EUROPE'S NEW FASCISTS

Hitler and SA leader Röhm in 1933

'People's economy--yes! Globalisation--no!' These could be chants from a demonstration in Seattle or Prague, but they are not. They are some of the slogans on the placards of the National Democratic Party (NPD) in Germany. The NPD is a fascist party that is attempting to respond to the developing political polarisation and anti-capitalist feeling--first by attacking immigrants as parasites, and second by attacking the bosses as self serving and greedy. While stating his party's opposition to government attempts to recruit IT specialists from India, NPD lawyer and 'theorist' Horst Mahler says, 'The cartels of private interest have taken control of the state and betrayed the people.' The bosses are using the 'foreigners' to undercut the German people and so enrich themselves, he argues. The NPD and other far right parties like the German People's Union (DVU) and the Republikaner Party make simple arguments against immigration such as, 'Send back 4 million immigrants and take 4 million off the dole'--slogans which have a chilling resemblance to those of Hitler's Nazis.

The present day fascist plan for growth involves a twin track approach. Firstly, the fascists must relate to the most ground down and desperate people--the long term unemployed as well as teenagers who see no chance of a future. To these people, they present their tough face. Street gangs which organise attacks on immigrants, minorities and the homeless attempt to create what they describe as 'nationally liberated areas', and they provide a sense of power to the powerless. In Germany during the last year 'far right offences' jumped by 59 percent to 15,951, reaching their highest level since the Second World War. Among the worst attacks were the beating to death of a Mozambican contract worker by a group of skinheads in a park in the eastern city of Dessau, and the killing of a homeless man by four self confessed fascists.

Secondly, the Nazis seek respectability in the democratic process. Through elections they hope to build a base of popular support that will become a mass movement. They play upon the anxiety and fear generated by the economic crisis and they target small businessmen and disillusioned 'professionals' whose cynicism and petty prejudices they seek to mobilise

In Germany this strategy seems to have backfired. A significant barrier to the growth of today's far right is that they can easily be exposed as the rebranded Nazis of the 1930s. Last year the firebombing of a synagogue in prosperous Düsseldorf brought a wave of outrage that culminated in a popular call for a state ban on the NPD. Opposition to Nazi marches and meetings is regularly reported in newspapers as thousands of anti-Nazis outnumber hundreds of Nazis. Widespread revulsion at racist attacks means that the Nazis have lost their mask of respectability and have been performing badly in recent elections. In the local elections in March of this year in Baden-Württemberg the Republikaner Party failed to clear the minimum 5 percent of the vote required to retain any seats in the local parliament.

In parts of the former East Germany, the Nazi vote has been much higher and violence more commonplace. In a recent survey in Brandenburg 76 percent of young males stated that they 'could not imagine having Jewish friends'. The unfortunate truth is that the more isolated the Nazis become, the more they seek to impress their demoralised supporters with 'direct action' rather than 'respectability'. Meanwhile the mainstream right CDU has been attempting to pick up the racist vote by launching a campaign around the slogan 'Proud to be German'.

Getting their hands dirty

German anti-Nazis regularly outnumber the fascists(below)

In Austria it appeared that the Nazis had found the route to respectability. In 1999 a general election gave Jörg Haider's Freedom Party (FPÖ) 27 percent of the vote, enough to make it part of the governing coalition. Haider presented himself as a thoroughly modern politician but had made a number of statements to link himself to the fascist right. His party fought the recent local elections in Vienna on a platform of opposition to immigration.

The FPÖ made its name attacking the two parties that had governed Austria since the end of the Second World War, accusing them of acting against the interests of the Austrian people. The FPÖ would be a clean pair of hands, it argued. Now its own policies have been starkly revealed. A political corruption scandal involving the FPÖ, a local chief of police and a list of addresses of FPÖ opponents helped remove the respectable facade. A regular stream of anti-Semitic outbursts and verbal attacks on immigrants have ensured that no one doubts the FPÖ's racism. Last month Haider accused the leader of Austria's Jewish community of being 'unclean'. This has given rise to a vigorous anti-fascist movement. And the coalition government's method of dealing with economic crisis has been to attack the benefits system while raising taxes. This has proved to be extremely unpopular and denies the FPÖ the chance to claim that it stands up for the 'ordinary Austrian'. The result has been a big drop in electoral support for the FPÖ in the Vienna elections to just over 20 percent and an increase in support for the Greens, who have been vocal in their opposition to Haider's racism, to over 12 percent.

