The Modern Left and the New Right-Wing Radicalism

While right-wing radicalism has grown and taken on new forms, the left today remains stuck in illusions of liberal capitalism as the end of history. The path out, argues Christian Kobluk, lies in a new, anti-capitalist analysis and program.

The most spectacular lie, which is a part of our political life, is Fukuyama’s lie: we live in the era of the end of history; liberal democracy and capitalism have won; other socio-economic narratives have died. Despite this claim, we can see the rise of a new right-wing radicalism all around the world. It’s not only small groups of neo-fascists who sometimes cause riots or paint swastikas on the walls. We’ve been facing for quite some time the real political triumphs of the modern form of alt-right politics.

Since 2009, Israel has been ruled by Benjamin Netanyahu. From the beginning, this prime minister has made alliances with Israel’s far-right parties. Likud, the party run by him, is in itself a national conservative party. In his first government, we could find HaBayit HaYehudi (The Jewish Home), a religious Zionist nationalist party. Netanyahu’s current cabinet is probably the most right-wing, hardline government in the history of Israel. The position of minister of national defense is held by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power Party, which is openly anti-Arab and Kahanist.¹ Ben-Gvir himself was convicted of supporting Kach, the far-right Jewish terrorist organization.

In the Hungarian elections in 2010, the nationalist populist party Fidesz won and changed both the Constitution and election law in order to sustain its regime. Now Hungary can no longer be considered a democratic state (even in the liberal sense) but rather an anocracy, something in between democracy and dictatorship.² Then, in 2015, it came time for my country—Poland. In 2015, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice Party—a name that is hilariously ironic) with Solidarna Polska (Solidary Poland; later: Sovereign Poland) created an archconservative and Catholic government. First, they took over the Constitutional Court. Then, public television and radio. The propaganda was unbearable.³ During the presidential campaign in 2020, public media openly supported President Andrzej Duda who was a former member of the ruling party and its candidate. His main opponent, Rafał Trzaskowski, was attacked due to his statement that he believes in Spinozian god; this criticism also had a bit of an antisemitic component.⁴ All the CEO positions in state-controlled companies were filled by allies of the government. The lower courts were also taken over in the first term of office. The Constitutional Court, illegitimately filled by the far-right, forbade abortion in 2020. During the protest against this law, police used brutal force against the unarmed (in Poland, you basically cannot have a gun) and peaceful marchers.⁵ The government also tried to pass a more strict law on “offending religious feelings,” essentially creating a blasphemy law.⁶ The rights of parliamentary opposition parties were limited. The speaker of the lower chamber forbade the opposition members of parliament from taking part in voting on the state’s budget in 2017.⁷ The anti-LGBT and racist propaganda was part of official policy. I can go on and on, but this is probably enough to show what Poland looked like at the time.

In 2016, the Brexit referendum showed that British people believed in the nationalist narrative of Nigel Farage and his UK Independence Party, and Americans chose Donald Trump as their president.

Between 2017 and 2020, Austria, the homeland of Adolf Hitler, was ruled by a coalition of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Freedom Party of Austria. The first party, ÖVP, is nominally Christian-democratic. One shouldn’t forget that it is a party of Kurt Waldheim.⁸ He was a former Austrian president and UN General Secretary who took part in Nazi war crimes in the Balkans during the Second World War. ÖVP is also a successor of the Christian Social Party, which was connected with Austrian fascism in the 1930s and 1940s.⁹ The Freedom Party of Austria was created by the Austrian Nazis in 1956. Its first leader was Anton Reinthaller, a former SS-Brigadeführer (an equivalent of brigadier general in the US Army).¹⁰

If we’re speaking about former fascist states, we cannot forget about Italy. In the 2022 general election, Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) won. This party emerged from a split in the People of Freedom Party, which was the successor of the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement established in 1946.¹¹ The Italian Social Movement presented itself as a defender of Italian fascism and Mussolini’s legacy.

I have to draw attention to the fact that it is terrifying that in countries where fascism once had taken over, people still want to vote for fascist parties’ successors. Haven’t we learned anything?

Although Brazil now has a center-left president, it was ruled by Jair Bolsonaro for four years (2019-2022), a supporter of Donald Trump and a Brazilian nationalist. One should remember his numerous racist statements.¹² Lately, the Argentinian people have selected an insane uber-capitalist to be their president, Javier Milei. Hundreds of thousands of Argentinians have been protesting against the irrational politics of so-called fiscal corrections, the government used violence against protestors, and there’s a risk of the introduction of a state of emergency by Javier Milei.¹³ Compared to him, Margaret Thatcher sounds like a socialist. My mean and ironic nature tells me to claim that the triumph of Milei is a good thing. Now, we can see what will happen if this kind of libertarian wins.

