Lindsey German on incipient fascism and how it should be dealt with

The big news today is the election results in France, which are terrifying, if not unexpected. They show the RN, a party whose fascist origins are clear to see, despite attempts at respectability, increasing its vote to 29.25%. At the same time it was only narrowly ahead of the New Popular Front, which brought together left parties including La France Insoumise, winning 27.99%.

The growth of the far-right party in parliament has been long anticipated, but it is the actions of France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, that have precipitated it into a possible governing party in a week’s time. The high RN vote in the Euro elections last month led Macron to immediately call a snap parliamentary election, in which he hoped that the left would be dragooned into supporting his centre Ensemble coalition.

Instead the left parties came together in a display of unity in The New Popular Front precisely to prevent the RN from winning. Despite the weaknesses of its programme, especially over Ukraine and Palestine, and the limitations of electoral alliances such as this, it galvanised both enthusiasm for the campaign and a degree of street and trade union protest and has dealt a conclusive blow to Macron, whose alliance came a poor third.

Predictably, the main component of the New Popular Front, La France Insoumise, and its leader, Jean-Luc Melenchon, have been witch-hunted throughout the election, accused of antisemitism, ‘extremism’ and of being as bad as the fascists. While some on the left and centre are now saying they should vote for LFI candidates in France’s second round of elections this Sunday, where those candidates came second to the RN. But others, particularly in Macron’s alliance, are saying that the ‘two extremes’ are as bad as each other and that therefore they will abstain.

Effectively this is allowing the fascists to gain an electoral stronghold. And it is completely untrue. The LFI and Melenchon, like Jeremy Corbyn, have been subject to torrents of abuse because they support the Palestinians and gain the support of many in the Muslim community. If you want to find antisemites in France, not a bad place to start would be with the RN, whose predecessor’s leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen (father of Marine), referred to the Holocaust as a ‘mere detail of history’. And the truth is that the deep Islamophobia in France has enabled the RN to grow and is one of the reasons for the attacks on LFI.

The ’neither left nor right’ stance both ignores the history of fascism, which unlike the left aims to destroy any democratic structures and labour movement, and the way in which ‘respectable’ bourgeois parties have enabled fascism to gain support, sometimes even helping it get into office.

Some of that thinking seems to have motivated Macron’s gamble which has blown up in his face. He will hope that RN in government will become unpopular and so make it harder for them to win the next presidential election. Maybe, but much more likely that they will use their power to both pass vicious racist and discriminatory legislation, and to consolidate their hold politically.

It is down to the left to stop this happening. The next week is crucial in fighting to stop Le Pen and her protégé Bardella from winning enough seats to form a government. The formation of the NPF was a big step forward in this regard but we cannot rely on electoral arithmetic, but on mobilising all those who oppose fascism and the far right to stand against them on the streets, in estates, workplaces and schools.

Whatever the outcome next week, the battle isn’t going to stop there. Capitalism creates the conditions for fascism to flourish. While this brutal means of rule is a last resort for capital, it will back the fascists against the left when necessary. We are seeing this process today as the ‘liberal centre’ becomes an enabler of fascism, and smooths the path to its victory. Only the left organised within the working class can stop that happening.

There’s a pattern emerging across much of Europe and the US: the main political parties, who continue to support failing neoliberal capital, are losing support to far-right parties and candidates. The most grotesque example is the continued support for Biden from the Democratic Party, which is also smoothing Trump’s return to the White House. But the far left is also capable of winning votes, if at a lower level than the right in most cases.

This is going to be an election year like no other. As we head into the final days of the contest here, Labour looks certain to win a big majority but is creating little enthusiasm. Levels of abstention are likely to be high, and Keir Starmer may well be elected on a lower percentage of the vote than Jeremy Corbyn won in 2017. Meanwhile the Tory disintegration is leading to a rise in support for Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which is likely to win seats for the first time.

It’s on a much smaller scale than in France (and Farage’s party has no problem with neoliberalism and free markets, unlike much of the far right internationally), but we see some of the same process that Le Pen father and daughter have benefited from over they years. Farage is feted by the media, especially the liberal BBC, which gives him far more airtime than any left equivalents. More importantly, the Tories’ rightward moves and the capitulation of Labour to racist, nationalist and militarist arguments create a fertile ground for far-right ideas to grow.

Whether Reform win a few seats or not, they have shifted the whole debate to the right. The left arguments are popular but are usually under the radar, carried by activists but not reaching the same audience as they cut against the grain of capitalist priorities, rather than reinforcing them.

Some of the left independents will have a strong showing, and hopefully Jeremy Corbyn will win. We need his voice in parliament since Labour’s left has been so weakened and has made so many compromises with Starmer. But again the central work will go on after the election, because the main parties have absolutely no answer to the problems facing British capitalism and they have no alternatives but trying to make working-class people pay even more to maximise their profits.

Whether it’s public sector pay, the NHS or Gaza, there will be many battles ahead. We have to be at the centre of those. But we also have to strengthen the socialist left, building organisation which can challenge on the immediate issues as well as portraying the need for a society based on need, not profit.

This week: This is when we get the results and the last days are very important. I’ll be in our office in Jeremy Corbyn’s constituency helping to get the vote out. Good luck to all the left independents standing and especially those I have worked with, among them Andrew Feinstein, Leanne Mohamad, Michael Lavalette and Nandita Lal. Make sure you do what you can to support them. But make sure whatever you do that you come to the Gaza demo on Saturday 6th to tell the new government to stop arming Israel.

Lindsey German will be speaking at Counterfire’s post-election debrief on Friday 5 July, 12pm at St Anne’s Soho, London, W1D 6AF