IN THE AFTERMATH - A MINOR PROBLEM

Apart from the disturbing events in the United States, the drift of middle European states, Austria, Hungary and Poland to the political right, is itself a cause for concern. The countries appear to be falling back on their isolationist pursuits exposing the bigotry and racism that, in my experience, has always been bumbling along under a veneer of polished behaviour. The overt racism I observed in Budapest in 1965 has clearly never gone away, and has been little remarked upon. Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, is overtly homophobic. In 2018, Hungary and Poland blocked a joint statement by EU employment and social affairs ministers intended to promote gender equity in the digital era because of objections to a reference to LGBT people; however, Austria—then president of the Council of the European Union—adopted the text regardless, though with modifications. While the reference to LGBT people was retained, the text was classified as "presidential conclusions" which do not carry the legal weight of formal Council conclusions. Recently, more and more politicians have resorted to use openly homophobic rhetoric. That same rhetoric applies to Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups under the guise of ‘foreign immigrants’. In Austria, there is a legal requirement by immigrants to learn German. The cost of tuition can be reflected by way of a reduction in the amount of benefit they may be entitled to.

But this resurgence of the right is not just a middle European problem. Professor Henry Giroux writes:

Henry Giroux

The ghosts of a fascist past are with us once again, resurrecting the discourses of hatred, exclusion and ultra-nationalism in countries such as the United States, Hungary, Brazil, Poland, Turkey and the Philippines. In addition, right-wing extremist parties are on the move politically in Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. The designers of a new breed of fascism increasingly dominate major political formations and other commanding political and economic institutions across the globe. They have infused a fascist ideology with new energy through a right-wing populism that constructs the nation through a series of racist and nativist exclusions, all the while feeding off the chaos produced by neoliberalism.”

President Donald Trump;

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan;

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro;

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (AP/Getty/Salon)

Note the present chaos in our own Labour Party, and the fall away of the Labour vote in the last election towards the Conservative Party and of all people Boris Johnson. The turmoil surrounding the Labour leadership during the last election, when the Party, had it been united, should have had an open door to Government, was catastrophic. It continues even now. A party that once welcomed diversity and stood proudly and loudly against prejudice of any kind, fouling its forward progress with the stupidity of anti-Semitism, and allowing it to become an issue. It provided a weapon for every journalist interviewing any labour spokesperson. No matter what the import or content of the interview, a simple “What about anti-Semitism?” and any attempt at making as case for Labour was lost. That is still the case. 

  "There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

If the United Kingdom wants to avoid being swallowed up by this tide, grow up. Breaking away from the European Union and this Island will be more at sea than ever. If it is to remain afloat, and not sink under the mountains of customs paperwork, and tons of lorries blocking ports and motorways, it had better make some progress in its dealing with the rest of the world, and in particular the European Union; otherwise, they might just plug up the hole at Calais, and be done with it.