Scratch a liberal and you’ll find a fascist, the saying goes. It would be puerile to frame Sir Keir Starmer as a fascist in any real sense, even after his government’s right swing on immigration and his support for genocide.
The truth is more complicated. This is the story of a man, a party, a government, even an entire ideology without any answers to the crises of today
Starmer’s Labour are locked into the same logic of appeasement which centrists habitually steer into when it comes to an insurgent far-right challenge.
To paraphrase economist Jason Hickel, the central contradiction of liberalism is that while liberals might genuinely want to exercise all the values they claim – human rights, basic freedoms, a little welfare even – their belief in free market capitalism necessarily commits to them to exploitation, racism, and empire.
In turn, this means liberals in power must crush any transformative left challenge to capitalism. In periods of intense capitalist crisis – like *looks out of window* now – this creates a vacuum for… well… the Trump’s and Tommy Robinson’s of the world.
Starmer may not know it himself, but that is the contradiction he and liberals are being consumed by.
Antifa?
As Starmer spends his week schmoozing Donald Trump, it is worth looking at what they share. Trump has now declared he will ban ‘antifa’, presumably by executive order.
Combining his usual fire, brimstone and ALL CAPS with a signature catch-all vagueness, Trump declared:
I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.
I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
This follows the killing of far-right influencer Charlie Kirk in Utah on 10 September. A death the Trump regime seems committed to using as a bludgeon against a vaguely defined Left.
As was pointed out today, antifa isn’t an organisation. It’s a tendency in left and even liberal politics to take on the far-right at street level:
Antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” is an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups and is not a singular entity. They consist of groups that resist fascists and neo-Nazis, especially at demonstrations.
It’s unclear how the administration would label what is effectively a decentralized movement as a terrorist organization, and the White House on Wednesday did not immediately offer more details.
Add to this the US constitutional right to free expression and it looks like a big ask to do this effectively. Time will tell, however.
Starmer’s morals exposed
It’s been a long time since anyone took Starmer at face value. But the former human rights lawyer has traded off a supposed commitment to basic liberal values for years. He often restates these. Albeit, with diminishing returns as he’s actively supported everything from austerity to ethnic cleansing while tacking to the far-right on refugees.
He’s also attacked the right to protest, demonstrating that old authoritarian impulse baked into liberalism. And this lead him into another contradiction he cannot resolve.
Starmer – whose career in human rights law actually did have impressive moments – couldn’t criticise Trump even if he wanted to on internal repression against left of liberal institutions. Or a violently militarised immigration policy. Or attacks on free speech, for example on university campuses. At least not from a position of moral authority.
Why? Because he’s doing all of the same things to some extent himself. This is what we, the left, mean when we say liberals, especially in power, and fascists are two sides of the same coin. A point with ample historical evidence, but which many centrists decry.
And unfortunately for us, we now have a living, breathing case study unfolding in front of our eyes.
Featured image via YouTube screenshot/Sky News