In Scandinavia, the very birthplace of the modern welfare state, we also saw a triumph of right-wing radicals. The Swedish government is supported by Sverigedemokraterna (Swedish Democrats), and in Finland, the Finns Party is the second force in parliament. More recently, the Party of Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, won in the 2023 general election in the Netherlands. At the beginning of May, it is not known if this party will create a government.

In Germany, we observe growing support during the last decade for Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany), which is a far-right, almost neo-Nazi party. France, the birthplace of the modern left, has been infected by this deadly virus of right-wing radicalism. Many French people are supporting Marine Le Pen and her nationalist madness.

Why do people believe in these far-right narratives? Walter Benjamin, the great German intellectual, once said that every triumph of fascism is the sign of a failed revolution.¹⁴ Well, it’s hard for me to disagree with him on that one. I’m not sure whether we really missed the opportunity of a large-scale revolution in old Marxist terms. But indeed, we haven’t seen the moment when a significant number of people, perhaps even a majority, were tired of liberal politics, and even if we socialists have not responded to that fatigue. That is, plenty of citizens couldn’t stand the neoliberal logic turning them into numbers, not people with goals, needs, and aspirations, and thus chose right-wingers instead of the left. The last one did not have a convincing enough program which could bring down the house.

Do you remember Donald Trump’s campaign before the 2016 presidential elections? Do you remember what he had been saying? “The system is rigged!” It was the very first time I had seen a white male billionaire screaming at the top of his lungs that the system wasn’t fair for all citizens. And, when he said it during the debate with Hillary Clinton and was asked about the evidence for that, he simply answered, “I know the system is rigged because I use it.” Clinton accused Trump of not paying taxes. “Well, Hillary,” he said, “it makes me smart. If you want me to pay my taxes, change the tax code. But I know you wouldn’t do that because your donors enjoy the same tax breaks that I do.” In July 2016, at the Republican National Convention, Trump delivered a speech in which he claimed, among others: “I’ve joined the political arena so that the powerful can no longer beat up on people who cannot defend themselves. Nobody knows the system better than me. Which is why I alone can fix it. I have seen firsthand how the system is rigged against our citizens, just like it was rigged against Bernie Sanders. He never had a chance! But his supporters will join our movement because we will fix his biggest single issue: trade deals that strip our country of its jobs and strip us of our wealth as a country.”¹⁵

The American system is indeed rigged, but the shocking thing is that Donald Trump was a person who was openly speaking about it. Part of his statement could even be considered leftist. Now we know, of course, what Trump’s rule looked like, but at this time, many Americans could claim to be unaware of his far-right, undemocratic agenda.

On my side of the Atlantic, in Poland, the right-wing government was promising, among other things, cheap flats for rent built by the state, better public healthcare, and other public services—briefly, a modern welfare state. Adrian Zandberg, co-leader of the only social democratic party in the Polish parliament, said in 2019: “I have been listening attentively to the prime minister’s¹⁶ program speech, and I’ve heard a few nice statements, a few beautiful statements, and even a few reasonable statements, which I agree with, when Mr. Prime Minister was talking about welfare and modernity.”¹⁷ And partially, very partially, this right-wing government succeeded. By that, I mean that after eight years of this government, there’s no simple return to neoliberal logic. Among the reforms were a 500+ program, which provided 500 PLN for every child¹⁸ (currently 800 PLN due to inflation), the 13th retirement pension, or increasing the minimum wage.¹⁹ The new centrist government cannot throw away social welfare benefits, for example, for parents, and also has to create new ones. It is something of a victory for the Polish left, but we cannot forget that the social costs of this were too big: racist and homophobic propaganda, destruction of democracy and the rule of law, and large-scale nepotism. What’s more, employees in the public sector have been working for pennies.²⁰ Big corporations like Google or Facebook, have not been made to pay taxes in Poland. Apartment prices are perhaps the highest ever in Polish history.²¹ The Catholic Church and its organizations have received an enormous amount of public money.²² And now, nationalist fans of uber-capitalism are criticizing the current government in the way the left should.

