A-Infos (en) Germany, Berlin, Die Plattform: "Not leaving the field to the right" with chauvinism? - Red Burned Boulet (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The momentous logic that people without work, ideally uneducated in the bourgeois 
sense, form the bulk of the fascists[1]is, as we will read, a recurring (wrong) 
explanatory pattern even on a left. The fact that a bourgeois chauvinism is being 
reproduced in this way does not want to be known. ---- There are fascists in all 
classes, whether in the lower class, the so-called middle class or the upper 
class. With the fascists of the upper class it is often discussed in talk shows - 
and entirely in the (wrong) bourgeois understanding of plurality - that the 
fascists of the middle class are not fascists, but part of the majority society 
(the völkisch/nationalist collective). However, the finger is pointed at the 
fascists of the lower class, in the bourgeois formula they go to 
"unemployed/poor/uneducated = Nazi".

Let us take, for example, Sahra Wagenknecht, a politician from the Left Party, 
who, in addition to racist and nationalist disgusts[2], also uses the 
chauvinistic bourgeois formula mentioned by making the voters of the AFD the 
"addressees" of the Left Party " explained.[3]

"While workers and the unemployed are above average among the voters, they only 
make up a quarter of the total AfD electorate, while the remaining three quarters 
are made up of employees, civil servants and the self-employed."[4]Because "with 
regard to the influence of socio-economic factors, it should be mentioned that 
that the unemployment rate or the proportion of SGB II recipients in a 
constituency have no influence on the amount of the AfD election result[...]."[5]

"Workers and the unemployed" as the primary "addressees" of the party "Die Linke" 
or a left in general are not to be found in an AFD! Anyone who undertakes this 
declares those "workers" and let's not fool ourselves, especially the 
"unemployed" in their entirety as AFD voters. Those who vote for the AFD are 
always on the other side of the barricade, period.

A leftist must therefore vehemently contradict the chauvinism expressed in the 
formula: "unemployed/poor/uneducated = Nazi", whether it comes under the "left" 
or bourgeois flag.

The "monocausal"[6]connection between unemployment (poverty) equals AFD voters, 
ergo fascist or neo-Nazi is a bourgeois explanation pattern, which a "left" like 
Sahra Wagenknecht polemically speaking has to get stuck in the throat.

The breeding ground for fascist agitation, on the other hand, is multi-layered, 
it is "of an economic, sociological, political or cultural nature".[7]

In the following, an attempt is made to get closer to the causes of fascization, 
but in no case does it serve to justify it.

The "economic" fascist mosaic materializes in reification in the form of wage 
labor within a social competitive system and in the humiliation of people to 
human capital. The fascist element is already present in this mosaic, in this 
proclaimed "terrible normality"[8](completed only too happily by an 
irrationalism[9]). "A positive correlation was found between a low unemployment 
rate[...]a high per capita household income[...]as well as a high proportion of 
employees subject to social security contributions and a high AfD election 
result[...]."[5]

In addition to the reification mentioned, this "normality" is expressed in 
perfect (patriarchal/heteronormative) family happiness. In a normality "in which 
the world is still in order": Father and mother, children and the family house 
with a well-kept garden and a white garden fence. In order to adapt to the "norms 
and moral concepts"[10]of "bourgeois-capitalist society"[11], it may require, 
among other things, "instinctive suppression"[12]: a "submissiveness"[13]that 
encourages one's own "rebellious impulses[...]kept in check by fear"[14]. It may 
involve an "authoritarian aggression"[15]that "harshly punishes the real or 
perceived disregard of conventional ideals and norms by third parties"[16][17]. 
This normality calls for a "sexuality"[18], which is subject to a "conventional 
sexual morality"[19]. This economic, social, political and cultural "normality" 
has the potential to develop an "authoritarian character"[20]as an "answer" to 
the authoritarian compulsion due to its role constraints and the fear of 
deviating from that "normality" of renunciation .

The fascist agitator (imagine the secret party leader of the AFD Björn Höcke 
here) can build on this and offer the (avoidable) simple answers that a left 
cannot offer. Our answers are complex and therefore complicated. The agitator, on 
the other hand, has them, the "simple" answers. However, these are not radical, 
but quite the opposite, the aggravation of the existing conditions and their 
barbarization. The abolition does not take place in the sense of overcoming, the 
"abolition" takes place (without taking place) in a reactionary manner in the 
reinforcement of the existing competitive relationships, the absolute 
brutalization of them.

The fascist agitator says: "My friends, we live in a world of inequality and 
injustice.[...]The world is the arena of a merciless struggle for survival. Why 
shouldn't you be on the side of those who benefit? Instead of making common cause 
with the oppressed and suffering[...]neither peace nor security nor happiness[I 
promise you]. I'm not telling you about individuality - whatever the word means. 
I despise such catchphrases[...]If you join me, you ally yourselves with power, 
strength and might[...]I offer you whipping boys - Jews, radicals[...]You can 
insult them and eventually persecute them.[...]It doesn't matter that they are 
your true enemies, as long as you can plunder them and take your anger out on 
them. I'm not offering you a utopia, but a realistic fight for the bone in the 
other dog's mouth[...]constant struggle for survival.[...]To achieve that you 
have to follow me. We want to organize a movement of terror. We will ally with 
the powerful to win some of their privileges. Instead of prisoners, we will be 
police officers. And I am your guide.[...]"[21]

By taking up the "compulsions and fears" of the existing conditions and 
transferring them into absolute authoritarian uniformity, the agitator expresses 
the fascist element. The aim is not to overcome the status quo[22], but rather to 
cement it in barbarism.[23]The absolute annihilation of the individual under the 
power of "the leader".

