The True Left

John writes:

On April 17, 2011, the nationalist True Finns party made impressive gains in the Finnish Parliament. The 2011 Finnish parliamentary elections should be an important wake up call to the Left. After years of supporting anti-worker policies in the social, environmental and economic spheres, there is a growing backlash against the trendy Left and a resurgence of populist nationalism in Europe and elsewhere. While I understand the fear that dangerous ultra-nationalist and even fascist parties may benefit from the global economic meltdown, this is no reason for the Left to turn its back on the legitimate demands of common folk.

For decades, the mainstream Left has largely abandoned populist economics, embracing globalization and the entire panoply of neoliberal economics. Trendy social issues such as environmentalism and gay rights replaced the older left-wing emphasis on improving the material, social, and cultural position of the common people. In many cases, the liberal social policies favored by center-left parties drove millions of voters into the arms of ostensibly socially conservative center-right parties. In the age of the Washington Consensus, it looked as if cultural issues would replace economic issues as the major points of political contention between parties as most mainstream political parties converged on economic matters.

Unfortunately for the champions of the End of History narrative, liberal capitalism is now facing clear challenges from many different directions. The media often lumps these opposition movements into the category of “fascism.” Even if the f-word is not directly used, the images conjured up are undeniable. But while fascists do make up part of the opposition to liberal capitalism, it is unfair to judge all populist or nationalist movements as being fascistic.

Many of the policies supported by the True Finns and other nationalist parties, such as support for a strong welfare state and the protection and promotion of domestic industry via state intervention, were part of the political and economic landscape of many European, North American, and East Asian countries during their post-World War II boom periods. Even the more controversial issue of immigration control can be seen from an economic as opposed to a racist perspective. Michael Lind, for example, has made compelling economic arguments against open-borders immigration policies, arguing that it undermines the cause of high wages and social democracy.

In order to prevent more extreme nationalists from gaining power, left-wingers must embrace populism. This means, at the very least, listening to the complaints of the common people with regard to the collapse of family life, the denigration of religion, traditional culture and patriotism, unfair competition from cheap labor, and other issues that are currently anathema to the trendy Left.

Furthermore, left-wingers should not be frightened of nationalism in the economic sphere. Most of the major supranational organizations such as the European Union, the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank, are extremely undemocratic and are operated in the interests of economically powerful private actors and their allies in the public sector and are being used to weaken the ability of national governments to serve the interests of their people. If anybody needs any evidence of this reality, just look at how many European nations are being sacrificed on the altar of austerity to pay for the latest crisis of capitalism, including the bailouts for the capitalists themselves! If we rightly recoil at the way communist oligarchs subjugated populations in the name of Marxism-Leninism, then why should we tolerate the subjugation of whole nations by neoliberal oligarchs in the name of liberal capitalism?