History shows it clearly: austerity creates the conditions in which fascism thrives. When governments strip away public services, weaken safety nets and deepen inequality, people lose hope in democracy and turn to authoritarian “strongmen.” From Weimar Germany to modern Britain, austerity is the midwife of fascism. The only way forward is investment, trust and care.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Austerity is the midwife of fascism. That's an idea that was put to me the other day, and the instant I heard it, I thought that's right.
Austerity has created the climate of fear that exists in the UK right now.
People are angry.
They're angry because public services are shrinking.
They're angry because pay is stuck where it is.
They're angry because they can't get housing.
They're angry because education isn't good enough.
They're angry because the NHS has massively long waiting lists, and all of that is the consequence of austerity.
And people who are angry and feel they have no hope, and no democratic solution to their problems, because every mainstream political party has subscribed to austerity, are lining up to support fascism.
When the state abandons people, authoritarians step in.
And let's be clear what austerity means.
It does mean that services are stripped away.
It means that governments prioritise balancing their books rather than meeting the needs of people.
It means that governments are more interested in the cash economy that they manage rather than in balancing the real economy in which people live.
It means that safety nets are weakened and communities are abandoned.
And perhaps most especially when we come to the issue of anger, inequality is very definitely deepened by austerity.
Fascism feeds on the resulting insecurity.
It feeds on a fear of the future.
It scapegoats others to blame them for the problems that are, in fact, caused by austerity.
And it promises a false sense of hope when there is none within anything it has to say.
Just look at the links with history.
Weimar Germany was in crisis because austerity was imposed upon it after World War I. The whole process of requiring reparations basically left the German economy so weak that the pathway to the Nazis was created.
Look at Greece after 2010. The whole situation in Greece was made so vulnerable because of the conditions imposed upon that country as a consequence of the post-2008 global financial crisis and the euro situation that developed in that country, meaning that it was left in a situation where many had no choice but leave, and where the right-wing was given the opportunity to basically challenge any form of left-wing alternative to the austerity that was created.
And if you want something closer to home, just look at the UK post-2010. George Osborne is the person who has created the current crisis in the UK more than anyone else because his programme of cuts, put in place quite unnecessarily in 2010, when Alistair Darling's programme was clearly working to overcome the problems created by the 2008 global financial crisis, has delivered us a pathway to Nigel Farage and his fascist Reform Party.
All of those situations - Weimar Germany, Greece in 2010, the UK post 2010 - have seen the rise in authoritarianism as a consequence. And that is true in many other countries around the world.
Democracy is weakened by austerity because public services are democracy in action. When they fail, trust collapses. People then turn to so-called strongmen - although it's very hard to see Nigel Farage as such- and that's how fascism grows.
The real choice we should make is to invest in care, and not cuts.
To build trust and not create fear.
To strengthen democracy, and not threaten authoritarian collapse.
But that's not the agenda we're being offered. So what do you want? Austerity? Fascism? Or neither?
There is a poll.
Let us know.
Poll
What is the real consequence of austerity?
- It deepens inequality (38%, 228 Votes)
- It fuels fascism (32%, 197 Votes)
- It destroys democracy (29%, 176 Votes)
- None of the above (1%, 7 Votes)
Total Voters: 300
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Isn’t it funny, the Presstitutes publish their hate fuelled stories and now the police are saying everyone needs to calm down.
With everything’s that going on around us, you’d have to be half-asleep not to agree austerity is the midwife of fascism.
I’m just swatting up on Jung’s theory on Mass Psychosis which he says is what fuelled the Nazis.
Seems to make a lot of sense today too.
I have to say the algo’s a wonderful thing, I’m learning so much, and it brings me more in turn.
Might this article, by Michael Hudson, entitled “Rome’s Arc, America’s Echo”, be of interest/relevance?
https://michael-hudson.com/category/interviews/
If my neighbourhood hadn’t been ignored for the last 40 years, because of austerity, Reform UK Ltd’s incoherent nasty fascism wouldn’t stand a chance.
Even the levelling up money coming in recently isn’t going to solve the problem – some improved facilities, but the root causes of poverty, and insecurity remain – better buildings but not more income.