In the United Kingdom, the UK Independence Party—but not only it—has used the downsides of the European Union to establish a nationalist, xenophobic agenda. It should be obvious that the economic policy of the EU is far from ideal. Instead of insisting on a change of this policy, British (or English) nationalists choose to attack Polish people living in the UK as the culprits behind these economic failures.²³ The same narrative has been used by the Dutch far-right in the last elections.²⁴

The critique of liberal economic policy, which is and should be the leftist argument, is instrumentally used by the far-right. Ever so often, like in Argentina, they call the liberal system “socialist” or even “communist” to convince people that only unlimited capitalism can save us. One can ask why the left does not critique liberal economic policy, when the right-wing nationalists deploy this criticism readily. I myself think that the left, which has something to say in public discourse, is the Fukuyamist left—they would rather not abolish capitalism but improve it. In Poland, the social liberals are a part of the government which supports reduction of public health care contributions for entrepreneurs and workers on B2B.²⁵ On the other hand, social democrats propose very modest reforms within a capitalist framework, such as progressive tax or government housing.²⁶ Perhaps in some capitalist countries like the U.S., it could work. In Europe, it would be ineffective. We Europeans have tried to civilize the capitalist market economy, and we’ve achieved what can be achieved in that manner (we have even named it: the welfare state). Nevertheless, what Europeans did has never gone beyond capitalism. It has been only its new version—capitalism with a human face. Now we have to find another economic policy.

Anti-establishmentarianism, another traditionally leftist standpoint, has emerged in the last decade as a part of the arsenal of the far-right. It has been used by Trump, Kaczyński (the informal leader of Poland in 2015–2023), Bolsonaro, and Orbán. What does that mean for us, the leftists? Firstly, mainstream leftist in name only movements are considered “establishmentish,” part of the establishment. It means those movements have made a return to liberalism. We (I use the word “we” because I believe there’s a need for us to take responsibility for the left’s mistakes) have become allies of big capital, at least according to the masses. In Poland, it is quite obvious: the party which is called “the New Left” is in an alliance with liberal conservatives,²⁷ and even moderate social democrats, such as Left Together, are occasionally called “radicals.”²⁸ The more leftist or anarchist movements are so marginal that they are not worth mentioning. Bernie Sanders, who is widely considered the most leftist politician in the US mainstream, is hardly a social democrat by European standards. There are, of course, some American anti-capitalist movements. Nonetheless, they remain marginal on the political scene of this Western super-imperium which still wants to rule the world. Briefly speaking, the window of discourse is not on our side in many countries. Secondly, it is true that the big anti-capitalist movement has turned into a “reform of capitalism” movement. Yugoslav politician and writer Milovan Đilas has declared, “social democrats want to improve capitalism; democratic socialists, like myself, want to improve communism.”²⁹ And last but not least, in many countries, especially former communist countries like Poland, the very word “socialism” is almost offensive, and capitalism is treated as God. That is why the proper left transformed into the “liberal left,” or, to be more precise, social liberals.

The right-wing radicals also abuse so-called ordinary people’s fears. Slavoj Žižek, “the most dangerous philosopher in the West,” puts it in The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, “ordinary people in all countries have multitudes of fears.” According to him, “the function of a shark (in Spielberg’s Jaws) is to unite all these fears, so we can, in a way, trade all these fears for one fear alone.”³⁰ To continue Žižek’s analogy, this “shark’s function” (uniting fears) is acted or performed by immigrants.

What do I mean by that? Immigrants are considered a danger in all European countries, especially those in which the far right has been in power. In the United States, Donald Trump wanted to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Of course, uncontrolled migration can (and should) be criticized from an anti-capitalist standpoint. However, paraphrasing Christopher Hitchens’ “Letter to a Young Contrarian,” it is also important how one thinks, not only what. I am writing this as a person who has spent quite some time advocating for justice for the so-called “illegal immigrants” in Poland and in Europe in general. One could have asked me if my position contradicts itself. I say no. I am for the control of migration. That does not mean I support the unhumanitarian and, in fact, instrumental usage of immigrants. One cannot forget that right-wingers often want to merge immigrants and refugees. Migrants in right-wing propaganda are shown as pedophiles and criminals. However, those who oppose migration and frame it as a crisis never deal with the structural causes of migration. The migration crisis is not caused by whims or wishes, but by the very material basis of the existence of migrants. This material basis should be understood differently than it is understood in orthodox Marxism. It doesn’t refer to the mode of production alone. Wars, coups, natural disasters caused by climate change, exploitation—the list of motives for migration is long, and all of that impedes a normal and good life and makes people seek new homes. Therefore, a proper leftist solution to that crisis should not be either uncontrolled migration or building walls—it has to face the roots of the problem. Nevertheless now, on the one hand, we have liberal ideological hypocrisy. On the other hand, there is right-wing racism and bigotry. It’s time to ask ourselves some bigger questions. How do we participate in the process that has been creating refugees? What are we doing to stop the climate crisis? Do we economically exploit African and Asian countries? Both liberals and right-wingers want to react to the effects of our Euro-Atlantic policies. The leftist proposition should be—and I am saying this from an Afro-European perspective, as the son of an African refugee: let the endangered people come in, but at least try to resolve the problem at its roots. We cannot play the “wall game.”

