A Critique of Western Leftism

As I discussed in my essay ‘Scotland and the National Question’, it is the far right who have emerged triumphant in much of the western world. Over the course of this document, I will:

        I.       

    I.                     I   Describe the reasons for, and cite examples of far right growth

     II.                II. Answer why it is the right, and not the left thriving

   III.     III.  Evaluate what the Western left has to do, in order to smash the right, and to smash capitalism

I.                    The rise of the right

The far right occupy a prominent role in almost every western state. Whether it is an individual or a party, their movement has enjoyed credible success in recent years. From Donald Trump, the xenophobic oligarch, and President of the United States or Jobbik, the Christian nationalist extremist party in Hungary, there has been an unprecedented success- both within and outwith parliamentary politics. It is not mere luck that the likes of Hungary and Poland are headed by ultra-right regimes, but simply testament to the efficiency of their movement as a whole.

The science of Marxism-Leninism has told us that Capitalism is always a few years away from a crisis, social or economic. One look at history tells us that these crises end with a change in political dominance.

Russia 1917- Royalist autocracy to Communist republic (liberation of the masses)

Germany 1920s/30s- Economic decline of the Capitalist regime led to the Nazis success, and the deaths of tens of millions

Bankers’ recession 2008 onwards- The right took advantage and manipulated social problems to portray immigrants as the catalyst= rise of the far right over the Western hemisphere

In simpler terms, depression breeds opportunity. And in recent years, the only ones to seize the opportunity are the fascists and conservatives engulfing the political scene of much of the world. We cannot look at Trump’s success, or Jobbik’s rise without accepting history is repeating itself. As Marx said “History repeats itself. First as a tragedy, second as a farce”. The left are simply too weak, divided and uneducated to mount any threat to the right. To say that the right have only flourished because of their swiftness at ‘seizing the moment’ in the immediate aftermath of crisis is naïve. After they have done this, they, just as the Nazis did in 1930s Germany, sought to defect blame from the capitalist class, and find a scapegoat. In the modern day, but in many generations past, that scapegoat is the immigrant.

Though they have made numerous attempts to defect away from the mantra of the status quo, the fear generated by the right regarding the so called refugee crisis is simply a way of maintain bourgeois regimes. The economic and social costs of investing so heavily into illegal wars in Iraq, and coup attempts in Syria has resulted in intensified austerity for the proletarian of the Western world. As with any crisis, the establishment seek to find a solution, and the solution here is scapegoating the innocent immigrants, who are easy targets when the far right's propaganda machine is in full flow. In the next section, I will assess why the left's inability to organise led to the success of the right in greater depth. 

The far right on a global scale are willing to die for their cause. They are willing to arm themselves, to educate themselves, and to organise. At protests, whilst the Western  left draft up vacillating posters in the comfort of their white petit bourgeois lifestyle, the right are training in self defence, and are not afraid to use it to achieve their goals.

II Western leftists

The student left in Europe is at its weakest. Composed of revisionists, Trotskyists and Social Democrats, the terms Socialist and Marxist have lost any meaning in the student circles, and are instead buzzwords for pseudo socialists who are uneducated and in many cases living petit bourgeois lifestyles. 

The only thing which can turn proceedings, is a mass education programme, similar to the circumstances in China pre revolution. 

"Our educational policy must enable everyone who receives an education to develop morally, intellectually and physically and become a worker with both socialist consciousness and culture."

Mao, On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (February 27, 1959), 1st pocket ed., p. 44.

Such is the importance of education as the catalyst for a revival in the militant left I have sub divided it into three important sections.

CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 

The first is that for the Western left, particularly the students to achieve even the smallest of aims, class consciousness must be encouraged, promoted, and unearthed. The pseudo socialists are inept to the movement because they lack the drive and will to enrol on a programme of self education. They do not understand the science of Marxism-Leninism, and crucially do not treat it as a science. They fail to accept that without education, any revolutionary ideal is futile. Class consciousness is fundamental to any individual who wishes to partake in revolutionary movements. An estimate of the British student left who are fully class conscious would be below 10%. Why? Because the class struggle has been ditched in favour of identity politics. The most important aspect of our every day fight is the class struggle. To remove this, in favour of identity politics is counter revolutionary and the most ridiculous move. Sadly, most of the Western Student left has been engulfed by this phenomenon.To these impostors who hide under the red flag, to these traitors who halt our movement I urge you to remove yourself from the network. To the genuine Marxists amongst us I urge you to remove them. No individual or movement can degrade the class struggle and put identity politics before the liberation of the proletariat and claim to be Socialist. Unless you fight for women, for minorities, for the LGBT community under the red flag, your fight will never be a victorious one. A basic knowledge of Marxist literature reveals this, yet the lack of understanding of our great science's dialectics prove very worrying in both the short and long term future of the western left. 