Arguments against the evils of fascism or the hypocrisy and lies of Reform get drowned out by the everyday reality of financial insecurity.
Government responds when it feels threatened.
What does government perceive as threatening?
A mass protest against genocide?
A tiny flag-waving assault on a hotel housing asylum seekers?
A serious rise in poll figures for Reform?
It cracks down on the first, panders to the second, and shifts policies further right to deal with the third.
It ignores the cause, austerity, and leaves that in place.
Is the government frightened of anything else? Oh yes. They are frightened of the USA, of Israel, and of donors and international corporations.
They are also frightened of their own incompetence – Starmer/Reeves/Cooper look like rabbits caught in the headlights – “I’m a Cabinet Minister, Give Me More Flags And Get Me Out Of Here!”.
I am left wondering how to make the government MORE frightened of progressives than of fascists, so that they pander to us and repress the fascists. I think that’s do-able, and its under way here.
What I’m less sure about is making the government more frightened of US than of the USA, Israel, and the donors/corporations.
And I don’t like having to weaponise fear. But they won’t listen to reason – whether on war crimes, austerity or Trump, and if they had consciences they wouldn’t be in this Starmer government in the first place.
It’s fairly depressing, but we have to “keep bu*****ng” on”, because tyrants are weak people and they always fail.
Agreed
I was interested to see the reference to mass psychosis in a comment. There is definitely a mass hysteria, at least, occurring currently, as a shift in social dynamics takes hold. The Salem witch trials comes to mind. More will jump on bandwagon as a salve to their worries until it becomes a seemingly unstoppable force, and it is already resembling that. Having just seen the Daily Mail in the supermarket (I tried to keep safe distance), I can confirm the lies that are pumped into the social space – ‘Another Day in Starmer’s Socialist Utopia’. I mean, how wrong on many levels?!
It’s clear that the louder more fervent voices have the stage, and they are drowning out the voices of scepticism and denunciation, such as are found on this blog. These voices need amplifying to plant the seeds of public support. What do we do? I came to this blog relatively recently and am grateful for the forum it provides. There is intelligent and nuanced discussion of important topics. I think I am enhanced by reading these thought-provoking pieces and definitely am emboldened by them in my daily interactions, especially with the adolescents I work with. We can hope for disillusion and exhaustion of the dominant narrative. But I too am fearful – having just returned to school from the summer break, the roads surrounding us are full with flags.
Thanks, and good luck Matt.
In January 1934 the Mail carried an article under the headline “Hurrah For The Blackshirts”, and very much supported Oswald Moseley and his Union of British Fascists.
The Daily Mail was also impressed by Adolf Hitler, so it really is no surprise that from their perspective they would call out Starmer and his appalling neoliberal government as “socialist.”
I would recommend to readers “Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea” by Mark Blyth published in 2013 by Oxford University Press which was selected by the FT and Bloomberg News as the best book of 2013 and also “The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way for Fascism” by Clara E. Mattei published by the University of Chicago Press in 2022, itself recommended by Mark Blyth.
Both are good. I would suggest Mattei is better.
Having read them both, I would agree.
Guys,
I have a small favour to ask – could you please critique this (in this blog, or by commenting in the YouTube post).
https://youtu.be/h6Pwp47wKxw?si=z9uNqHs5PRs2UKLA
Ta very much.
Also, encouraging to see that the US electorate are starting to fight the oligarchy:
https://youtu.be/53bZ_95nDjk?si=9IxfvB_0Dv4FGVb_
It did not work for me. Very obviously tacky AI. I do not like it.
Brutal!
“They’re angry because the NHS has massively long waiting lists, and all of that is the consequence of austerity.”
I think perhaps, solely in the case of the NHS, austerity is only partly the culprit and that Labour and Tory polices, stealthy or otherwise, of massive and escalating privatisation of both the financing and operation of the NHS shares the blame in equal measure.
The biggest blame is attributable to heir combined failure to recognise the two largest causes of growing ill health:
1) Ultra-processed foods
2) The pharmaceutical industries’ refusal to reocgnise research from which they cannot make money