There is no room for a "Red-Brown alliance".
There is no room for a “Red-Brown alliance”. The notion of a “popular front” with those factions of the “far-right” (What is popularly referred to as the, “far-right", that is- no one could honestly say that neoliberalism’s blueprint for a technocratic dystopia isn’t also “far-right" plan of its own sort.) which advocate some kind of welfare capitalism (and welfare capitalism typically paired with trade chauvinism, at that) and/or state ownership of segments of the economy is a ludicrous one.
We are not supposed to be complacent toward the absence of class consciousness in sections of sections of the global working class. Not for even a minute. Proposal of alliance with capitalist political factions which compete with international democratic socialism’s proletarian class consciousness-raising and revolutionary consensus-building efforts is an act rooted in a complacency of that sort. It is nothing less than proposal of dereliction of our educational duty and alignment with enemies of the Socialist Revolution.
We must challenge “far-right” movements of the welfare paternalist, paleoconservative “economic nationalist”, and non-welfarist/laissez-faire “rugged individualist" varieties alike, and recognize the threat they pose to international democratic socialism and the development of class consciousness, the service they provide to Capital as a tool for division of the exploited, and the potentiality of their eventual integration into the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. The “far-right" movements, just like the radical liberal movements, deserve no special treatment- it is the responsibility of us democratic socialists to challenge them just as we challenge all other capitalist political movements.
Yes, their potentiality for integration into the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Just like radical liberalism’s. We must clearly spell out the fact that refusal to ally with them isn’t a curmudgeonly “purity test" driven refusal. The “far-right” as a whole is a series of movements that, if push comes to shove, can, like other capitalist political movements, ultimately be co-opted by Capital. With Chinese Capital beginning to squeeze Western Capital, Western Capital may find it most expedient to shift away from “woke" obfuscation memes to mostly national chauvinist ones and seek to incorporate the foulest national chauvinism into its governing strategy.
National chauvinist welfare capitalist ideologies, explicitly fascist and otherwise, may advocate realization of some paternalist social welfare programs and state ownership of some industries, but they do not advocate the expropriation of Capital and the realization of production for use economy, the abolishment of classes and social estates, and the realization of a global cooperative commonwealth, of an international brotherhood and sisterhood of humanity. They treat all “loyal" members of nations, conglomerations of nations, races, or other “in groups" as groups more isomorphic in their interests than the international working class. They reject most Marxian analysis and their goals clash with those of international democratic socialism on a fundamental level.
Their so-called “socialism” or so-called “anti-capitalism”, when it is called one or both of those things, is totally at odds with our analysis and our program and vision. It is not adjacent to democratic socialism, and recognition of this fact is not a “purity test" delusion . “Far-right” welfare capitalist thought leaders from Keith Woods, to Eric Striker, to Richard Spencer have, even when describing themselves as “socialists” of some sort and seriously entertaining the establishment of some sort of temporary alliance with us, pointed this one out. They have nothing but contempt for our maximalist program and end goal.
A few more dollars for social spending? At the end of the day, a loss Capital would take to survive. Capitalism and commodity production would be preserved and a weak international democratic socialism that had failed to remain independent could be brutally suppressed. Whenever the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie is ready to invite them to join them, the leaders of these can simply join the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. If we did ally with the forces of the welfarist so-called “far-right”, they would sell us out and brutally suppress us as soon as this opportunity presented itself.
This is not a situation like that of the 19th Century. United fronts with non-Marxists don’t make sense. This is not an era for alliance with one exploiter class against another exploiter class- we now live under unambiguous Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie, and, except in a few places, the remaining symbols of the Pre-Capitalist era, such as royal families, are simply cultural memes used to back up the prevailing order, to back up bourgeois rule. This is the time is for a socialism not in alliance with other factions. Capitalism has been thoroughly established throughout the world. There are no national bourgeoisies, romantic liberal nationalists, and petty chieftains to ally with. The bourgeoisie rules and the Bourgeoisie is the enemy.
None of this is meant to suggest denial of the necessity of striving for the passing of radical reforms. Radical reforms must be won, but radical reforms are reforms won and understood as steps toward the Socialist Revolution, not as anything like ends in themselves.
And none of this is meant to suggest that international democratic socialism should not try to win over those proletarians presently under the sway of socially reactionary ideology and those belonging to the constituencies that different “far-right” factions, whether welfare capitalist, paleoconservative “economic nationalist"/ “right-wing populist", or “rugged individualist", most aggressively evangel to. International democratic socialism seeks to emancipate all of the world’s exploited from capitalism and must strive to develop mature class consciousness and revolutionary consensus in all sections of the world’s exploited. Those written off as “deplorables” will, like all of those among the world’s exploited, be essential to the World Revolution. The fact these people act as some of Capital’s strongest ballast only underscores this point. But efforts to win over non-Marxist individuals as individuals are not proposals of alliance with non-Marxist political factions or movements. There is no room for alliance with welfare capitalist national chauvinism or the “far-right” as welfare capitalist national chauvinism or the “far-right”.
Nor is any of this meant to suggest that love of one’s home is inherently toxic. Love of one’s home, when it is compatible with the positions of “socialism for all places, including my home", “all national oppression must be destroyed, and all national competition done away with”, and “the whole of humanity’s exploited must be saved and emancipated if any exploited section of humanity is to be saved and emancipated”, when it drives one to build socialist revolutionary sentiment in their immediate surroundings, when it is an internationalist socialist patriotism, is a revolutionary force. The welfarist “far-right” does not support internationalist socialist patriotism, but rather national chauvinism.
-Strom McCallum
(Republished from my blog)
