Credit: EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images
The 2019 European election produced another bad set of results for the centre-Left. In most countries, with a few exceptions, such as Spain and Denmark, the decline of social democracy continues.
What’s gone under-reported, however, is the poor performance of the radical Left. Until recently, the populist surge was a two-pronged attack – Left-wing populists rising in tandem, if not in sympathy, with the Right-wing populists.
Parties like Syriza in Greece, Podemos in Spain, Die Linke in Germany and Sinn Fein in Ireland were once part of a Europe-wide backlash against austerity and the unresolved problems of global capitalism. If last month’s election results are anything to go by, the red wave has subsided. Across Europe, the main GUE/NGL grouping of the radical Left lost over a quarter of their seats, slumping from 52 to 38.
One might also add the losses made by Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party (still officially part of the centre-Left S&D group).
Writing for Jacobin, Wolfgang Streeck searches for an explanation for this reverse, which he notes “came at a time when the old parties of the centre-Left and centre-Right suffered dramatic setbacks”:
“These are, then, times of rapidly shifting political allegiances. But when should the Left expect to make electoral progress among European workers and reformist sections of the middle class, if not now? There is an urgent need to explain the Left’s disastrous failure to do this.”
The most obvious explanation for what happened to the red wave is that it was drowned by a green wave. While socialist parties lost seats across Europe, green parties advanced. Les Verts in France and Die Grünen in Germany did especially well – establishing themselves as the biggest left-of-centre parties in their respective countries.
For Streeck this is all evidence that the Left, broadly defined, is losing its soul to the European project:
“There is not even a debate on the crucial issue of whether the EU can at all be a vehicle for anti-capitalist politics. Instead, there is a naïve or opportunistic acceptance — and it’s hard to say which is worse — of the feel-good ‘Europeanism’ so popular among young people and so useful for both Green electioneering and European technocrats seeking legitimacy for their neoliberal regime.”
One needn’t be a socialist (and I’m not) to recognise that the EU is a capitalist enterprise. Obviously, that’s not a message one gets from the Eurosceptic Right of the British Conservative Party. But in fact, the EU’s idea of capitalism is much stronger than anything the ERG could come up with, because it is so deeply embedded within the institutions of an emerging super-state:
“…the EU’s de facto constitution limits the political space for any anti-capitalist or even pro-labor program, with its safely enshrined free markets (the ‘four freedoms’), the de facto dictatorship of the European Court, and the balanced budget provisions under European Monetary Union, imposing austerity on countries and citizens.”
The ‘four freedoms’ refer to the European single market and its guarantee of free movement for goods, capital, services and people – i.e. unimpeded capitalism within the borders of an EU riven by inequalities of productivity, wealth, infrastructure and education. National borders are erased when it comes to things that suit the most powerful interests – access to cheap money, cheap assets, cheap products and cheap labour. But when it comes to the redistribution required to address the resulting imbalances in economic and social power, the borders magically reappear.
In many ways, the EU is running a more radical and unequal form of capitalism than America is.
This is a reality that the Left-leaning, metropolitan middle class refuses to acknowledge. Not even the extremity of what the EU did to Greece (the only member state to elect a radical Left government) is enough to trouble them. But, then, as Streeck reminds us, this is not about the facts:
“Details, however, do not really matter for those for whom ‘Europe’ has become a mood, a feeling, rather than a political institution; a symbol of a happy, hip ‘cosmopolitan’ consumerist life, even if with a few environmentalist corrections.”
Two or three years ago it looked like a new generation of radical voters would be challenging the system. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that this is radicalism as fashion statement – and, for the moment, green and not red is the colour of the season.
Ironically, the only current EU member state that could have a radical socialist government in the foreseeable future is Brexit Britain (the viceroyalty of Greece no longer counts). Furthermore, the only serious internal challenge to the EU system comes from the national populist block of governments in central Europe and Italy – against which the modern metro Left defines itself.
To reiterate, I don’t think that either socialism or populism is the answer to what ails us as a county or as a continent. Nevertheless, a system that allows no alternative to euro-capitalism is a desperately limited kind of democracy.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeWhat’s so disheartening about his whole thing is the fact that, no matter how bad it gets, the left simply will not learn. Of course the homeless are going to go where it’s easiest for them. If you don’t prosecute shoplifters because you have some weird idea they deserve what the rob on the grounds that the people they steal from are wealthier than they are, then of course they’ll steal. And nothing that happens seems to shake them out of their stupidity.
The woke religion seems to view “shoplifting” as a form of reparations. Back to the East Coast, NYC actress and politician Cynthia Nixon tweeted how outrageous it is that major US drug stores, vital to the communities they serve–are closing multiple stores and locking up high value items that are frequently stolen–for example, razor blades, nappies, detergent. Kit should be free!
