Why the far right gets so worked up with drag queens

In a world of monsters feeding on fear and anxiety to create more of it and thus ensure a good picking in the next harvest, it is no surprise that images are deployed in pointless culture wars while the world is literally burning. My first call was to dismiss the controversy on the last supper/ Dionysian bacchanalia representation and worry about more serious matters like global warming. After all it looks like another clash between the stuffy world of mullahs of all stripes and artists playing on symbols and cultural archetypes,as they have done for centuries. Sure some would ask what would liberal leftists have said if the image being mocked and parodied was Islamic? Apart from the fact that the Olympic games are being held in France (where the dominant culture is not Islamic) not in Iran, I would say that mockery is a precondition for an inclusive society. There is also a difference between acts of racism like burning the koran in an attempt to stir civil strife and playful artistic representations or literary works like the Satanic Verses whose author faced a despicable and cruel fatwa which was executed 33 years after being issued. So yes the left should be stronger in denouncing Islamic fundamentalists and mullahs and defending secularism. There can be no tolerance for those who want to cancel identities and people with them. Still there is one aspect which i find particularly irritating: the false equivalence made by far rightists invoking free speech: Their argument being that global elites (Elon Musk excluded) are guilty of double standards in advocating artistic freedom while censoring the views of bigots, incels, homophobes and racists. This just exposes the nature of a totalitarian project; which boils down to a normalisation of hate and a marginalisation of critical and academic inquiry as well as sheer humour. And while they lash at some global liberal conspiracy their greatest advocate is Elon Musk, a symbol of predatory capitalism and the normalisation of bigotry in the social media. Of course not all those taking offence belong to the latter camp, and most probably some catholic leaders even speak up out of fear that the far right will outflank them. For once again the far right is usurping Christian symbols to deploy as weapons in their bid to impose a new order. They may well end up using the cross as their new swastika in promoting a nationalist ideology which is so alien to christian universalism. Still Catholic leaders who rushed to condemn this representation are once again losing an opportunity; that of rising above puerile culture wars, and show the self confidence of people who can take irony and ridicule while focusing on the existential threats facing humanity. But this brings me to another reflection, why is a presumed representation of a last supper (depicted in all kinds of bizarre ways on t-shirts, posters, and adverts) which includes a drag queen offensive in the first place? Does this in itself suggest that some bodies are less equal and more offensive than others? For ultimately what irks them is the visibility of bodies which defy their ideology. They want to turn back the clock to a time when certain bodies lived out of sight.

magic and loss

 

How to beat the far right

There are elections which can define the course of history. The second round of the French election on Sunday is one of these.

Faced with the prospect of a far right government in France, the logical choice for all democratic forces is to withdraw third placed candidates which could stand in the way of a victory over the far right.

In the short term this is the only possible way to stop the far right from winning. The 'popular front' including Melenchon have already declared that they are withdrawing in constituencies where centrists are in a better place to beat the far right. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who distinguishes between the enemy (RN) and the adversary (the left ) has hinted doing in those constituencies where the left is in a better place to beat the far right. But regrettably some in the president's camp take exception with France Insoumise candidates in a false equivalence which betrays the legacy of the second world war.

Even during the cold war centre right republicans used to vote for communists (and vice versa) when facing Jean Marie Le Pen's FN.

But while commendable this strategy worked in a context where the far right was more of a nuisance than a real threat.

To beat the far right as a project of government, the centre and the left have to converge around a synthesis which remains elusive but has become a necessity not just in France but even in the US.

The reality is that as things stand neither the centre nor the left can beat the far right on their own. But a sheer sum of the parts is also likely to be dismissed as a marriage of convenience by voters (this reminds me of Prodi's alliance in Italy which stretched from the centre-right to the far left but which imploded after a few months in power). Moreover voters across the world tend to vote for something they can believe in and not simply to block the path of others.

One mistake committed by the centrists is that they can keep on embracing the same policies while hoping that left wing voters have no alternative but to back them against the far right. Macron failed miserably in this with the Popular Front emerging as the main contender against the far right. In next Sunday's election the first line of defence against the far right is the left.

But the left often makes the mistaken assumption that by going back to its roots (whatever that means) it can become the natural choice of those who vote fascists cause they have been left behind. In reality it was under Jeremy Corbyn that Labour lost the so-called 'red wall' in its northern heartlands.

It is time to take a look back at history. Cause what is happening now comes with a sense of deja vu.

Some dismiss the urgency of stopping the far right simply because it bears little resemblance to the brown or black shirts.

But while expecting the Nazi zombies to creep back from their sordid graves is far fetched and unrealistic, let's not forget that it was moderate voters and mainstream conservatives who put in Hitler, Mussolini and Pinochet in power. The Nazis were not alien predators who descended on the planet. They were crafty politicians who plotted alliances with conservative forces to win power, often by respecting (and bending) the constitutional rules. Mussolini retained the monarchy and Hitler won power in coalition with conservative parties while serving under President Hindenburg. They also kept power through mixture of fear and consent. Secondly they did so incrementally moving the goalposts as they consolidated their power.

Neither i am not comparing Bardella, Le Pen or Trump to Hitler. None of them advocate the elimination of entire ethnic groups and in a reflection of our times they are more islamophobic than anti semitic. Today you can be fascist who supports Israel for all the wrong reasons. But they have also invested a lot in a climate against immigrants and have contributed to a climate of intolerance.

Moreover talk of about ' the national preference', a roll back of climate policies and taking away citizenship rights of children represent a real threat to our way of life and our existence.

Another mistake committed by some analysts is to view the modern far right as some kind of populist anti elitist movement legitimised by democratic elections.  The reality is that Nazism and fascism were also an expression of a similar sentiment. The railed against jewish elites and ranted against intellectuals.  Of course in power they not only eliminated inconvenient trade unions but provided capitalism with slave labour. But right to the end they projected themselves as tribunes of the masses.  And just as today, their rise in the 1920s and 1930s seemed unstoppable.  They managed to shape popular common sense.  The far right project today is also incremental, weakening Europe and democratic institutions from within.

Yet they were stopped and beaten.  And we also owe that to the rise of mass democratic movements (namely christian democracy, social democracy and euro-communism).  Our Europe was born out of a compromise which saw most of the left accepting liberal democratic norms and the centre endorsing active state intervention and the welfare state.  It was an imperfect compromise but one which emancipated millions of people.

The historic lesson is that the far right can be beaten by popular mobilisation and a counter hegemony which shifts the political centre to the left.

So to get serious about the far right threat, the left has to push the centre to ditch its love affair with neo-liberalism and austerity. But to get there the left must ditch its hobby of denigrating the 'west' even when facing authoritarian powers like Russia, China and Iran... The left also has to reclaim the sort of civic patriotism rooted in the jacobin tradition and the partisan resistance. It must reclaim its historic role in the front lines of defending the legacy of 1789 and 1848.

It is time for an inclusive and assertive republicanism which takes pride in the conquests of the past but is ready to address the challenges of the future. A bold left which does not shun public ownership in the energy and transport sectors, which aggressively demands a global tax on corporations and crucially embark on a project of renewal which offers a better and more prosperous life by investing in job creation and saving the planet. It should also stand for the defence of democracy from its detractors, including aggressive imperialists like Putin.

It has to offer hope in a future where people have greater control over their daily existence, where poverty is abolished and where technology and AI are socialised with the aim of shortening the working week. But ultimately all this depends on protecting humanity from the ravages of climate catastrophe. It would be simply irresponsible for democratic forces to wage war against each other while the planet is burning. The stakes have never been higher.