Occupy, (anti-)Capitalism and the Right
Two crossposts from Three Way Fight on the Occupy movement and the Right:
1.) Anti-capitalism versus populism
Occupy Wall Street is one of the most exciting political developments in years, but like any social movement it has its contradictions. As I noted briefly at the end of my previous post, the Occupy movement is vulnerable to right-wing overtures to the extent that many progressive-minded activists lack clear anti-capitalist and anti-fascist politics. While some Occupiers have put forward a radical class analysis, others have voiced a sort of liberal populism, which identifies the problem as specific institutions, policies, or subjective behaviors rather than the capitalist system. Several leftists on other websites have addressed this political limitation and its unfortunate resonances with right-wing ideology. Here I want to summarize some of their main points, then offer an important counter-example of Occupy movement anti-capitalism – the plan by West coast Occupy movements to blockade ports on December 12th.
2.) Rightists woo the Occupy Wall Street movement
Most right-wing responses to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement have ranged from patronizing to hostile. Rightists have variously criticized the Occupy forces for–supposedly–copying the Tea Party; failing to target big government; being dirty, lazy lawbreakers; being orchestrated by pro-Obama union bosses and community organizers; having ties with radical Islamists; fomenting antisemitism; or failing to address Jewish dominance of Wall Street. (On the Jewish Question, the John Birch Society wants to have it both ways–arguing that antisemitic attacks are integral to the Occupy movement’s leftist ideology, but also that the movement is bankrolled by Jewish financier George Soros, who is backed by “the unimaginably vast Rothschild banking empire.”)
At the same time, some right-wingers have joined or endorsed Occupy events, causing some leftists and liberals to raise warning flags. Neonazis have shown up at Occupy Phoenix and been kicked out of Occupy Seattle, where leftists formed an antifascist working group to keep them out. The Liberty Lamp, an anti-racist website, has identified a number of right-wing groups that have sought to “capitalize on the success” of OWS, including several neonazi organizations, Oath Keepers (a Patriot movement group for police and military personnel), libertarian supporters of Texas congressmember Ron Paul, and even the neoconservative American Spectator magazine. Leonard Zeskind’s Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights has warned against Tea Party supporters “who want to be friends with the Occupiers,” including FedUpUSA, Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, and conspiracist talk show host Alex Jones. The International Socialist Organization has focused on Ron Paul libertarians as a particular threat to the Occupy movement. In a related vein, the socialist journal Links reposted a detailed expose of Zeitgeist (aka the Venus Project), a conspiracist cult that has been involved in Occupy movement events, many of whose ideas are rooted in antisemitism or other right-wing ideology.
There is always a danger that some rightists will come to Occupy movement events to harass or attack leftists, or act as spies or provocateurs. More commonly, rightists see the movement as an opportunity to gain credibility, win new recruits, or build coalitions with leftists. When pitching to left-leaning activists, these right-wingers emphasize their opposition to the U.S. economic and political establishment–but downplay their own oppressive politics. In place of systemic critiques of power, rightists promote distorted forms of anti-elitism, such as conspiracy theories or the belief that government is the root of economic tyranny. We’ve seen this “Right Woos Left” dynamic over and over, for example in the anti-war, environmental, and anti-globalization movements.
This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2012 at 4:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
on March 10, 2012 negative potential wrote:
The first piece is ok, but ultimately the main thought behind it is that mass social movements are not uniformly anti-capitalist, and anti-capitalist ideas within them are a minority current.
That’s true, but it’s also kind of banal. Is the argument then that explicit anti-capitalists should be promoting a rigorous critique of capitalism among their movement contacts? I agree with that, but even then, I think such perspectives, short of some kind of revolutionary crisis, are not likely to win a majority of social movement activists.
I’m not a “spontaneist” by any means, but I think consciousness matters a lot less in mass movements than most leftists think, and such movements, if and when they subside, are likely to fail due to a confluence of factors that often have nothing to do with the ideological convictions of participants.
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on March 13, 2012 Systemic Disorder wrote:
Both of these articles are valuable. Just because the Right has made little headway infiltrating the Occupy Wall Street movement does not mean we have to be complacent. Overt Right-wing and/or anti-Semitic messages are opposed; there was one idiot at Zuccotti Park who paraded with a sign about “Jewish bankers” and somebody stood next to him with a sign saying that does not represent Occupy. But what is worrisome is that “populist”-sounding Right-wing messages, such as “End the Fed,” are not limited to the Ron Paul fanatics who inevitably show up at Occupy sites.
There does need to be a vigorous anti-capitalist message, and although I believe it is true, as the above poster said, that perspective is currently a minority viewpoint, I also believe there is considerable willingness among people in the Occupy movement to hear an anti-capitalist perspective; that has been my personal experience. The problem is capitalism, not a cabal of bankers or greedy corporations, which are simply byproducts of capitalist development. As the crisis of capitalism continues, more people are going to be willing to hear an anti-capitalist message. The future is unknowable, but we can at least attempt to steer it in a humane direction.
“It’s Not the Federal Reserve, it’s the system it serves”: http://wp.me/p2cpPS-A
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