TROTSKYISM

Trotskyism, the ideology which most pseudo socialists in Western student circles align with is the most counter revolutionary ideal to enter the fray. It was the Jewish journalist,and lifelong Comrade of the USSR, Moissaye J. Olgin who labelled the theory as "counter revolution in disguise". Anybody with a basic grasp of Marxism-Leninism would see through the lies of those who preach this traitor's values. Yet here lies the problem, Trotskyism is a fashionable disguise, and those lacking class consciousness and understanding of Communism fall prey to it. Unfortunately it is growing from strength to strength in student society. To them Stalin was the enemy, the USSR was a dictatorship, and Fidel Castro a tyrant. They scream this from the safety of their middle class household in London or Paris without having to ever truly worry that poverty will take their life.

HISTORY

There is only one way to defeat fascism and imperialism. Through armed resistance, led on a Marxist Leninist platform. This is a given, as history tells us. Whether it be the FLN in Algeria, PFLP in Palestine, or the heroics of the Red Army in Stalingrad, force is the only way to defeat these ideas. But as with so many crucial elements, the western left ignores history, They ignore the cries of the Auschwitz families describing the only way to defeat the Nazis is to smash them- literally. 

Instead of taking the fight to the Nazis by sharpening the knifes and polishing the knuckle dusters, western students opt for pacifism, something which as Che mentioned, is the Capitalist establishment's greatest ally. 

Instead of rejecting establishment politics, they join Blairites in the imperialist Labour Party.

Instead of taking inspiration  from past guerilla movements based on class struggle, they take inspiration from Sanders and Corbyn, who as history tells us, are sell out social democrats in parties steeped in colonial blood. 

Instead of holding up guns to the rich, they hold up posters to themselves.

This is the western left. Accepting whitewashed history to go hand in hand with their liberal agenda. 

III. What is to be done?

A revolution will not come through parliament. It will come through the masses. That said, a Bolshevik esque group is required. Again, anybody with sufficient historical knowledge would be aware. In many ways, Lenin's What is to be done? echo the current climate in the Western world. 

Huge parties, fraudulents such as the Labour Party (GB)

A small guerilla movement must be assembled, but first:

I. Class consciousness must be unearthed.

II. Education, of history, of Marxism Leninism must be the focal point of any group and its members. 

The Western democratic process should be ignored and as many should abstain from participating as possible.

Violence should be used as a tactic. Fight the fascist scum with how they fight us.

Compromising with the enemy must be avoided. Do not endorse one candidate over the other on the basis of a lesser evil. Demand both be tried for war crimes. Reject both parties. 

Scotland and the National Question

In present day Scotland, Nationalism has emerged as the dominant force within the political sphere, but also out with it. Nationalism is not an ideology which can be restrained to the four walls of a debating room, or a parliament, but something which has economic, social and political consequences. It is the Scottish National Party who currently reside over the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, whilst they also hold 57 out of the available 59 Scottish seats present in Westminster. This rise is remarkable, and something I see to analyse briefly, before delivering a critique of the fraudulent Nationalists and their policies.

Capitalism is as Marx said, never far from crisis, and it is in these many crises, which nationalism creeps into the agenda. Take some historical examples, like Nazi Germany. Economic recession allowed for Hitler to fool the German people, whilst the same can be said of America. It was not just economic recession which allowed Scottish Nationalists to grow from a mere name on a ballot, to the dominant Parliamentary Party. The SNP grew out of the weakness of the Labour Party, something we once again see all too frequently when evaluating the rise of nationalism throughout history. Capitalist parties do have an expiry date, before another, of the same model (in the sense they are imperialist and led by the bourgeois) replace them and continue to enslave the proletariat. Capitalism and Nationalism are crucial to one another. There would be no need for nationalism in Socialist societies, because the internationalist unity of proletarian is itself a liberating act, whilst there can be no form of liberation, whether that be gay rights, gender balance and so forth under a Capitalist state. Capitalism can only thrive when there is division. And there can be no greater division than nationalist ideas, designed to crush workers internationally and mask the evils of the capitalist class.

