, two elements combined to express 
the fascist project: 1) the rise of far-right parties and movements as 
the political expression of an alliance of authoritarian, pro-capitalist 
class forces bankrolled by sections of the capitalist class and 
constructed in the midst of capitalist crisis; and 2) racism grounded in 
white supremacist ideology.

The neo-fascism that is now emerging within the context of the current 
capitalist crisis on both sides of the Atlantic has similar 
characteristics to the movements of the 1930s but with one 
distinguishing feature. The targets for racist scapegoating are 
different. The targets today are immigrants: Arab, Muslim and African in 
Europe; Latinos and the never-ending target of poor and working class 
African Americans in the U.S.

What makes the rise of the racist radical right even more dangerous 
today is that it is taking place in a political environment in which 
traditional anti-racist oppositional forces have not recognized the 
danger of this phenomenon or for strategic reasons have decided to 
downplay the issue. That strategy has been tragically played out in the 
"immigrant rights 
<http://www.ajamubaraka.com/may-day-and-the-failure-of-the-mainstream-immigrant-rights-movement/>" 
movement in the U.S.

The brutal repression and dehumanization witnessed across Europe in the 
1930s has not found generalized expression in the U.S. and Europe, at 
least not yet. Nevertheless, large sectors of the U.S. and European left 
appear to be unable to recognize that the U.S./NATO/EU axis that is 
committed to maintaining the hegemony of Western capital is resulting in 
dangerous collaborations with rightist forces both inside and outside of 
governments.

The manufactured crisis with Russia over the issue of Ukraine is a case 
in point. The incredible recklessness and outrageous opportunism of the 
U.S./NATO/EU axis in destabilizing Ukraine -- knowing that the driving 
forces on the ground were racist, neo-Nazi elements from the Right 
Sector and the Svoboda party -- demonstrated once again the lengths that 
this axis is prepare to go to achieve its geo-strategic objective of 
full-spectrum economic and political global domination.

Yet strangely, not only did many radicals in the U.S. and Europe not see 
the potential threat that this situation represented but they seemed 
unable to penetrate the simplistic cold-war propaganda that suddenly 
reemerged to frame events in Ukraine.

Instead of being concerned that as a direct consequence of U.S. actions 
a government came to power in Europe that for the first time since the 
1930s included ultra-nationalist, racist neo-Nazis in key positions, the 
left along with the general population allowed the corporate media and 
U.S. propagandists to turn the narrative away from U.S./EU 
destabilization of Ukraine to Putin's supposed expansionist aspirations.

The ease in which the corporate media was able to flip that script and 
to make Putin the new face of evil has been truly astonishing. And the 
fact that that narrative was embraced by most liberals and large sectors 
of the white left in the U.S. only affirmed that having abandoned class 
analysis, anti-imperialism and never really understanding the insidious 
nature of white supremacist ideology, the U.S. left has no theoretical 
framework for apprehending the complexities of the current period.

The inability to extricate itself from the influences of white 
supremacist ideology has to be considered as one explanation for the 
strange positions taken by large sectors of the white liberal/left over 
the last few years. How else can one explain the bizarre incorporation 
of the discourse of humanitarian intervention 
<http://blackagendareport.com/content/humanitarian-intervention-human-rights-gift-keeps-giving-us-imperialism> 
and the obscenely obvious racism of the "responsibility to protect?

Could it be that many white radicals have fallen prey to the subtle and 
not-so-subtle racial appeal to a form of cross-class white solidarity in 
defense of  "Western values," civilization and the prerogative to 
determine who has the right to national sovereignty that is at the base 
of the rationalization of the "responsibility to protect" asserted by 
the white West?

The apparent incapacity of white leftists to penetrate and understand 
the cultural and ideological impact of white supremacy and its powerful 
effect on their own consciousness has weakened and deformed left 
analysis of U.S. and European foreign policy initiatives.  It has also 
resulted in the U.S. and European left taking political positions that 
either objectively championed U.S./NATO imperialist aggression or 
provided tacit support for that aggression though silence.

As a consequence of the abandonment of anti-imperialism and an active 
class/racial collaboration with the Western bourgeoisie, an almost 
insurmountable chasm has been created separating the Western left from 
its counterparts in much of the global South.

Instead of more resolute anti-imperialist solidarity, broad elements of 
the white left in the U.S. and Europe have consistently aligned 
themselves with the policies of the U.S/NATO/EU axis that are giving 
support to right-wing forces from Ukraine to Venezuela.

Exaggeration, racial paranoia, an overly simplistic and a divisive, even 
"racist" assessment of the liberal/left will be the charge. We accept 
those charges. We accept them because we know they will come. For those 
of us living outside the walls of privilege who must nevertheless accept 
the realities of the colonialist/imperialist-created global South, we 
don't have the luxury of comforting illusions. Our lived experiences 
negate the false history of Europe's benevolent civilization. We see 
developing in Europe and the U.S. and very real possibility of a 
left-right racial convergence fueled by crisis, leftist ideological 
confusion and what appears to be a mutual commitment to maintaining the 
global structures of white supremacy.

Understanding the violent history of the Western project and the 
pathological nature of white supremacy, we are forced to see with 
crystal clarity that within the context of the volatile economic and 
social conditions in Europe, giving legitimacy to neo-fascist forces 
like the ones in Ukraine might just be the fuel needed to ignite that 
racist, fascist delirium Berneri referred to.

/*Ajamu Baraka* is a geo-political analyst, activist and organizer.  
Baraka is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) 
in Washington. His latest publications include contributions to two 
recently published books "Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA" and "Claim 
No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral." He can be reached at 
ajamubaraka.com <mailto:ajamubaraka.com>/

-- 
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