It is Not Just Far-Right Views that Need to Be Criticized–but Also Social-Democratic or Social-Reformist Views

Social-reformist left 1 Minute

John Clarke, former major organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), recently posted on Facebook the following:

I just came across another person I had accepted as a FB friend posting really horrible right wing material. Yet again, it was focused on the notion of Justin Trudeau as a conspiring globalist, seeking to control thought and action at the behest of his Davos based overlords.

I took a careful look over the material this person was putting up and it reflected the perspectives of someone who had some very valid notions of challenging injustices in society. However, two aspects of the posts stood out. Firstly, a very individualistic concept of asserting rights in place of any kind of class instinct and sense of collective resistance. Secondly, a strong tendency to view oppression and exploitation in society as the results of malevolent manipulation by powerful individuals. No notion of how society has developed or how it functions.

Obviously, it’s better to sever connections with someone who may be developing links with the far right and that’s what I did in this case. It’s instructive, though, to see how the ‘anti-elite’ fakery of the right can so easily fish in someone whose left perspective isn’t grounded in any meaningful class politics.
Although Clarke’s point that the far right’s apparent anti-elitist approach successfully co-opts part of the working class, so too does the apparent social-justice rhetoric of the social-democratic or social-reformist left. Clarke’s lack of criticism of the social-democratic or social-reformist left expresses a reluctance of the more radical left to break with them–a reluctance which needs to be constantly criticized. 
 
 
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Published by The abolitionist

I come from a working-class background. My lost paid job was a teacher, substituting for a number of years before obtaining a permanent position. I obtained my doctorate in 2009. I am an unapologetic critic of capitalism and the way in which various institutions and ideologies reinforce it.

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