In summary, it can be said that capitalism, mediated by the reification of wage 
labor and the development of the authoritarian character that suppresses the 
individual, offers the best breeding ground for fascist agitators to sow their 
misanthropic seeds.
But it must also be clear that this does not necessarily result in fascism. 
Nevertheless, it represents a real danger that has already shown its brutal face 
all too often.

So let's contradict the false bourgeois chauvinism, the equation of poor and 
fascist, even if it comes from the supposed left. The fascist potential is not in 
the poorest pigs in the truest sense of the word, it is the propagated normality 
itself. "The world is still okay there" remains a highly dangerous lie.

An emancipatory left must therefore "overthrow all conditions in which man is a 
humiliated, enslaved, abandoned, despicable being".[Karl Marx]and thus to create 
new conditions in which one/I can be myself without compulsion and fear. This 
deprives the "authoritarian character" of its breeding ground and without this 
character the fascist agitator stands alone. In order to achieve this, it 
requires the radical abolition of the existing conditions, which are largely 
formed by capitalism and a patriarchy that serves it.

On the way to this radical abolition, the dispute over the political 
liberalization[24]of our everyday life and the improvement of our working 
conditions is of central importance. But the undoing of the wrong will only be 
possible if the mainstream of the wage-earning class says across national 
borders: "That's enough."

The freedom of the individual, which means being able to follow one's own needs, 
away from renunciation and coercion, must be the goal.

A society that accepts as normal that everything is a commodity, including the 
ever-replaceable human being, who as human being is nothing but something only as 
a vessel of labor, poses a potential danger towards fascism. This "normality" in 
which the individual is not is dangerous.

But in order to abolish what is valid and thus end capitalism and the patriarchy 
that serves it, strikes[25]are required, which suspend capital accumulation. The 
"right" anger is to address the underlying conditions that are the root cause of 
that anger. It needs a break with the work fetish, a break with political 
economy, a break with capitalist logic, and a turn to radically democratically 
organized production that is ignorant of poverty and wage labor and geared to 
human needs. In order to bring about this, it needs (anti-fascist) masses, and in 
order to reach them, neither paternalism[26]nor a chauvinistic "don't give up the 
field to the right" is needed. It needs a challenging conversation, let's look 
for it!

References and Notes:

[1]Fascism

"The fascism we see today is not the same as it was 80 years ago. Society has 
changed and with it the fascist ideology and movement. The organizations are 
different, the use of language has changed and with it the political propaganda 
and its media, the political content has been reformulated. But the core of the 
ideology, the goals for which people are again marching under the banner of 
fascism, are exactly the same as they were in the 1930s. ... but the basic ideas 
have remained the same. It is the same contempt for everything that is perceived 
as foreign and weak, this glorification of a community conceived as ethnic, the 
same contempt for democracy and for a way of thinking in which all people have 
the same value, the same belief in the right

The glorification of violence as a political tool runs like a thread through the 
history of fascism."

From "What is Fascism?" by Kalle Johansson and Lena Berggren

https://www.jacobystuart.de/buecher-von-jacoby-stuart/comic-graphic-novel/was-ist-eigentlich-faschismus/

[2]"Sahra Wagenknecht's We"

https://mission-lifeline.de/sahra-wagenknechts-wir/

"Anyone who abuses hospitality rights," says Wagenknecht, "then also forfeits 
hospitality rights." That is "very clearly the position" of the left."

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/sahra-wagenknecht-zum-asylrecht-die-gast-rechte-a-1071614.html

[3]"And that's why I hope that we will also reach many of those who are currently 
thinking about voting for the AfD out of frustration, out of annoyance with the 
previous policy, but not because they necessarily think their slogans are good, 
but really only , because they say: 'I want to make it clear that something has 
to change'""

https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Wagenknecht-will-AfD-Protestwaehler-abjagen-article19497221.html

[4]"Election results and electorate of the AfD"

https://www.bpb.de/themen/partien/partien-in-deutschland/afd/273131/wahlergebnis-und-waehlerschaft-der-afd/

[5]"Is the AfD particularly successful in rural areas? (by Larissa Deppisch, 
Andreas Klarner & Torsten Osigus)"

https://www.idz-jena.de/wsddet/wsd5-11

[6]"What is certain is that radicalization is never monocausal, i.e. always has 
several causes (Logvinov 2014: 148f.). However, it must be emphasized that even 
if several of these factors apply to a person, radicalization does not 
necessarily have to follow."

https://www.bpb.de/lernen/bewegtbild-und-political-bildung/reflect-your-past/313952/radicalisation-und-deradicalisation/

[7]"Conditions of an economic, sociological, political or cultural nature can 
have an effect on a person's radicalization, such as social oppression, identity 
crises, experiences of discrimination, (school/professional) failures, a lack of 
prospects, fear of competition, the search for one's own identity or protest 
against injustice (yup! Berlin n.d.)."

https://www.bpb.de/lernen/bewegtbild-und-political-bildung/reflect-your-past/313952/radicalisation-und-deradicalisation/

[8]"The Terrible Normality"

https://berlin.dieplattform.org/2021/05/27/the-terrible-normality/

[9]"Irrationalism with all its esoteric facets is the greatest enemy of humanism 
and a companion and pioneer of anti-democratic and fascist social developments."

