Don't Believe the Tripe. posted by Richard Seymour

Time to bend the stick the other way...

The Fabian Society has been responsible for enough codswallop over the years - most notably the works of Sidney and Beatrice Webb , Stalin's grotesque fan club. They seem to be trying to outdo themselves. In a Press Release today, they have announced that the far right "is no threat at all", while the UK Independence Party is. Here, for example, is Catherine Fieschi's appraisal of the far right in Europe:

The far right will struggle in the European elections: everywhere they are divided and, in places where they have done well in the recent past, they are often discredited. Electoral success has been followed by poor performance in office, splits and internal strife: the French FN is at daggers drawn over Le Pen's successor; the Austrian FPO - relegated to ineffective junior partner - is a third of its former self; and the Dutch LPF is still struggling to maintain itself after the assassination of its leader, Pim Fortuyn. As for the BNP, its record in office is dismal. The BNP councillors (those who have not had to resign for GBH) are, at best inefficient and at worst simply absent.

Much of this is true. The BNP have been rather hopeless in office, because they have succeeded in creaming off the thickest members of the disgruntled public who then make the worst job of getting anything done when elected. Nevertheless, there is something odd about the fact that the BNP are considered "no threat at all" while the UKIP, which has no local councillors at all is a threat. True enough, UKIP are a slicker outfit than the BNP - more money, more experienced operators - but I hazard a guess that they have no particular plans to deport everyone in Britain - well, do you know anyone who is of pure Anglo-Saxon ancestry? Could you prove it?. Their connections to the far right notwithstanding, they do not have the internal structutre or dynamic of a fascist organisation. It is not their aim to control the streets, to attack non-whites "with well-directed boots and punches" as Nick Griffin put it. Their presence in an area may reflect the rise of a certain kind of xenophobia but it does not, as the BNP's presence does, lead to an increase in the number of racially motivated attacks.

Moreover, the description of the European far right as schismatic, marginal etc. is far too complacent. Five years ago, few would have imagined that Le Pen could have taken more votes than the mainstream party of the Left in France. Nor would anyone have considered it likely that the Dutch, of all people, would be turning out in large numbers to vote for a far right populist. Austria had not, until 1999, had a far right extremist party on the ascendancy since before WWII. Something, clearly, is happening. It has to do with the way people's lives are being made worse by growing job insecurity, perpetual economic crises and the apparent imperviousness of the political system to registering the needs and aspirations of voters. To dismiss this as "no threat at all" invites catastrophe, reminding us of the Fabians pre-war position on the rise of fascism...