The Scottish National Party are pseudo Socialist, liberals, and diluted conservatives who thrive so greatly, because they have deployed nationalism to fool the working class of Scotland. A Bolshevik slogan upon the outbreak of the imperialistic First World War was, ‘the enemy of every people was its own people’. There are only 2 categories of people, the proletariat, and the bourgeois. Nationalism seeks to create more splinter groups, of Scots, Arabs, Slavs, to weaken the workers movement and to increase the ruling class’ control. The SNP have only enjoyed success because of their endorsement of their alleged nemesis, Margaret Thatcher. They supported her government over a Labour one, and thus Thatcherism was born, and still wreaks havoc today.

An argument often used by the party is that Independence would lead to Socialism, how laughable! The SNP are a capitalist party, and just some of these policies testify that.

1)    The privatisation of transport, particularly in rural Scottish areas.

2)    The oppression of the working class under the Offensive Behaviour & Communications Act

3)    The refusal to raise tax, something which was even advocated by fellow sell out capitalists in the Labour Party

4)    The defence and continued support of Apartheid Israel. Though it does seem many in the SNP are pro Palestine, it has not stopped the Party developing an inner Zionist circle which has oppressed student movements in universities and funded several Israeli initiatives.

5)    Continued trade deals with Saudi Arabia, a country second only to Israel and Western states in those responsible for the irrevocable damage inflicted upon the Middle East

6)    The unwillingness to openly call for a Republic. The policy of absenteeism is a pro Monarch policy in its own right.

7)    The support of xenophobic rebels in the Ukraine and Syrian conflicts.

8)    Their unwavering support of the fascist sympathising, pro-Israeli, pro American, pro Ukrainian and anti-Assad and chief oppressor of the third world European Union was sickening. 

If Scotland chooses to go Independent, she will not be Socialist. Capitalism will reign more than ever; the only difference being power will lie more directly with the Scottish Capitalist class. The enemy of the Scottish proletariat is not our Comrades in council estates in Manchester and Cardiff, but those who pay us the minimum wage, who exploit us, who plunge our children into poverty, who’s only shared feature (if that) with us is the nationalists’ most potent weapon, the mere flag! There are only us, then workers of the world, and our enemies in the Capitalist class. And England has not oppressed Scotland, the bourgeoisie of Scotland and many other nations have. The working class of England, Wales and Scotland need to unite against the only enemy we have, the elitists who have oppressed us for centuries.  What does independence do but create more wealth for more of the capitalist class? It would be an irreversible blow to the working class should Scotland desert our Comrades on these isles. Do not tell me a middle class Glaswegian and a working class Glaswegian share anything in common, the SNP may try to use this in their propaganda, but it is not the case. Class is the only thing which unites us, and unite us it shall!

Comrade Lenin highlighted the errors of Nationalism in The Working Class and Nationalism.

“The capitalists and landowners want, at all costs, to keep the workers of different nations apart while the powers that be live splendidly together as shareholders in profitable concerns involving millions (such as the Lena Gold fields); Orthodox Christians and Jews, Russians and Germans, Poles and Ukrainians, everyone who possesses capital, exploit the workers of all nations in company.”

The SNP claim their battle is on a par with the Irish and Palestinian liberation struggles, which would be comical if the party didn’t oppress both grassroots movements! Scottish land was stolen by the Scottish bourgeois, Scottish children were starved by the Scottish bourgeois, and so forth. Not by an alien occupier like Israel or the British Army.

Rosa Luxembourg agreed with Lenin, adding that

“Under Capitalism, the slogan of national independence has no value”.

There is only one ideology which can liberate the proletariat from the shackles of Capitalism; Marxism Leninism. Nationalism will only liberate corporate elite’s trade deals, and plunge workers further into poverty and destitution.

Though the struggles are not even comparable, James Connolly full understood the need for a Socialist Republic, a united Socialist Republic of Ireland, and that if Capitalism reigned supreme, all his efforts and the efforts of future Socialist martyrs like Patsy O’Hara of INLA, would be in vain. Of course this unfortunately turned out the case.

 “England would still rule you. She would rule you through her capitalists, through her landlords, through her financiers, through the whole array of commercial and individualist institutions she has planted in this country and watered with the tears of our mothers and the blood of our martyrs.”

No borders, no nations. One proletariat!