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THE FAR RIGHT, A REACTIONARY BACKLASH  
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Marga Ferré
September 17, 2024
Transform!Europe
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_ The antithesis to the far right is the defence of feminism, the
concept of class versus nation, the defence of peace, diversity,
equality, social justice, solidarity, ecology, and a common world. _

, Invasion. Source: La Boca del Logo, ctxt.es.

 

THE FAR RIGHT IS A FORM OF BACKLASH AGAINST THE ENERGIES WITH WHICH WE
SUBALTERNS ARE STARTING TO CHANGE THE WORLD. IT REACTS AGAINST NOT
ONLY THE CHANGE THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE ALREADY, BUT ALSO POTENTIAL
FUTURE CHANGE. IN HER COMMENTARY, MARGA FERRÉ, CO-PRESIDENT OF
TRANSFORM! EUROPE, DELVES DEEPER INTO THIS REACTIONARY MOVEMENT AND
ITS BROADER IMPLICATIONS.

I’ve been reading analyses of the far right for years, without
finding one that really offered the key to understanding why these
forces have so much support. That was until the last few months, when
I read a study in the _Financial Times_, an old feminist book, and a
journal article by two historians. Together, they prompted me to think
about the answer that — in a nutshell — I intend to set out here.

The rise of the far right is not an expression of political
discontent, nor a social pathology, nor still less an expression of
anti-systemic feeling. The growth of the far right in the last decade
is a _backlash_ — and, moreover, a global backlash. But a backlash
against what? Against a shifting of the terrain.

History has changed

Some academic historians have argued that the most profound change
resulting from the acceleration of globalisation is the transformation
of the concept of History itself — and that this has much to do with
the rise of the far right. I am greatly impressed by their argument.

They explain that world history has tended to be studied and taught as
a linear history, a series of stages (which even have names and start-
and end-dates) through which humanity moves forward, towards
‘progress’. Because of the European empires, History has been
understood as Western history, a tree in whose top branches are the
developed nations (the great powers, the empires) led by elite white
men who are the masters of technology and of the vision of progress
(‘civilisation’, it used to be said), whereas lower down are the
nations on the path set out by that model of development, and all the
other subaltern groups.

These new historians — whose thinking is described in the
article by Hugo and Daniela Fazio
[[link removed]] which I am
suggesting to readers — point out that this concept of history is
now unsustainable. The rise of Asia, especially China, is
deconstructing this idea of Western history. But it is also
deconstructed by the emergence of feminism and anti-racism, with its
decolonial message, which have brought a shift away from this vision
of History in favour of a much more global and diverse one. They have
baptised History as a global history, and done so on the basis of a
precious truth, which will be self-evident for those without gender or
class blindness: Today, subaltern groups that have been
under-represented or made invisible in contemporary history are
bursting onto the scene, making new demands with new leaderships and
epistemologies, as the myth of the West is dislocated in favour of a
much more diverse world.

This displacement generates resentment among those who think that they
are losing their privileged position, in a world that no longer sees
them as an authority and thus challenges their position of power. The
far right is just that: backlash by those who are losing their
privileges, or fear losing them. The feeling that it manipulates is
resentment: Not anger, not rage, not political disenchantment, but a
resentful victimisation, the appeal to the wounded narcissism of those
who feel they have lost their leading role in history, at home, or in
the workplace. The rise of militarism and war are part of this violent
reaction against a world that is shifting the terrain underneath them,
and against the wave that is dislodging them from their position.

The Fourth Wave

One feminist book that had a huge impact in the 1990s was _Backlash:
The Undeclared War Against American Women_. Its author Susan Faludi
denounced the conservative backlash against women’s advancement in
those years — insightfully pointing out that this backlash was not
because women had achieved full equality, but because ‘it was
possible for them to achieve it’. Faludi’s book helped me to
understand that the rise of the far right is a reaction, first and
foremost (though not only), against the fourth wave of feminism. I
assure you: the data is irrefutable.

