Fascism is also promising security

When analysing the increase in fascism, the influence of capitalism is usually ignored. Doing this is a perversion. The increase in fascism is directly related to the policies that cause poverty, because poverty and people’s despair are breeding grounds for fascism. In Greece, the Troika imposed a cruel agenda of adjustments and cutbacks against the Greek people’s democratic decision that had been reached by a referendum. It didn’t matter that people were starving, along with the loss of credibility of the politicians who promised to respect the people’s wishes and in addition to this, the fact that Golden Dawn was on the rise was also ignored.

Throughout history, whenever capitalism needed to it has fallen back on fascism. Everything depends on the degree of authoritarianism that is needed to develop its goals. And now it needs it. It is known that the extreme right is managing to dislodge politicians as a group towards the right, including the left wingers, who are wandering about disorientated and self-conscious. You just need to analyse the IMF’s concerns made public this week: Brexit, trade wars, growth… There is no mention of the increase in the extreme right, or the ravages caused by climate change, or of the misogynous component of these fascists anywhere. After the victory during the first round of elections by Bolsonaro in Brazil, the media declares that the ‘markets’ applaud his victory and his support to privatisation.

The EU crushed Greece and now it is about to face up to a deadlock against its own dictates regarding the deficit limit, with the Italian neo-fascist government. What the left wing parties have not been able to do to protect social cohesion, the right wing ones are doing to consolidate their project. It is completely unacceptable that the criticism made about the EU is essentially made by an extreme right that is becoming organised and coordinated all over Europe.

The other perversion of the rise in fascism is that the local authoritarianisms, (which exist and are tough), pass by unnoticed. Compared to characters such as Orban, Trump, Salvini, Bolsonaro, Le Pen… they seem like little lambs. But they are not. A good Catalan friend who held a meeting with leaders of a traditional right wing party summarised for me how they defended their strategy: “we offer the electorate the security demanded by normal people”. Bolsonaro, Salvini, Trump… also offer security. “Bolsonaro”, remarks a left wing Brazilian journalist, “represents this feeling of order and authority that seeps into the population in a context of economic and moral decline. Bolsonaro has seduced this poor, raging electorate”. The chronification of poverty returns to feed fascism. Poverty and fascism’s skill lies in placing the enemies amongst the poor people, never amongst those who hold the power and the capital.

A few weeks ago, the latest Mexican Home Secretary stated: “While we do not look after the economic, political and social causes that generate insecurity, we will not improve the situation, although there is a policeman on every corner. There are thousands of children who are armed to their back teeth, who give one service or another to organised crime, either using threats or due to their unsustainable economic situation”. Since 2006, in Mexico 200,000 people have died due to violence and 35,000 are missing. This week I had the chance to meet up with a Galician trade union colleague whose son-in-law had been murdered in Mexico. His daughter and granddaughter have had to return to live in Galicia. He told me that the price to hire a hit man had dropped from 3,000 to 300 dollars. There are 15 year olds who have now become these hit men. Completely brutal.

“This is what there is”, local authoritarianism repeats to us time and again, to ensure that we let ourselves be seduced by a pilotless world. Their offer of security is a ruse to lull consciences and societies to sleep. A conclusion that seems important to us: there is no left wing ideology without setting forth alternatives in economic and social policies, without an alternative programme to capitalism and without a proposal about Europe that curbs the rise in fascism.