The woke simply have no understanding how the world works: people who see rampant theft know they are being played for being law-abiding, and they are in real danger in an environment of complete and utter lawlessness. And of course daily life is much more inconvenient with things locked up, stores closing, etc. and the price of goods goes up for all–well, all who pay for the goods. No such thing as a free lunch!
This is a bit like those who glorified graffiti in the 70s, when every subway car was covered in graffiti. The woke, before that term existed, celebrated this “street art” and “artists,” while normal people were horrified, terrorized. This is absolutely consistent with their worship of COWs, Citizens of Wakanda, who will lead the woke to the promised land.
Sickening!
Funny story, in middle and rural America, we have not seen a massive crime wave. Our police departments just do the same job they have always done. We know police will not always be there and there are times when they fail or abuse their authority. They are not perfect but they keep chaos at bay and allow society to function.
“You can be mad but I guess I don’t personally view my car as an extension of myself and I’ve never felt violated any of the 15 or so times my car was broken in to.”
“Once a guy accidentally left a cool knife in my car so if it keeps happening you might get a little treat.”
–SETH ROGEN
This is actor and LA resident Seth Rogen’s view on crime. He also said “It’s called living in a big city.”
The extreme left–99.9% of Hollywood, and huge media influencers–is simply unconnected to the reality of daily life in a big city. So my car is broken into for the 16th time–have my PA deal with it, call the insurance company, maybe buy a new car. And Wow…., it’s like so, cool, dude, that some robber dude left a really cool knife in the car…..”
The good news is that this serious, violent crime is starting to hit home in the wealthy neighborhoods. One half or a black power couple was killed in her home by an intruder with an automatic rifle (he went on to commit more crimes, but was stopped when he shot himself in the foot), and a home in a very upscale neighborhood–Pacific Pallisades–suffered a home invason robbery where the guests were held and robbed at gunpoint inside the home during the party.
In San Francisco, a restaurant refused to serve police officers in uniforms because part of their required kit is a gun. The restaurant apparently needed a “safe space,” gun-free. Perhaps they will re-think this if armed intruders come for them. Would they welcome armed police then?
The US is completely out of control–like a dystopian Hollywood film. In NYC during the Golden Age of Crack (late 80s, early 90s), the NYPD institued a policy called “Broken Windows,” which essentially meant zero tolerance for little things. It mostly worked. The radical left has now instituted a policy that might be called “Break the Windows, It’s OK,” and the world can see the results. Burn, baby, burn!
People who call for “law and order,” people who want to be safe in their homes, have their cars unmolested in the street, free to live their lives, are not necessarily “hard right,” nazis, gun-toting vigilantes, or freelance lunatics, they are mostly people of good will who don’t recognize their country any more.
This article could have looped back to De Blasio’s utterly dysfunctional New York City, where an Italian Ph.d. student at Columbia–once one of the world’s premier unis–was stabbed to death and another student wounded by the same criminal. This follows the stabbing death of Tessa Majors in essentially the same place in Dec. 2019.
This must stop. Civil War soon!
Seth Rogan? The guy who gave us Santa Inc?
If any question of listening to actors giving everyone else lessons on life was remaining, just view the Alec Baldwin incident. Not his fault, someone else’s responsibility, he didn’t need to check the gun first, he was told it was cold, so pointing it at someone is fine.
And of course Seth Rogan doesn’t feel that much attachment to his car. He’ll get another one. Probably has more than one anyway. All privileges that 90% of the population do not have.
Yet for some reason, those with the least skin in the game, as it were, are leading the public debate on these ridiculous policies.
Team America World Police nailed this attitude: “It’s our job as actors to read the paper in the morning and then go on TV and talk about it like it’s our opinion.”
Touche! Well said. Yes, the same Seth Rogen, who by the way, said that white supremacists were “review bombing” Santa Inc.
Mediocre actor. World class c@3t!
Please go back to Lock and Load
Unfortunately most of the so called libertarians are pathetic blowhards. Probably the US does ideally need now a period of authoritarian right wing government who would suppress Antifa and violent protests, take control of America-hating, crime supporting ‘mainstream’ media. Etc. It probably won’t get it!
China has already won. A nation that loathes its history and culture, and teaches its children to do this, has a cancer eating itself from the inside. One that considers that appointing ‘trans’ admirals is more important than defending the country, allows vast numbers of people to illegally cross its borders, will not have any will to defend itself in any confrontation.
Are the Chinese doing any of this? No, they are not.
You forgot to say Lock and Load!
Asking Cynthia Nixon and Seth Rogen about social issues is like seeking the opinion of Marie Antoinette on the issues facing the poor before the French Revolution. Of course their wealth so insulates them that they spout the equivalent of “let them eat cake”.
Dr Thomas Sowell, who knows something about growing up poor and black, states that he has given up appearing before congressional committees because he knows that whatever evidence he gives will be disregarded and the politicians will simply enact what they wanted to enact before seeking evidence on the basis of ideology.
You mean seeking the opinion of Marie Antoinette’s poodle.