32 years after the publication of The End of History and the Last Man, we are certain that Francis Fukuyama was wrong. We are not the end of big new political narratives. The new radical right is not simply Nazi or neo-Nazi; it is something substantially different. One should not forget that Nazism and fascism were non-capitalist ideologies. Both of them tried to use anti-capitalist standpoints quite openly. Their basic economic system was corporatism, or, to use a good old Marxist term, state capitalism (which is not capitalism in the general sense.) The modern far-right is, however, radically capitalist—the only difference between it and liberalism, in an economic sense, is that new right-wing radicalism wants to control not just the market economy but the very workers’ movement. The goal is to limit, or even abolish, workers’ rights in order to protect the so-called free market and competition.

The leftists’ defeat is inevitable if our choice is between liberal and conservative capitalism. There’s no great anti-capitalist narrative that would bring down the house. The triumph of the populist far-right is a sign, as Benjamin has observed, of a “failed revolution.” And even if we cannot hope for a large-scale change or revolution now, we should be conscious enough to see the dissatisfaction caused by the liberal system because this is the leading motor of the left. This is the time when we should forget Marx’s Eleventh Thesis from “Thesis on Feuerbach,” “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it.”³¹ Perhaps more than ever, we need to interpret the world in order to change it. Without a clear analysis of the new problems facing the world today and an anti-capitalist program for world transformation, we will be stuck with capitalist dominance, but one with a new, more conservative, and anti-democratic twist than before.

Liked it? Take a second to support Cosmonaut on Patreon! At Cosmonaut Magazine we strive to create a culture of open debate and discussion. Please write to us at CosmonautMagazine@gmail.com if you have any criticism or commentary you would like to have published in our letters section.

