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This is the greatest hope I have had for humanity in a long time. After two weeks of fascist-inspired rioting and looting in England targeting Muslims, immigrants of color, and refugees, “ordinary people” took to the streets to protect those under attack.
Thousands of people across the country gathered to stop fascists from attacking law firms, mosques, community facilities and shops.
Brighton anti-fascists surrounded the police, and the police surrounded the fascists.
excellent.
There are some difficult and complex conversations that need to be had, and not just in the UK. Today, Britons should be focusing on restoring hope and confidence. In New Zealand, we are close enough to start discussing these issues.
New Zealand is not magically immune to fascism
Fascism is on the rise in many parts of the world, and we are not paying enough attention. It is easy to think that this phenomenon will not happen here, but we are ready for it.
I’m not saying the right is fascist (liberals and leftists really need to stop saying they are fascist because it makes the term politically impotent). I’m saying that if the political right had to choose between giving up power and going the fascist way, there’s a good chance they would choose the latter.
We are not special, we are like other neoliberal countries that reward the rich while making many more poor. New Zealand politics is active and purposeful, based on grievances and targeting the politically disadvantaged rather than the current socio-economic system and those who benefit most from it.
The Fascists Are Completely Wrong
There aren’t many fascists in the UK. There are many more who feel the strain of life under neoliberalism and who find the narrative of immigrants taking their jobs, homes, hospital beds persuasive. The fascists themselves are exploiting Multiple crises Stirring up racism (because that’s what fascists do), but without any authenticity to their politics and activism.
It is important to note that those in power who support the fascist thugs are not the hard working working class, but right wing politicians, media commentators and crooks like Tommy Robinson (who is currently tweeting while on holiday at a 5 star resort in Cyprus to avoid arrest)
Talking about immigration
Progressives must find ways to talk about the immigration environment, the housing crisis, jobs/unemployment/AI/automation, poverty, cost of living, rather than simply suppressing all debate about the immigration environment. Because not only is that a dead end, but many people no longer believe that immigration is not a problem. And these are the same people who turn to fascists (who don’t believe fascists are fascists). What other conversations can we have with them?
Changing the narrative
If the current narrative is “immigrants hurt the working class,” what can be replaced with something that will change working class lives? It’s not enough to say “the enemy is coming in limousines, not boats,” and then do nothing about the people in the limousines. Our current narrative is not enough.
We need politics and stories that appeal to more people. I’m not talking about political centrism. I’m talking about us having to come up with viable green/left solutions (and we’re currently failing at that). What do we want besides the neoliberal mess? how Did we create it?
Discussing the immigration environment while protecting immigrants would be a good start. What would New Zealand’s housing situation look like if we had had such a discussion at the beginning of the critical period?
In New Zealand, proto-fascists/racists targeted Maori and Pacific Islanders, and here we could use a mix of both here as well. Maori place names and guiding people by helping with pronunciation rather than calling them racists when they complain is a simple example.
Don’t assume we are completely right and everyone who disagrees with us is wrong. Find ways to engage politically with fascists before people start thinking they have a point.
Multiple crises
All of this is a product of multiple crises that exist within the climate/ecological crisis. It is unwise to talk about all this without understanding that if we do not rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next five years, we will consolidate fascism, a prelude to the collapse of civilization. And this will happen within the lifetime of many of the people currently alive.
The good news about multiple crises is that systems change approaches are very good at working across a variety of crises.
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