The far-right Sweden Democrats is part of a four-party bloc that has narrowly won the Swedish general election, replacing a left-of-centre coalition. The SD took 20% of the vote less than. two decades after they were widely viewed as neo-Nazi.
They have, admittedly, expelled some members from that neo-Nazi era, but the trend is frightening. What happened? The Guardian newsletter this morning has a good analysis:
So how did Sweden get here? While the country has long enjoyed an image as a prosperous society with a high standard of living, a strong social safety net, and a tradition of progressive values, many Swedish voters are frustrated and dissatisfied with the way the country is governed.
To those people, the perception of their country no longer matches the reality: “There's there's been a massive decline in the quality of public services, Swedish healthcare is a shadow of what it used to be, and the education system is really suffering,” Hinde said. All of this has fed a narrative that the Sweden Democrats have been pushing of a country in decline.
A tepid left-wing coalition that largely bought into right-of-centre fiscal constraint dogmas could do nothing about this. And then, as the Guardian notes:
This sense of decline was heightened after the refugee crisis in 2015, when Sweden accepted a record high of more than 150,000 asylum seekers. That's almost 1.5% of its overall population.
So the racist card was played, very successfully.
The lessons are clear, I think. If the left promotes right-wing fantasies like balanced budgets and refuses, as a result, to deliver for those who expect the services that they need and deserve from the state then they simply open the door for right-wing extremism.
]It's not hard to see that happening here in the UK as well.
We need a left-of-centre re-set to build the foundation of a new social democracy. Nothing less will do, unless we want an even further right government in the UK when we're already in deeply dangerous territory.
I believe that we can do that. But it's going to be hard work.
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It is also worth looking at Italy where an election will take place soon, likely with the far-right making gains.
https://bylinetimes.com/2022/08/08/nazi-speeches-and-fascists-return-europes-summer-of-turmoil/
“four-party blog” should be “four-party bloc”.
If it is possible to convince Led by Donkeys that our narrative is the one to pursue, perhaps the MMT-left should join up with Led by Donkeys and parade a set of appropriate billboards to be driven through the streets. After the funeral of the queen, of course, in order to be diplomatic. This could be one weapon in our arsenal.
Changed
I saw this too and was so disappointed.
We need a new language to combat this – a new language that is not Left, liberal or anything else that can be associated with failure.
It is not that the Left or liberalism has actually failed. It’s just that those politicians propounding these ideas have become infected with Neo-liberal free marketism, thus sullying these establish political brands.
They have been less than Left, less than Liberal and have effectively destroyed themselves and the founding ideas.
That to me is why fighting back s going to be so difficult.
A re-brand is needed. This to me started with some guy’s notion of a ‘courageous state’. This needs to be further developed.
Perhaps basic values, truth, integrity, fairness and caring about all the people and animals who inhabit this planet and about the planet itself would be a good place to start with. Liz Truss was critical about low levels of aspiration among the British people. I don’t agree with what she meant to convey about aspiration but do think that we have set the bar very low in terms of what we expect the character and values of public servants should be. So perhaps we need to demand to have more influence in the selection process for MPs. It seems to me that our democracy – or what is left of it – will be safer in the hands of people who align themselves with and try to live out these values.
Being more scrupulous and precise about the way we interpret and use language would help. I think Edmund Burke and Noam Chomsky’s ideas about this are really useful. Language is such a very powerful thing. When we want to talk about political and philosophical ideas we often use words like liberty, libertarian, democracy etc. Using these words saves us time – rather than having to explain our exact meaning in detail we roll out these words – intending a meaning which is absolutely clear and unequivocal. But over time and usage these words have become like big, baggy holdalls with lots of pockets. Depending on the context, the beliefs of the speaker or the beliefs of the listener they can convey a range of meanings. For instance I understand that Therese Coffey associates being libertarian with fighting for the rights of people who want to smoke in public places. The rights of people to be free to use these same spaces without endangering their health seem invalidated by Coffey’s idea of liberty.
One of the ways Brexiteers persuaded people to vote for Brexit was by the cunning use of language. They knew how to use words which allowed some people to summon up word pictures, concepts and attractive ideas – which could then be associated in their minds with Brexit.
Attaching negative associations to left leaning politics – is another aspect of this sort of manipulation. Not just useful in the short term – for specific voting decisions but having a deeper more pervasive effect. Ideas that have been around for quite a long time such as, “The economy isn’t safe with Labour”, “Socialism is for the young and naive, sensible people outgrow such unrealistic beliefs and move to the right as they age”, “The Left thinks there is a magic money tree to solve all our problems – with the subtext how deluded can you get?” have been etched into consciousness, with repetition over time – like water dripping on stone. And so many people are in thrall to these manufactured attitudes – that are etched in at the synaptic level – that it’s an obstacle to progressive change. I wish there was a way of getting people to question fixed ideas – asking them to consider if their views are grounded in their real feelings experience and if they could be challenged.
Many on the left despise democracy because of results like this
Wholly agree that we need a new narrative.
