FRFI 167 June / July 2002
On 20 April, Jean-Marie le Pen, of the fascist Front Nationale in France, won 17% of the vote in the first round of the Presidential election, pushing the ‘Socialist’ Lionel Jospin into third place and out of the running. On 2 May, three BNP members were elected to Burnley council in local elections in England and Wales. On 15 May in Holland, the virulently anti-immigration LPF became the second-largest party in the Dutch parliament.
The success of the Front Nationale in France triggered alarm bells throughout France and beyond. Pundits blamed voter abstention, the split left vote, the ‘colourless’ social democratic campaign and talked of France’s shame. Millions turned out on the streets of France to demonstrate against Le Pen. But the real shame was to see the left, having failed till then to mobilise those masses against the daily racism of a French state which relegates north African immigrants to second-class citizens, marshal its troops meekly into the polling booths to vote for the ‘respectable’ candidate of the right, Jacques Chirac in the second round on 5 May. That acquiescence ensured that Chirac was returned with an overwhelming majority of 82%. Within three weeks of what the left-wing Libération newspaper claimed was ‘a plebiscite for democratic values, for an open and fraternal society’, the new ‘hardline’ interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy was promising to shut down the Sangatte refugee camp near Calais and arm the police with rubber bullets.
In Holland, though the assassination of the ‘colourful’, ‘flamboyant’ and ‘populist’ (anything but fascist) Pim Fortuyn undoubtedly helped boost his viciously anti-immigration ad-hoc LPF party’s showing, a similar pattern emerged on 15 May. The long-standing social democratic coalition was roundly defeated and a new government will be formed by the right-wing Christian Democrats (43 seats of the parliament’s 150), probably in coalition with the LPF, now the second largest party in Dutch politics. More stringent legislation on immigration is sure to follow.
Throughout Europe, right-wing and racist policies are in the ascendant. In Denmark, Norway, Austria and Italy, right-wing parties, often underpinned by alliances with openly fascist groupings, are introducing tighter immigration laws and policing measures in the name of ‘law and order’. In Germany, the far-right Law and Order Party, which controls the city state of Hamburg, plans to offer African countries over £5,000 a head to take in black refugees refused asylum in Germany. In Belgium, the fascist Vlaams Blok, which controls Antwerp, wants to repatriate all non-European foreigners.
In Britain, the Labour Party has been quick to pre-empt any future gains for fascist parties and avoid the fate of the other social democratic parties of Europe by casting itself firmly as the party of racism and a tough line on immigration. Blair has argued that the best way to prevent a surge of ‘deeply unpleasant populism’ is, essentially, to address [ie inflame] the electorate’s concerns about crime and immigration. Home Office Minister David Blunkett was quick to oblige with references to asylum seekers’ children ‘swamping’ British schools; Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain blamed Muslim immigrants themselves for creating a racist backlash through their ‘isolationist’ stance. The message is plain: why vote for the BNP when the Labour Party has the camps, the gunboats, the police and courts to do the job so much better?
Labour’s stance illustrates perfectly the point that, far from being something alien to European standards of enlightenment and democracy, fascism is simply the most extreme example of a brutal and pernicious racism that has always been at the heart of European imperialism.
As Gary Younge has pointed out (The Guardian, 4 May 2002) fascism is not the cause of racism: it merely leeches off it. ‘The BNP is the most vicious and violent expression of racism in Britain, but it is not the most pervasive nor the most deadly …three times as many black people have died in police custody since 2001 as have been killed in racial violence. The BNP did not invent racism; it is exploiting it.’
What the rise of the far right has exposed is the failure of social democracy. As imperialism’s global crisis threatens the economies of Europe, fascist parties prey on the fears of increasingly insecure and marginalised populations. Fears are growing about unemployment, the increasing crime rate – which is the hallmark of the increasingly vast chasm opening up between rich and poor in the developed nations – and crumbling social services. How much more convenient for the ruling class if the blame can be laid at the door of the perennial scapegoat, the immigrant population. Fascism foments the classic capitalist tactic of divide and rule. The social democratic parties have led the way over the last decade in forcing through privatisation and casualisation; they have overseen the deterioration of schools and hospitals, housing and public transport. The left has failed to mobilise amongst the poorest sections of society who no longer vote because there is no-one to represent their interests, while an increasingly frightened and insecure middle class and workers who still feel they have something to lose turn to the right wing to defend their interests. If we want to fight fascism, then we need to build a movement that fights against the roots of fascism – the racist, imperialist state.
Cat Wiener
