The far right is in rude health across the globe. Be it in Hungary, Austria, Germany or France we see where the far right has gone from an electoral non-starter to dominating national elections.
If they are not in office, as is the case in Italy, they control the dial, tone and tenor of political discourse so that what was once deemed unimaginable a few short years ago becomes common sense. We see this in France and the UK, where, outside of office and in some cases without being elected, they have changed political discourse, dragging it to the right with things like reverse migration now becoming topics for polite discussion.
The United States, still the behemoth which dominates the Earth as no other empire, is, by its nature, far right. One cannot be an empire, exploit people abroad — see the economic warfare they practice, the wars they start and the compradors they install as evidence — without being of a far right nature.
The US of the 1960s, which housed actual avowed Nazi doctors, generals and engineers, was just as far right when it was trying to exterminate the Filipino people in the 1900s. It was just as far right in the 1850s at the height of US slavery, and in the 1820s when the Native Americans were being sent on the genocidal trail of tears by President Jackson.
Still, what we are witnessing now is not the same as before. While the US has always been far right it has, since its inception, tried to maintain a liberal mask. That is why it insists on multilateral agencies like the UN while trying to undermine and neuter it. To be frank, it has worked, and for centuries people have seen the US as the bastion of liberalism when in reality it had to be forced to the most liberal concessions.
Over the past few decades, heightened since the end of the Cold War, the US has realised that it didn’t even need to put on the charade of liberalism, as seen in the Wolfowitz memo. This could be seen in the invasion of Iraq, totally bypassing and threatening the UN, the destruction of Libya, the dirty war in Syria, and the Afghan invasion.
All of these were moments when the mask fell further from the face. Facing no meaningful resistance there was little need to give any more liberal performances — speeches on democracy in Egypt for example — than was necessary. All of these were moments people in the world saw that the US was not what it claimed to be, did not practice what it preached, and always had a new low to which to sink.
The re-election of Donald Trump to the head of the empire is just the final act of a far right nation removing whatever vestiges it had of liberalism. He and other like-minded far-right millionaires, billionaires and tycoons, have realised that there is no need for the liberal veneer (admittedly many of this cohort have hated the veneer since day one) and have, as in his previous term, gone straight to the far right, issuing policies and making threats that would make Mussolini blush.
The worry of the actions of this gang of far right thugs does not end at the borders of the US, as it is clear that he, his Cabinet appointees, and backers have interests in the region and beyond. We in the Caribbean and Latin America should be extremely on edge as the new/old president and his secretary of state are ardent supporters of the Munroe doctrine, a doctrine which views the region as the personal fiefdom of the US.
Placing Cuba back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism and other actions aimed at overthrowing the Cuban Revolution is just the most blatant action. The call to Edmundo González Urrutia and the referral of him as the rightful president of Venezuela is also a window into what the new US Administration has planned for the region.
We have heard the expansionist talk surrounding Greenland and the Panama Canal and while Trump personally may not act on them, that is the general feeling of what he represents and we, in the target countries, must be ready to beat off the imperialists and far right if we are to have a chance.
The liberal order has failed, its institutions and values have been broken by the reality of their lies, refusal to put their words into actions and a pandering to the far right. The European Union (EU), whose reason for being is the abolishing of borders and customs borders in Europe, is busy tearing itself apart throwing up borders.
Canada, a nation whose survival is built on migration, is espousing nativist views, threatening would-be immigrants, and the list goes on. We cannot put our trust in people who sup with people who wish us ill and expect positive results for us. We cannot believe that the people who created the environment for this insanity will fix it.
The former rulers of Weimar Germany could not fix the Nazi problem, which they created. The corrupt and decayed liberal class of this generation likewise cannot be part of the solution. The only solution is an anti-imperialist one, aimed at uniting the majority against the minority who, if we are honest, have no issue with this looming far right hellscape.
People who preach about human rights — specifically the sanctity of human rights in their countries — and then limit, restrict or abolish the human rights of people in order to appease the far right and help them to stay elected cannot be trusted to defend the rights of the masses when it is evident that they are fickle and blow with the wind.
We must make no mistake, the far right is in the ascendency, and we will be witnesses to some of the most heinous actions — families torn apart, an increase in racist attacks, and an increase in economic violence. We must be prepared for these things in countries like Jamaica, Barbados, and Antigua. We must strengthen and empower our communities beyond slogans and give them tools of power, build up our people by investing in education, and integrating both as a region and more broadly as members of the global south.
It will not be easy, and many who we feel are allies will show themselves as opportunists or as just not down for the cause. That must not cause us to be disheartened. The task ahead of us is monumental, it is the task of our generation, and it is up to us to meet this task. It was done once before, and with great sacrifice it can be done again, but those who got us in this situation, those preachers of liberal values who really appease the enemy, cannot be allowed back in the room.
