‘No-one saves us but ourselves’: we have to resist the far right
The promise of mass deportations. Pardons for fascist militia leaders. Nazi salutes. Turning Guantánamo Bay torture camp into a migrant prison. A war on federal anti-discrimination provisions. On and on it goes, in US President Donald Trump’s shock and awe campaign to remould US politics decisively.
His right-hand man, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is charged with making swingeing cuts to government expenditure. But he is just as focused on building support for jailed British fascist Tommy Robinson and for the Alternative for Germany, a fascist party that, with Musk’s backing, is now polling second in the lead-up to a federal election later this month.
Far-right parties are in government in seven EU member states—Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Slovakia—and are surging in France and Britain, among other places. Austria’s Freedom Party, founded by an SS-Brigadeführer and former member of the Nazi Reichstag, is on the cusp of forming a government.
None of this is coincidental. The new right is building a global movement. A victory for one is viewed as a victory for all. And no victory has been celebrated as much as Trump’s return. There could have been no greater boost to the forces of global fascism than having a far-right figure running the world’s most powerful country. At fascist and far-right rallies everywhere, people wear the distinctive Make America Great Again caps and hold pictures of the bigoted billionaire while cheering their local equivalents.
Capitalists and establishment politicians are not only doing little to impede the growth of this toxic new far right; in many cases, they are cosying up to and encouraging it.
During his first term, Trump faced significant resistance from many quarters and mass protests from the public. Indeed, his administration turned out to be weak and somewhat ineffective, embroiled in turmoil from one week to the next and with a revolving door of staff, one day praised by the president, the next derided as dumb as rocks.
This time around, so far, it has been different. Since 5 November, establishment arse kissers have lined up to visit Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to ingratiate themselves with a man who has basically promised to carry out mass human rights violations across the country. The financial pages have been a sea of articles about “the Trump trade” as all attention turns to money making, to hell with humanity.
After Trump entered office in 2017, the Washington Post, owned by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, changed its masthead motto to “Democracy dies in darkness”. This time, Bezos forbade any election editorial against Trump (a “hypocritical, chicken shit move”, according to one former US diplomat) and was a guest at the presidential inauguration, along with a who’s who of America’s most influential and wealthy people.
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also attended, personifying Australia’s imperial cringe: a hack basking in the glow of power. More than that, Wong exemplified the useful idiocy of the political centre left. While the far right coordinates globally, all the ALP can offer is smiles and photo ops that help normalise the brewing reaction.
Not a peep of opposition can be heard from this so-called party of labour, just the sound of it sucking up to the rich and powerful here and abroad. Indeed, if Trump had strolled over and taken a crap at Wong’s feet, we’d probably have gotten a bumbling DFAT media release about the president’s attention to Australia’s representative being yet another indication of the two countries’ “enduring mateship”.
So what’s left? And what can we do?
“No-one saves us but ourselves.” That saying is attributed, perhaps apocryphally, to Buddha. A few years ago, the global climate movement adopted it. Hundreds of thousands of young people started to recognise that lobbying was a dead end. Clearly, those in power—politicians and capitalists—have zero intention of doing what’s required to avert environmental catastrophe. In fact, pursuing profits, they continue to green-light destructive coal and oil extraction projects worldwide.
It’s also clear that the established political forces will not save us from the far right. If gaining office means adopting parts of the far-right program or capitulating to far-right leaders, they will do it. If being close to power means being close to and friendly with fascists, then they will dress for the occasion.
They are scum.
No-one will save us but ourselves. We have to build a socialist alternative to this global horror show and a socialist alternative to the useless ALP. We need a party willing to fight, not capitulate—a party that fights for workers, not billionaires; a party that fights against bigotry and racism; a party that fights against war and imperialism; a party that fights against the whole rotten system of capitalism, and for a society run according to Karl Marx’s maxim, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need”.
If you want to resist the far right, and build a better, socialist society, join Socialist Alternative. We have a world to win.