Jutta Ditfurth: "What it's about" p. 12/13

"first attempt to smuggle belief in authority, emotional mysticism, gnostic 
fantasies into the free science of thought"

Friedrich Engels (1843)

[10]"Critical Theory" p. 77 - p.79

http://www.theorie.org/titel/595_critical_theory

[10 - 16 / 18 - 20]ibid.

[17]"ZDF Politbarometer: Majority for stricter citizens' income sanctions"

https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/politbarometer-buergergeld-einigung-zu-sanktionen-correct-102.html

[21]"Leo Lowenthal Writings. 5 volumes Volume 3: False Prophets"

"My friends, we live in a world of inequality and injustice. Whoever believes 
that this condition will ever change, ever can be changed, is a fool or a liar. 
Oppression and injustice, like war and famine, are accompaniments of human 
existence. Idealists who deny this are lying to themselves-worse, they are 
fooling you. Reveling in gestures of humane brotherhood is only a lure for 
simpletons and fools who let it deter them from their rightful share of today's 
spoils. Doesn't your own experience tell you that you have always had to pay for 
your idealism? Be practical The world is the arena of a relentless struggle for 
survival. Why shouldn't you be on the side of those who benefit?

Instead of joining forces with the oppressed and suffering, join me. I promise 
you neither peace nor safety nor happiness. I'm not telling you about 
individuality - whatever the word means. I despise such catchphrases, even though 
I occasionally use them myself when it's appropriate.

When you join me, you ally yourselves with might, strength, and power-the weapons 
that will ultimately decide all disputes. I offer you whipping boys-Jews, 
radicals, plutocrats, and whatever creatures our imaginations can conjure up. You 
can insult them and eventually pursue them. What's the difference? It doesn't 
matter. It doesn't matter that they are your true enemies, as long as you can 
plunder them and take your anger out on them.

I'm not offering you a utopia, but a realistic fight for the bone in the other 
dog's mouth; this is our program. Not peace, but constant struggle for survival. 
Not abundance, but the lion's share. If you are realistic, can you expect more?

In order to achieve that you have to follow me. We want to organize a movement of 
terror. We will ally with the powerful to win some of their privileges. Instead 
of prisoners, we will be police officers. And I am your guide. I will think for 
you and tell you what to do. In my leadership role, I will model your life for 
you and I will be your protector. In the hell of my mercilessness a home sweet 
home beckons you."

https://www.suhrkamp.de/buch/leo-loewenthal-schriften-5-baende-t-9783518285039

[22]"The fascism that came to power leaves the existing social order basically 
untouched."

https://www.wissen.de/lexikon/faschismus

[23]"Right-wing social cuts"

"Robert D. Meyer on the plans of the fascist Giorgia Meloni

As promised, so delivered: The fascist Giorgia Meloni and her extreme right-wing 
government in Italy want to abolish the citizens' income - comparable to Hartz IV 
- almost without replacement. In the future there will be less financial aid for 
fewer people who have to meet tougher conditions. It's social cuts with an 
announcement... Meloni's voters knew what to expect.

The situation is the same in this country with the AfD: In the debate about the 
introduction of citizen income, the parliamentary group called for an "activating 
basic security", which meant that after six months all benefit recipients should 
be obliged to "citizen work". A "non-cash benefit card" should also be possible 
as a sanction instead of money.

The goal of the extreme right is not a strong welfare state. Ideology and method 
are based on stoking fears of social decline, playing off the precarious against 
each other, stepping down socially. Strategies in the fight against the right 
must emphasize this much more clearly than before."

https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1168786.italien-unter-giorgia-meloni-rechter-sozialkahlschlag.html

[24]"The dismantling of repressive functions of the state is called political 
liberalization; often used in the context of minority protection, human rights, 
prohibitions and the commutation or mitigation of sanctions."

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalisation

[25]Campaign for a comprehensive right to strike

https://rechtaufstreik.noblogs.org/

[26]Without paternalism, which is also expressed in the fact that people are not 
trusted to be able to penetrate the complex and the complicated. The level of a 
"Bild-Zeitung" reflects the prevailing discourse level, but not the intellectual 
level of the people.

Anyone who wants radical change must not cling to the existing intellectual level 
or even use it, the prevailing level is part of the prevailing conditions.

https://berlin.dieplattform.org/2023/01/06/mit-chauvinismus-den-rechten-nicht-das-feld-ueberlassen/
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