There is constant, uninterrupted propaganda aimed at writing off communists and their radical democratic and socialist politics. Its purpose is to smooth the path for right-wing forces as they uphold capitalism and maintain imperialist hegemony over people and resources across the world. Yet the defeats of right-wing poster boys—Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel, and Donald Trump in the US midterm elections—the defeat of Serbian leader Aleksandar Vučić, and the weakening of Narendra Modi’s popularity send a clear message: right-wing forces can offer neither an alternative nor a genuine defence of people’s interests. Right-wing politics, policies, and propaganda are projects of capitalism.
Right-wing politics creates social disharmony, promotes cultural and religious conflict, economically marginalises people, and divides them along lines of nationality, religion, race, gender, sexuality, and class. It does so under the false promise of representation and democratic participation while refusing to create conditions for inclusivity and empowerment. It offers various reactionary logics to justify capitalism while promoting bourgeois democracy—conditions that can lead to cultural genocide in the service of capitalism’s economic logic. In this logic, human beings are reduced to consumers within an individualistic culture of consumption shaped by the capitalist market, a culture that demeans the collective foundations of society, politics, culture, and economy.
The electoral defeat of right-wing forces sends a clear message, yet those forces continue to enjoy the support of large numbers of people in countries where their poster boys and their political and economic narratives have been defeated. It is therefore imperative to uproot the ideological and electoral foundations of right-wing political and other groups that work overtime for the world’s ruling elites at the expense of the people.
The rise and revival of the left in Brazil under Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; the consolidation of communists in China, Cuba, and Vietnam; and the victory of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in local government elections offer much-needed hope. They point towards a socialist politics of radical democracy that represents the needs, desires, and aspirations of working people and stands as a moral compass in public life—protecting peace, freedom, democracy, and human rights.
The SACP’s victorious performance in South Africa’s recently concluded local government elections—amid the progressive political turmoil caused by a split within the African National Congress (ANC)—was significant: for the first time, the SACP fought single-handedly and won without any form of alliance. It sends a strong message that South Africa is ready for revolutionary politics under the collective, rainbow leadership of the SACP, which has promised to unite working people and to work for their economic, social, and political emancipation by defeating existing colonial capitalism and imperialist interventions in South Africa and beyond.
The rise of progressive and radical student movements against right-wing forces across the globe also offers hope for radical democracy, socialist politics, and progressive policies. Such movements can reverse the marginalisation of working people experienced during the period of neoliberal globalisation—a system promoted and protected by right-wing and liberal ideologues to ensure capitalism’s dominance over people. By defeating right-wing politics in democratic elections, people have not only rejected but also defeated the neoliberal capitalism that failed to offer them relief or rehabilitation and instead marginalised them across the world.
The revival of left, radical, and socialist politics led by progressive forces provides much-needed hope for working people. However, while the electoral defeat of the right wing is necessary for pursuing the politics and programmes of radical people’s democracy, it is not a sufficient condition for removing right-wing politics, culture, and economic ideology from society. It is therefore absolutely necessary to advance political programmes, social and cultural initiatives, economic policies, educational projects, and reform movements that completely defeat the social, political, cultural, and economic ideological foundations of right-wing forces. Only then can we ensure the long-term emancipation of the working masses from the capitalist onslaught on people and the imperialist onslaught on the planet.
Despite all setbacks, communists and socialists remain the only forces that continue to fight in the streets and in parliaments to uphold the interests of people and the planet. The revolutionary politics of left forces is the only hope for defeating all forms of right-wing reactionary politics based on war, conflict, and propaganda grounded in fear and othering. The left is the only force with an unbroken history of successful struggles that have defeated both illiberal and liberal forms of racialised colonial capitalism and fascist imperialism. The struggle against right-wing forces will be a long battle, but communists and their struggle for the people in the streets keep the moral compass of politics alive. History repeats itself not as a farce but as a reminder to the ruling classes that the collective struggles of people for emancipation can never be defeated.
People are not looking for revolutionary words and hollow speeches; they are watching the political praxis of revolutionary programmes. Any deviation from that revolutionary praxis will only breed the reactionary politics that the people have defeated. The political hypocrisy of leadership, revisionist tendencies, and the rotten culture of political hierarchies pose the greatest danger to the revival of radical politics and the revolutionary potential of our times.
Members, supporters, and leaders of communist and socialist parties, left organisations, and progressive political forces must rectify their individual, organisational, ideological, and political mistakes. They must rise to the occasion, carry forward historic legacies, and serve as vanguards in the service of the people. They must listen to, understand, and learn from the people before leading, representing, protecting, promoting, and realising the people’s needs and desires in order to empower working masses. There is absolutely no place for bureaucratic managerialism, the disciplining of dissent, or authoritarianism in the name of internal organisational democracy and discipline.
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*Academic based in UK
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