My fear is that the current situation has not only been created by the Tory government, various vested interests and neoliberal economic ideology but actually helps further their (self-interested) cause(s). Indeed, it might be suggested that it is indeed a very deliberate attempt to subvert the general public in the furtherance of the political/oligarchical elite. Simply, people who are below, at, or near the margins of poverty, who have little or no job security, etc., are not likely to ‘make waves’ or devote their energies towards thinking about political or economic issues far less challenging them. They are more likely to accept – willingly or grudgingly – the status that surrounds them, e.g., Stalinism, Nazism, Neoliberal Toryism, etc. Czeslaw Milosz’s The Captive Mind illustrates the conflict between personal freedom and allegiance to the cause, aesthetic expression and personal survival. Basically adaption to or acceptance of the ‘brainwashing’ narrative and regime that surrounds them. Despite all the evidence of incompetence, sleaze, lying and economic mismanagement under Tory governments, is the average Sun reader likely to think about how our country should be better managed or challenge their economic plans. Personally, I suspect not. I would suggest, as an example, that Brexit narrowly secured the majority vote by playing the racist card and a (fantasist) Rule Britannia theme that struck a cord with many whilst on a rational level Brexit never made sense and was most definitely not in the interest of those self-same people who voted for it.
The brainwashing will continue (via social media, mainstream media, political dogma, anti-woke discourse, etc.) until we can change the narrative. I cannot believe that people are literally not up in arms at the governments refusal thus far to impose windfall taxes on the energy companies (and banks), to change the basis of the energy price calculations (which are utterly flawed and erroneous) and to insist that the government impose their will on the Bank of England’s utterly barbaric interest rate policies.
the post from Alex sums up why the left is in a mess. It has been hijacked by a so called “academic elite” who are so distant and removed from the working people they claim to represent it is unreal. Alex, you and many who post on here are part of the problem not the solution.
Politely, do you really think you’re going to win anything with that approach?
Or, can you confirm Revolution is the aim?
And whilst you are at it, might you define working class and why I am not in it as an academic?
If you can answer honestly I’ll post the reply
But almost everyone criticising me here today has been racist and have been deleted as a result.
The Left has not been captured by anything but Neo-liberalism.
In adopting it, and essentially copying the Right, the Right becomes the Far Right in order to differentiate itself from the New Left (or ‘Right Left’, or maybe what some like to call ‘centre Left’ which I think is a misnomer). No one has picked up yet that the Left’s march to the Right has pushed the Right to become more extreme so that you have a race or competition to see who is more Right wing.
That is where we seem to be going to me. It sounds silly and maybe implausible, but I think it to be correct. Because politics is silly and implausible at the moment anyway.
And don’t we know it.
In reality this so-called right wing coalition in Sweden will in reality follow policies that are to the left of Labour.
As always with Scandinavian coalitions under PR, >99% of all policy and government expenditure stays the same, while the government parties squabble about the symbol politics of the last <1%!
It is a very weak coalition with 4 leaders that are not able to be in the same room at the same time!
I couldn’t agree more re the economic answers, but even if we fix those it won’t go far enough. Unsurprisingly the Guardian fails to get to the root cause here. Yes many of the ‘on the ground’ issues in Sweden came from the 2015 Refugee crisis & Sweden’s generous decision to take so many refugees – – from Libya & particularly Syria. Likewise the recent inflation / energy crisis exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine – and the circular firing squad of the suicidal EU’s sanctions.
These conflicts didn’t just happen though – they were fermented, incited and exacerbated.
So what do the ‘Social Democrats’ in Sweden do? They dump their neutrality and hastily rush to join the organisation that is, in aggregate, most responsible for these catastrophes – NATO. It was NATO who directly destroyed Libya, it was it’s major-players of US & UK who destabilised Syria & trained and funded jihadis there and it was NATO whose relentless expansion westwards did so much to provoke Russia into their disastrous invasion).
I’d like to say that you couldn’t make it up, but that’s where ‘social democrats’ do nowadays.
Wow. There’s a lot of drivel being sent here this morning, this amongst it
Why wouldn’t Sweden want protection against Russia? Or do you think all must concede to it as so many stalinists do?
Your comments demonstrate exactly why these issues arise, and show a total lack of understanding of the issues.
There are massive implications of such large scale mass immigration if it is not properly planned for and budgeted for.
That’s not racist nor xenophobic it is just basic economics and would be the case of the immigrants were white Europeans or non-White Africans or Asians, particularly if those immigrants were from lower socio-economic groups.
Failing to understand this and cry ‘racist’ at every opportunity is exactly what gives the minority, extreme right (or left) a voice. Just as it did for Breit.
So, what are refugees to do? How are we to help them? Tell me.
My suggestion at a UK level is a programme aimed at resettling a certain number of refugees in the UK each year, picking them up from wherever in the world they are and offering organised supported resettlement in the UK, medical/phycological help, training, housing etc.
Coupled with assistance ‘in country’ for nations such as Kenya, Moldova etc allowing them to resettle refugees that have arrived at their borders.
On top of that of course trying to prevent the sort of bad governance that creates these problems in the first place
This in no way reflects the demand coming our way
And that is so true.
Have you seen Pakistan recently?
All the ice in the high mountains in the European and Asian continent is is now melting, never mind in the South and Northern poles.
We are in the process of huge geographic change and added to that will be the effects of human conflict. Mass migration is going to happen.
And trust the blasted Fascists to offer to try to protect us from reality as per usual.
‘A Hard Rain is gonna fall’ is an under-statement.
ED COMMENT
This comment was deleted for Stalinist content
You can offer comment excusing Russia’s action here – however disguised – but I refuse to publish it