French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his new government almost three months after a snap general election delivered a hung parliament.
The long-awaited new line up, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, marks a decisive shift to the right, even though a left-wing alliance won most parliamentary seats.
Despite the partnership between Macron’s centrist party and those on the right, parliament remains fractured and will rely on the support of other parties to pass legislation.
I keep wondering why and how it is that fascism is rising up so much. This is a serious question.
Because liberals in power would rather align with fascists than anyone to the left. Look at how US Democrats would rather debate the merits of executing abortion doctors than debate Medicare for All, how how UK Labour would rather argue whether transwomen should be allowed in public spaces rather than bringing back council housing. Corporate interests will always lead to fascism since it is the only way to continue selling the failed promises of capital
It’s profitable to keep the left out of power as fascists will allow the rich to keep their wealth so long as they toe the party line and remain useful to the authority
Well, profitable in the short term. If the lowly peons don’t have money because you took it all, they cant spend it on stuff from your factories and your profit goes down and everything grinds to a halt. of course you can try to sell it to other countries, which fucks over their economies and makes them more susceptible to populism/facism (well after an initial phase of excitement over those sweet cheap imports) and then it’s facism all around and everyone is fucked. You just need to plan it well enough so you’re on your private island/mars colony with robot butlers by that point
If the lowly peons don’t have money because you took it all, they cant spend it on stuff from your factories and your profit goes down and everything grinds to a halt.
This didn’t stop slavery last time, it won’t stop it again. They don’t need the peons as long as they maintain enough of a “middle class” of people who are paid just enough to feel as if they’re in touching distance of the top (temporarily embarrassed millionaires who in reality are much closer to homelessness) so they both continue to overconsume, and become reluctant to fight to change the status quo because it gives them the privilege of not being a slave. And it’s working.
A prime example of this is the current Finnish government. The traditionally moderate right-wing party has allied itself with the more extreme populist right-wing party. And even though the moderate party won the most votes. It is the populist party that seems to be making all the important decisions. All the while they are both dismantling the welfare system that allowed Finland to become what it is.
The main political difference between Neoliberalism and Fascism is the order at the very top of the power pyramid:
- Neoliberalism puts Money above the State and since in Democracy the State is what is controlled by democratically elected leaders, that means Money above Democracy.
- Fascism puts the State above Money, only it’s not a democratically elected State.
For both the rest of the pyramid - I.e.citizens - are only there to produce wealth for the top.
Whilst it’s much more obvious to people that Fascism wants to control them because the Fascist State cannot allow itself to be controlled by the populous via elected leaders, Neoliberalism keeps the vote as a sort of meaningless ritual were people elect “leaders” (and generally the “choices” offered are carefully selected) for an entity which is not the one that actually controls things so de facto the vote controls little or nothing and all the Neoliberals have to worryabout is to stop any politicians who would actually try to undo the Neoliberalist structure (which is why you see things like transnational Trade Treaties which require countries to practice elements of Neoliberalism, sometimes even including element such as “arbitrage” courts explicitly placed above all sovereign power including the highest courts of a land).
It is the end result of capitalist exploitation. Liberal democracies cannot stop this process through voting.
Least of all American Democracy. Even if we have the numbers, the system is abysmally unfair, always canted in the rightward direction. Even when the country elects the least right leaning option the country ratchets to the right. After Obama less dems were anti war. With Biden now more Democrats are for Republican style border control. Even winning is a losing strategy long term.
I can only speak for the UK but since the 2009 banking crisis the poor have gotten poorer and the rich have gotten richer. Meanwhile the press have very successfully focused attention on to migrants.
A lot of people truly believe that they are poor, not because the richest are picking their pockets, but because the poorest are.
The Question of Fascism and Capitalist Decay -R. Palme Dutt would be a good place to start.
