A new upsurge of fascism?
Socialist Outlook newspaper1990sPhil HearseTranscribed or corrected by hand from the printed page.
AT THE NEXT general election the British National Party and the National Front will put up more than 20 candidates. Isolated for more than a decade, the fascists are making a comeback. Why?
During the Thatcher years, the right wing leadership of the Tory party squeezed the space for the authoritarian right wing. With Thatcher and Tebbit at the helm, bashing the unions, bashing the blacks and bashing foreigners was a central government preoccupation.
Ultra-nationalism, wrapped in the union jack, was paraded in the Malvinas war. All the reactionary forces in society rallied round Thatcher.
But the catastrophe of the poll tax changed all that. Growing Tory unpopularity pushed Thatcher out. Under John Major, the right wing rhetoric has had to be toned down, if the Tories are to have any chance in the general election.
But 12 years of Tory rule have led to big social changes which give the fascists new openings. A new social base for fascist ideas and movements is being created. Who are the people the BNP could win support from?
All the opinion polls show the most consistently reactionary layer in society is the 'traditional' petty bourgeoisie – shopkeepers and owners of small businesses of all kinds. These people have been hard hit during the recession which followed the 'Lawson boom' of the mid-1980s.
During the boom years, personal consumption among the middle class rocketed. Tens of thousands of small businesses came into existence to meet the demand for personal services and consumer goods.
Lawson relaunched the economy after 1986 on a sea of credit; many of the small businesses borrowed heavily to get going and survive.
Now tens of thousands go bankrupt each year. Among these people, hatred of the banks, and hatred of big business competitors like supermarkets is rampant. They are a fertile breeding ground for racist and reactionary ideas.
But the fascist shock troops come from a different part of society. Thatcherism has created a more unequal society than at any time since the 1890s. Mass and long-term unemployment creates inner-city areas of desperate poverty, the kind of areas which exploded in the late summer riots.
Unemployed youth and the new 'underclass' of paupers is another fertile ground for the emergence of fascism. It links into poorer sections of the employed white working class who are deeply imbued with racism.
Both the bankrupt petty bourgeoisie and the pauperised underclass share one thing – resentment of the system, without strong connections to the labour movement. The unions have refused to organise the unemployed, a massive strategic failure. Many young people have no experience of the labour movement at all.
The bankrupted petty bourgeoisie feel no affinity for the labour movement. Only a strong and confident working class movement, making advances and with a clear programme for reconstituting society – including cheap credit for small businesses – could win them over.
Thus the creation of a new base for the fascists is above all a punishment of the official labour movement for its failures. None of the more desperate sections of society see any future in Kinnockism or new realism. It is above all the defeats of key workers' struggles like the miners' strike and the Wapping dispute which gives the fascists their opening.
A new twist to this situation is given by the gradual emergence of a united capitalist Europe. In many European countries we are seeing the emergence of an 'anti-federalist' right.
Thus in Britain, as British capitalism goes more and more into crisis, the ideological basis is created for hostility to 'foreigners' interfering in 'our' business. Under Thatcher anti-Europeanism was effectively channeled by the government. Now this is much less certain.
Many liberals and social democrats see fascism as a nuisance, but basically unimportant. A growth of fascists organisations may lead to a few unfortunate consequences, like a stepping up of racist attacks, but this is seen as something that can easily be solved by extra police vigilance.
Such views are light-minded and short-sighted. The growth of Jean-Marie Le Pen's Front National in France shows why. Le Pen's movement has become a semi-permanent factor in French politics. The Front National is likely to be the largest right-wing party in next year's elections.
The days when fascism in Europe was a movement of a few disturbed people who held parties on Hitler's birthday are gone. They are gone because of the prolonged capitalist crisis which has existed for more nearly 20 years.
Clearly the left must turn to anti-fascist mobilisation. The widest possible anti-fascist unity in action is needed. This has to involve full support for the self-defence of the black communities.
But anti-fascist mobilisation is not nearly enough to deal with the scope of the problem. The far right will be effectively fought when the labour movement offers a clear and attractive alternative perspective for the most downtrodden in society.
Anti-fascism must always be linked to an alternative programme for reconstituting society. And that means building a revolutionary current in the labour movement.