Possibly a racist remark?
The problem is that they have become so good at what they do. The sophisticated, urbane, and articulate left does propaganda way better than the crass, uneducated, Neanderthal right. They do it so well that they have come to believe it themselves. They have chosen to live in a bright and sunny land of make-believe and illusion. The entire universe is a tabula rasa, where Hollywood movies serve to inform and instruct, and where any inconveniently disruptive vestige of objective reality, any pain which might awaken the woke, can be whisked away on a cloud of pacifying drugs… for now; but there will come a day of reckoning, as there always does.
“Soma” in Brave New World.
As a NYC Republican, though living in the Midwest for 5 decades, it’s easy to be dismissive of the left’s self-inflicted wounds. But I have long-time friends in major cities who are in real danger. Unfortunately, I just don’t see my friends embracing a new Ed Koch. It would be a major repudiation of their expressed values. So the road to safety and sanity will be slow and hard.
A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.
Kim Fox, the Cook County (Chicago) State’s Attorney (D, Soros) won reelection in 2020. Her bad deeds weren’t enough to defeat her. She can continue not to prosecute the survivors of gang shootouts because everybody was shooting, so no one’s at fault. Fox chose not to prosecute the Jusse Smollet hoax, until public outcry forced her to do it.
The explanation is identity voting. If you vote your identity, bad governance is irrelevant. It doesn’t change your identity. So you keep voting your identity, even though the government gets worse and worse. If you’re convinced your identity means you vote for Democrats, you continue to vote for Democrats, regardless of how bad they do in governing.
The reason Democrats call all Republicans racist is because it maintains identity voting in minority communities. Democrats wouldn’t have a chance if people voted on the issues, like crime and school choice. So Democrats make sure that minorities think all Republicans are racist, so minorities won’t even consider voting for them. This leads to silly comments like saying Larry Elder, a black conservative running for Governor of California, is the black face of white supremacy. (You can check the LA Times for this whopper.) The need to preserve identity voting leads to Sen. Tim Scott (R, SC) and Lt. Gov. Elect Winsome Sears (R, VA) to be called house negros or tokens, even though their elections show Republicans vote on issues, not skin color.
All according to plan………
“are places with progressive prosecutors working to limit punishments for looters, organised thieves and the unruly, occasionally violent, homeless.”
Soros funded prosecutors most likely, and PostModernist, Neo-Marxist Liberal/Left intelligentsia backed. This is 100% useful Idiots fallowing great Evil in destroying their nation, and them self, in a planned movement – to ultimately allow the Elites to take real control of the West, instead of just their soft control.
It works like this – More Crime = Greater calls from the public to protect them. = More cameras, more monitoring of every thing said and written, more GPS, Spending monitoring, tracking, more spying, more data harvesting and meta-data crunching, facial recognition, bio-metric records, more gait – Syntax AI monitoring…
This is all to cause 1984. And increasing crime causes much to advance that. Surveillance obviously, then division as the predatory class are hated by the prey class, and also the other way – and all are suspicious and angry and scared – and so all become captured as society breaks and democracy is just bought and sold. The capture of the entire education system, the MSM and Social Media – it is far along the track…
I presume the tourist industry in these cities benefits from tourists flying in to loot $1,000 a day of free merchandise, or are only locals allowed to steal? “Come to San Francisco and help yourself” sounds like a good advertising slogan for buses and airlines to run. No need to bring your own tent, just help yourself to one.
I’m embarrassed that I had not considered hopping a flight to San Fran or LA to do my Christmas shopping. If I plan on reselling I think the travel expenses would be tax deductible, right?
More on this from Michael Shellenberger https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-violent-crime-is-rising
The Left has used criminals ever since they released them during the French Revolution to create The Terror of 1791 to 1793. Lenin used criminals to murder opponents post 1917 and they ran the Gulags.
The next step is to put criminals in uniform, such as The Cheka, to undertake officialextermination of the opposition.
Wakanda does not exist. Its denizens in reality only destroy they don’t create.
Being woke, is a state of mind that requires one to deny that humans need structure and order. One has to deny that there are sociopaths that live among us in order to believe that anarchy is the proper way societies should be structured. The Progressive Left reimagining of crime and punishment doesn’t come from a place of evil. It comes from a good heart, that being poor in and of itself should not be a crime. That the stealing of a loaf of bread is not a crime that deserves punishment. The problem with this is that we are NOT dealing with a Jean Valjean. We are dealing with mental illness, drug addiction, sociopaths. Real criminals who are willing to commit violence. Real criminals who are not capable of living and prospering amongst us. Progressives are living in a state of mind that doesn’t exist. So in the end they create hell for the rest of us to live in.
Trump wins next time.
I assume the wealthy Californians who support all this have private security…
The oddly-named mainstream media — it is far from it — thinks and acts like a cult, particularly the San Francisco Chronicle. It used to be a rather decent newspaper when I worked there.