This 25 January, the _Financial Times_ published a study
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made the heads of many analysts of the far right explode. The article
showed the youth vote by gender in South Korea, the US, Germany and
the United Kingdom. It concluded that there is a yawning gap between
the political attitudes of young women (who are far more progressive)
and young men (who are more conservative and more likely to support
the far right). The most shocking thing is that this is a global
phenomenon, happening all over the world — including in Spain:

Ideological differences based on gender sorted by country. Source:
Financial Times

The strangest attempts are made to rationalise all this, often leaving
me amazed. They range from claims that women are more ‘moderate’
to the idea that we have ‘less contact with migration’, and other
such nonsense. It is obvious, without the gender blindness that
pervades academia, that this is the consequence of the fourth wave
that has swept the world. When it emerged, almost a decade ago, it did
so globally, as a mass movement, expressed through social networks and
with a strong intergenerational component.

This is, moreover, a feminist wave that has been more anti-capitalist
than previous ones; a feminism that disarms the historical role of
patriarchy and has won the battle for the aspiration of equality. The
far right is a violent reaction to this displacement, to this
dethroning of the _pater familias_, the dominant male, the maker of
history.

Here I think it worth observing that many analyses reduce machismo and
racism to moral, cultural attitudes — refusing to reckon with the
fact that both constructs are used in capitalism to exploit us
further. The self-evident fact that women and migrants are cheaper,
indeed all over the planet, doesn’t seem to make a dent in their
analysis. They have to go to great lengths to deny the data and
continue to insist that women and migrants are minorities and treat us
as such, even when the reality is quite the opposite. I almost admire
their stubbornness.

I may be wrong, but I sense, moreover, that the analytical blindness
is not only gender-based. I detect a stubborn reluctance to accept
that there is no direct relationship between economic inequality and
the growth of the far right; in other words, economic orthodoxy does
not serve to analyse the phenomenon. If this were the case, there
would be no way of explaining its success in Scandinavian countries
(the least unequal in the world) or the fact that in the country where
inequality is most glaring, South Africa, the far right does not even
exist. Of course, the economic situation may be a trigger for the
growth of the far right, but it is not its cause.

It seems that cold economistic metrics don’t grasp resentment —
and resentment is the sentiment that drives backlash. To understand
this better, I suggest reading the superb study by Tereza Capela et
al. [[link removed]][1]
[[link removed]] on
Korean far-right youth, which concludes, decisively, that their
attitudes are exclusively built on resentment and victimisation.

Reactionary whispers

I smell, with trained senses, a certain tendency (from which not even
the European left is free) to appease some of the claims of the far
right, in the face of the threat that they pose. This is itself a
global phenomenon. I am beginning to hear, subtle as a whisper, that
perhaps we feminists have gone too far, that we ought to pay more
attention to the demands of these young men who are turning to the
right, that immigration is a problem, that what’s happening in
Palestine is not genocide, that we need to buy more weapons, that the
climate crisis is not so fundamental…

I would argue the opposite. The antithesis to the far right — its
nemesis — is precisely the defence of feminism, especially of young
women and their demands, the concept of class versus nation, the
defence of peace, diversity, equality, social justice, solidarity,
ecology, and a common world. We must defend them, moreover, with an
outlook that overcomes the narrow and hierarchical worldview of the
West.

I would argue that the far right is a backlash against the energies
with which we subalterns are starting to change the world. But I would
also warn — to echo Susan Faludi — that this is backlash not only
against change that has taken place already, but also against the
possibility of future change. They are reacting violently to change,
in order to prevent it from occurring. And that is what the far right
is: pure reaction.

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[1]
[[link removed]] Tereza
Capela spoke at our February 2024 Strategy Seminar, “Feel the
Change You Want to See: The Role of Emotions in Politics”
[[link removed]],
and her colleague and co-author of the mentioned study, Mikko Salmela,
contributed to our e-Dossier to this seminar
[[link removed]].

_Marga Ferré, together with Cornelia Hildebrandt, is Co-President of
transform! europe and Co-President of Europe of Citizens Foundation /
Fundación por la Europa de los Ciudadanos (FEC, Spain)._

_transform! europe is a network of 38 European organisations from 22
countries, active in the field of political education and critical
scientific analysis, and is the recognised political foundation
corresponding to the Party of the European Left (EL)._

_THE ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SPANISH AT  REVISTA CONTEXT
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* Feminism
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* anti-capitalism
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* reactionary politics
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* machismo
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* Racism
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* Immigrants
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* capitalism
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