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<div class="entry-date">April 02, 2014<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/02/left-white-solidarity/">http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/02/left-white-solidarity/</a><br>
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<div class="subheadlinestyle"><b><big><big>On the New Face of 21st
Century Neo-Fascism</big></big></b></div>
<h1 class="article-title">Left-White Solidarity?</h1>
<div class="mainauthorstyle"><big><big>by AJAMU BARAKA</big></big></div>
<div class="main-text"><big><big> </big></big>
<blockquote>
<p><big><big>“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to
repeat it.”</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>– George Santayana</big></big></p>
</blockquote>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>Some years ago Italian anarchist <a
href="http://robertgraham.wordpress.com/?s=Camillo+Berneri&submit=Search"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://robertgraham.wordpress.com']);">Camillo
Berneri</a> 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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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 <a
href="http://www.ajamubaraka.com/may-day-and-the-failure-of-the-mainstream-immigrant-rights-movement/"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://www.ajamubaraka.com']);">“immigrant
rights</a>” movement in the U.S.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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 <a
href="http://blackagendareport.com/content/humanitarian-intervention-human-rights-gift-keeps-giving-us-imperialism"
onclick="javascript:_gaq.push(['_trackEvent','outbound-article','http://blackagendareport.com']);">humanitarian
intervention</a> and the obscenely obvious racism of the
“responsibility to protect?</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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?</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big>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.</big></big></p>
<big><big></big></big>
<p><big><big><em><strong>Ajamu Baraka</strong> 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 <a
href="mailto:ajamubaraka.com">ajamubaraka.com</a></em></big></big></p>
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