Instead of self-righteous identity politics, our practice should oppose fake empowerment narratives

~ Anon Grata ~

A right-wing populist party has won the elections in yet another European country—but as the international media reminds us, it’s not any country: it’s both the birthplace of the leader of historical Nazi-Fascism, and the cradle of modern post-fascist populism. And the nanny who sung its lullabies (or rather war hymns) is its leader, Herbert Kickl.

Back in the 90s, when he was still in his 20s, he used to write speeches and slogans for the pioneering extreme right populist, Jörg Haider. But for decades Der Kickl remained in the background. He took the front row only recently – 25 years after the Freedom Party (FP) came in second in the 1999 national elections, participated in Austrian governments in various forms, and burnt out their coke-snorting straw man Strache in the Ibiza scandal.

And now the electorate applauds the man who wants to become Volkskanzler (a title that, among others, Hitler used briefly).

But let’s not allow this postmodern spectacle to blind us.

Without trying to dissect the fascist gene ‘slumbering in all Austrians’ or finding psychological explanations that lead us down down down the basement stairs of the average Alpenländler – let’s give it a bit of analysis.

Hasn’t the electorate repeatedly seen how they get fucked over by the Freiheitlichen FP? Yes, and bluntly: from carrying plastic bags of cash over the border to Lichtenstein to spending thousands of Euros of tax money on Candy Crush (not a joke). For sure your money isn’t safe with these guys! But their secret seems to be that they can suggest a possible way for the Kleinen Mann – the ‘little man’ – to participate in corruption, only in a more open way. After all, you don’t have to be an anarchist to enjoy not playing by the rules once in a while.

FP slogans in the last campaign clearly tried to create this feeling of ‘Kleiner Mann, for once YOU are in charge’. Here are some examples: “You’re the boss, I’m your tool”; “Chancellor, together”; and the biblical “Your will be done”. One wonders if Der Kickl still writes those slogans himself.

So of course voting for this Neo-Nazi scum is totally insane. But then again: Would the act of voting for a different party be much less insane? People’s Party – opportunistic spineless Ex(?)-Fascists (Dollfuß, Kurz). Social Democrats? Either big in business or hypocrites.

Greens? Pro-militarist back-stabbers, modernisers of exploitation with utter hatred for working people.

New Austria? The name says it all: liberal treats for the few, new forms of colonisation and exploitation for the rest.

And the recently rising Communists? At best they don’t change anything, at worst you’re confronted with one influential enemy whose eyes still tear up thinking back to the glorious past.

And since we’re looking at this mess from an anarchist perspective, isn’t the sheer act of checking one of those boxes on the ballot already repulsive?

Dangerous longings

Anyway. Maybe here lies the crux of this commentary: Yes, the fascists have won the elections. They’ll most likely come back into power, stronger than ever. That’s un-ironically very scary (remember when a police force loyal to the FP raided the interior secret services in 2016, obtaining all of the “extremist” data, including those on “left-wing extremists”? Who knows where those data are now). But racist, neoliberal politics have been implemented throughout the continent for decades now.

Is this country even special in this context?

Still, the longing for the spectacle remains. As we can observe in the international media: Isn’t that the place Hitler comes from? Oh, so juicy!

But let’s talk about another longing. A longing that’s less idiotic, but way more dangerous: The longing to be on the right side of history. And this can again be observed in the recent antifascist reaction. In the already well-known unholy alliance with liberal types, some ‘antifascist’ activists now organize demos with the slogan “Against the FP and all their supporters!”. Way to go for social analysis.

I don’t claim to understand FP-voters, but I still want to argue that many of those people are most likely ill-advised and politically frustrated individuals feeling excluded from the liberal glitter party. Lacking an insurrectionary perspective, their only way to do something ‘rebellious’ and nihilist is to support one of the most established political groups of the second republic. And they might think the FP is ‘different from the others’ and would keep their word on emergency laws, neutrality and the like (spoiler: they won’t!).

And what do antifascist activists do? They have a strong urge to demonise not only the party and its politics but also its supporters. This builds a dichotomy in which the antifa-activist is – per definitionem! – on the right side of history, and whoever they oppose is not (like people demonstrating against a Covid curfew). That might be why so many activists now choose to focus on documenting whatever structures they decide to be “problematic”, conveniently creating a liberal identity and sometimes even a career as journalists.

And nothing makes “being right” easier than having a chosen the right opponent to oppose. A primary evil that outshines all other evils. All is right as long as it’s directed against this primary evil. This can be true for elections, but it can also extend to far more dangerous spheres, as far as anti-authoritarians being expected to take sides in an armed conflict.

So what am I arguing for, in the end? Should we drink a beer with FP-supporters or even FP-members in order to find out that we’re all not so different after all?

I really hope this is not how people might understand this text.

What I do argue for is that we make sure antifascist action stays a practice. Let’s have social analysis and drop all the identitarian (pun intended!) self-righteous bullshit that can render antifa nothing but a consumerist peer group or even a resource.

As an anarchist comrade recently wrote: “The opposite of dictatorship is not democracy. It’s freedom.”

Photo: Daniel Lerps CC BY-ND 2.0