1. Kahanism is a religious Zionist ideology. It claims that Israel should be a theocratic state, governed by Halakha (Jewish religious law), in which non-Jews have no voting rights. Moreover, Kahanists describe Arabs as enemies of the State of Israel and Jewish people.
2. See also: James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War,” American Political Science Review 97, no. 1 (February 2003): 75-90.
3.  See also: Jakub Majmurek, “Pożegnanie z propagandą: 10 “hitów”, z których zapamiętamy TVPiS,” Krytyka Polityczna, December 20, 2023 https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/pozegnanie-z-propaganda-10-hitow-z-ktorych-zapamietamy-tvpis/
4.  Piotr Paziński, Spinoza Trzaskowskiego. Propaganda PiS sięga po kartę żydowską, accessed April 30, 2024, https://wiez.pl/2020/06/07/spinoza-trzaskowskiego-propaganda-pis-siega-po-karte-zydowska/.
5. Magdalena Biejat, “Biejat: Ludzkie krzyczeli, że «naziści biją». To nie były bojówki, to była policja,” interview by Anton Ambroziak, OKO.press, November 19, 2020, https://oko.press/biejat-ludzie-krzyczeli-ze-nazisci-bija-to-nie-byly-bojowki-tylko-policja-wywiad.
6. Agata Łukasiewicz, “Co dalej z karami za obrazę Kościoła,” Rzeczpospolita, June 16, 2023, https://www.rp.pl/prawo-karne/art38616671-co-dalej-z-karami-za-obraze-kosciola.
7. Magda Kożyczkowska, “Bunt opozycji, przepychanki z policją. Oto, co wydarzyło się w nocy w Sejmie,” December 17, 2016, https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,21134103,bunt-opozycji-przepychanki-z-policja-oto-co-wydarzylo-sie.html
8.  Perlot, F. , Beyrl, . Maria and Filzmaier, . Peter. “Waldheim affair.” Encyclopedia Britannica, June 14, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/event/Waldheim-Affair.
9. Wikipedia Contributors. 2020. “Austrian People’s Party.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. November 19, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austrian_People%27s_Party.
10.  “Freedom Party of Austria.” 2020. Wikipedia. September 13, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Party_of_Austria.
11. “Brothers of Italy.” 2022. Wikipedia. October 13, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_of_Italy.
12. “Bolsonaro diz que irá acabar com reservas indígenas se for eleito,” Metrópoles, last modified April 3, 2017, https://www.metropoles.com/brasil/politica-brasil/bolsonaro-diz-que-ira-acabar-com-reservas-indigenas-se-for-eleito.
13. “Argentina’s State of Emergency – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.” 2024. Www.rosalux.de. January 3, 2024. https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/51474.
14. See: Walter Benjamin, “Theorien des deutschen Faschismus. Zu der Sammelschrift ‘Krieg und Krieger.’ herausgegeben von Ernst Jünger,” Die Gesellschaft 7, no. 2 (1930): 32-41.
15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TExdmFEETPQ.
16. I should emphasize that then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki is a former CEO of one of the biggest banks in Poland, and therefore a multimillionaire.
17. Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 1. posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej w dniu 19 listopada (trzeci dzień obrad) (Warszawa: Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej. Kadencja IX, 2019), 62.
18. https://finanse.wp.pl/500-zl-na-dziecko-politycy-pis-wyjasniaja-szczegoly-projektu-6114857147529345a
19. https://www.gov.pl/web/rodzina/od-1-stycznia-2023-r-placa-minimalna-w-gore
20. “Cyfrowi giganci nie płacą podatków w Polsce? I tak, i nie,” Demagog, last modified January 19, 2024, https://demagog.org.pl/wypowiedzi/cyfrowi-giganci-nie-placa-podatkow-w-polsce-i-tak-i-nie/.
21. Christian Kobluk, “Jawna ułuda i tajemne rozwiązania,” in Jowita zostaje. Historia 10 dni ruchu studenckiego, ed. M. Kalbarczyk, A. Ochwat, et al. (Wydawnictwo Ekonomiczne Heterodox: 2024), 344-347.
22. MC, “Rząd PiS to najhojniejszy wierny Kościoła. Państwo przekazuje hierarchom miliardy złotych,” Newsweek, November 5, 2021, https://www.newsweek.pl/polska/spoleczenstwo/ile-panstwo-wydaje-na-kosciol-3-mld-zlotych-dofinansowania-kosciola-przez-panstwo/6ym23ll; Krzysztof Boczek, “Jak PiS łączyło państwo z Kościołem. 27 przykładów z czasów «dobrej zmiany»”, OKO.press, December 31, 2023, https://oko.press/kosciol-w-panstwie-pis-ranking.
23. Rowena Mason, “Nigel Farage: Indian and Australian immigrants better than eastern European,” The Guardian, April 22, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/22/nigel-farage-immigrants-india-australia-better-than-eastern-europeans.
24. “Win for ‘Hateful Far-Right Islamophobe’ Geert Wilders Sends Shockwaves | Common Dreams.” n.d. Www.commondreams.org. Accessed May 11, 2024. https://www.commondreams.org/news/geert-wilders-islamophobe-wins.
25. Założenia planowanych zmian w składce zdrowotnej przedsiębiorców, https://www.gov.pl/web/finanse/zalozenia-planowanych-zmian-w-skladce-zdrowotnej-przedsiebiorcow.
26. See Deklaracja Programowa, https://partiarazem.pl/deklaracja-programowa.
27. See: https://lewica.org.pl/aktualnosci/10182-tresc-umowy-koalicyjnej.
28. Piotr Wójcik, “Radykałowie? Komuniści? Ne – Razem to zwyczajna europejska socjaldemokracja,” Krytyka Polityczna, January 16, 2020, https://krytykapolityczna.pl/kraj/razem-socjaldemokracja-analiza-programu/.
29. Artur Domosławski, “Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011),” Polityka, December 17, 2011, https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/swiat/1522573,1,christopher-hitchens-1949–2011.read.
30. Wilson, James, Martin Rosenbaum, Katie Holly, Slavoj Žižek, Magnus Fiennes, British Film Institute, FilmFour (Firm), et al. 2014. The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Directed by Sophie Fiennes. [New York]: Zeitgeist Films.
31. Karl Marx, Thesis on Feuerbach, https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/theses/theses.htm.