Homework for the left
A couple of weeks ago, George Galloway was in Amsterdam. Just to refresh your memory: George Galloway is a radical-left British politician, who caused a stir in Rochdale district by-elections at the end of February this year by winning the parliamentary seat with 40 per cent of the vote, on the basis of an extremely pro-Palestinian programme (he has since lost that seat in the elections of July 4, by the way). A friend of mine met him on the street and struck up a conversation with him. Galloway expressed surprise that in Amsterdam everything and everyone looked so prosperous and contented, while a far-right government had just taken office in the Netherlands after Geert Wilders' landslide election victory last November. ‘How can that be?’ he asked.
This surprise is a good example of a common misunderstanding in left-wing circles. Many leftists think that Wilders’ voters are largely made up of disgruntled, vindictive slobs who have shown their dislike of twelve years of neoliberal policies under the Rutte I to IV governments in this way. But nothing could be further from the truth. In my opinion, Wilders has mainly received many votes from people who have actually been doing quite well recently. Previously, these people would vote in large numbers for the VVD or the CDA, but they no longer find these parties conservative enough. They are happy to leave everything as it is and view all attempts at change with displeasure. They vote far-right because they are afraid that they will lose what they have, and they don't want others (read: refugees, asylum seekers, etc.) to nibble away at it.
In the Netherlands we now have a new government, headed by Dick Schoof. This is the most right-wing government in our country since time immemorial
In the Netherlands we now have a new government, headed by Dick Schoof. This is the most right-wing government in our country since time immemorial, consisting of a collection of outright racists and neo-Nazis (Faber, Klever, Agema), petty criminals (Madlener, Beljaarts) and uppity ‘Professor Akkermans’-types (Bruins, Veldkamp), led by an extremely vain prime minister (Schoof). While many people can already see the brown and black hordes marching through the streets, so to speak, I think some nuance is in order: this is more like the wet dream of Jacobse and Van Es (the two charlatans from The Hague of the Tegenpartij (Counterparty) of the Dutch comedians Van Kooten and De Bie), forty years after the fact. In their daily lives, most people will probably be little affected by the ‘policies’ this government is about to implement, with a few not too pleasant exceptions (such as the further gutting of the cultural sector). But the environment, and especially asylum seekers and migrants, will obviously lose out and suffer even more than they already do.
France and Britain also recently held elections, and there – miraculously – the left emerged victorious. In Britain, Labour is now back in power, and in France, to everyone's surprise, the Nouveau Front Populaire emerged victorious. However, there are big differences. British Labour has undergone a metamorphosis under Keir Starmer (the new prime minister) and is almost nothing like the party that embodied the hopes of many left-wing progressives under its previous leader, Jeremy Corbyn. On the other hand, the left bloc in France is really quite left-wing, but is plagued by internal contradictions, and it remains to be seen whether this electoral victory can be translated into real government power.
Elections for two state parliaments have just been held in Germany as well. The far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) has become the largest party in these states, Saxony and Thuringia in the east, and may emerge as the second largest party nationwide during the parliamentary elections of next year. In the US a new president will be elected in November, with Donald Trump standing a good chance of clinching victory as he did in 2016. Trump has named the relatively young senator JD Vance as his running mate, and this is really worrying. Vance is a supporter of the Dark Englightenment, an anti-egalitarian, reactionary movement that wants to abolish democracy and replace it with a new kind of absolute monarchy. Vance is also a big pal of Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s richest and most influential people, who as a venture capitalist has been at the cradle of PayPal, Facebook and Twitter. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has also thrown his weight behind Trump, creating an unholy coalition of ultra-rich tech magnates, neo-fascist groups and xenophobic racists.
The big question now is what response the progressive left has to all these developments and how it can forge a strategy for electoral success.
The big question now is what response the progressive left has to all these developments and how it can forge a strategy for electoral success. In this context it is interesting to speak to people from the former European Eastern Bloc. Very often you hear them say that in the past, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, under ‘real existing socialism’, most things were much better: free education, free healthcare and free public transport, to name just a few things. Yes, there was definitely less ‘freedom’ (of speech), but what is that freedom worth when you have virtually nothing to gain and always have to struggle to make ends meet? In particular, the independent and relatively liberal Yugoslavia of the 1970s and 1980s is cited as an ideal: most people there were reasonably well-off at the time, they did have a say (through ‘workers’ self-government'), and there was little repression. This sentiment is one of the reasons why far-right parties are doing so well in Eastern Europe: they appeal to nostalgia for ‘the old days,’ reject harsh, unbridled capitalism and make the case for social services that benefit people.
What could the progressive left learn from this? In Western Europe, after the fall of the Wall, many leftist parties abandoned their principles derived from socialism and opted for a pragmatic course (the ‘Third Way’ of people like Tony Blair). This has led to a much greater emphasis on ‘cultural’ issues, support for migrants and asylum seekers, anti-discrimination, and issues such as LGBTQ+ equality. Of course there is nothing against all of these things, quite the contrary, but it is not enough and it is (sometimes) overshot. If these are the main components of the left’s programme, it is easy prize shooting for the (extreme) right. The progressive left will therefore have to look in the mirror and consult (successful) strategies from the past. In the Netherlands, that could be the programme of the Den Uyl government and the PvdA in the 1970s. The motto of the Den Uyl government was ‘spread knowledge, power and income.’
The motto of the Den Uyl government was ‘spread knowledge, power and income.’
The government then came up with four socio-economic reform proposals: 1) ‘wealth sharing’ (employees would henceforth share in company profits); 2) the Works Councils Act (more participation and co-determination for employees); 3) the Investment Account Act (more investment in socially desirable issues, such as the environment and employment); and 4) land policy (no speculation with land). This last proposal, which sought (albeit still extremely cautiously) to put the axe to one of the pillars of capitalism (land ownership) eventually became fatal to the government. But that this programme was popular among voters was shown by the fact that the PvdA won a historic election victory in 1977 (53 seats in the Lower House of 150 seats).
Can the progressive left repeat this feat? Absolutely, but it would have to abandon pragmatism and the one-sided focus on cultural emancipation and equal rights, however important. The emphasis should be on proposals and policies that are of real use to most people, that aim for a new form of collectivity and that do not divide people into groups that do not see eye to eye.
Links to read more:
www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
www.thenation.com/article/politics/whats-left-after-wokeness/
www.theintercept.com/2024/08/10/republicans-trump-vance-racism-white-nationalism/