Fascists(see above)

In 1995 the French Front National (FN) led by Jean-Marie Le Pen was the European far right's best hope. When French voters last chose their 30,000 mayors, the FN was riding high, having secured three town halls in its heartland near the Mediterranean coast, adding another in a subsequent by-election. Many commentators were despondent, claiming that the ability of the FN to enter into local coalitions with the mainstream right wing parties meant the FN was now a permanent fixture. However, the huge wave of workers' struggles that erupted in December of that year and the subsequent revival of the anti-racist movement were to shatter the FN's hopes.

While Le Pen publicly attacked the strike wave, polls showed that the majority of FN voters supported it. Increasingly FN meetings faced large scale opposition and the country appeared to have swung decisively to the left. With its forward march halted, the FN split in two. Bruno Mégret, Le Pen's ambitious lieutenant, created a new party called the National Republican Movement (MNR) which, like the FN, has in public sought to distance itself from fascism. In elections in 1999 neither party scored more than 6 percent.

In recent local elections the fascist right was able to keep control of the towns it won in the 1990s but its presence was vastly reduced. In 1995 the FN stood in the second ballot in 185 towns of more that 30,000 inhabitants. Last month the FN and MNR together stood in just 41 towns of the same size out of a possible 205. In Orange the FN mayor went into the election saying, 'What's happening in Orange has nothing to do with the FN. Everywhere in France people feel a deep rejection of politics. That is why I am running on a personal, not a party, ticket.'

It seems likely that this month will see the election of a coalition of the right in Italy. Led by the Thatcher-loving Silvio Berlusconi, the 'Pole of Liberty' will include members of the National Alliance (NA), which changed its name from the Italian Social Movement (MSI) in 1994, and the Northern League. Both are likely to get government posts. The MSI, and in turn the NA, are direct descendants of Mussolini's Fascist Party. The name change signified a change in tactics. NA leader, and possible deputy prime minister, Gianfranco Fini describes his party as 'post-fascist' and made the decision to 'go respectable' after the MSI made significant inroads in the 1993 local elections.

NA leaders are keen are to show to how far they have moved from their fascist past. However, at a local level they may have found the break more difficult. Mario De Cristofaro, an NA regional commissioner, has delighted many party members by producing a Benito Mussolini calendar this year, complete with slogans from 1922, the year the Fascists took power.

Partners in government will be the Northern League, an openly racist and regionalist party which wants to stop southern Italians from trying to move to the labour shortage areas of the north. They have been combining their anti-state rhetoric with crude racism in an attempt to win an independent Lombardy. Despite Berlusconi's huge personal fortune and control of a media empire, there are reasons to suspect that his government will be unstable.

Declaration of war

The economic crisis, which helps create an audience for the right, also undermines them in office. Berlusconi portrays himself on election posters as a 'workers' president', but his policies are those of Italy's small businessmen. His ten commandments included substantial tax reductions, loosening of employees' protection against dismissal and social spending to be lowered--in short, a declaration of war against workers which, if implemented, will almost certainly lead to large scale industrial conflict.

The fascist right everywhere across Europe face major dilemmas. When they receive an upsurge in electoral support they feel pressure to pursue a path to respectability and towards alliances with the mainstream right. While this has opened the possibility of joining governing coalitions, it creates tensions within their own ranks. Even when there are no coalitions on offer, respectability comes with a price--the reining in of the thugs and skinheads. A key part of the success of the far right in Europe has been its ability to relate to the most disaffected from society. In order to continue to do so, they have to maintain their street gangs, their racist attacks, and their rhetoric of taking state power by taking control of the streets. But these policies have the effect of undermining the claim of the fascist right to be legitimate political parties.

When fascist parties have entered coalition governments they are inevitably drawn into a process of making cuts, and punishing workers and the poor. These attacks affect their own supporters, who often become disillusioned with them.

Every breakthrough by the fascists has been met with a new round of resistance. The new movements that are created have the opportunity to expose the 'respectable' far right for the fascists that they are. This threat constantly pushes the fascist parties toward either disowning their political past, physically attacking their opponents, or both.

If we are to exploit these weaknesses, the anti-racist movement must see through the claims of the 'post-fascist' parties. In France during the 1980s there existed a big, vibrant anti-racist movement. It opposed the FN's racism but failed to identify it as a fascist party. Practically, this meant allowing the FN to meet and march, which helped grant the FN the respectability it craved. It also means that, despite setbacks, the FN continues to exist today, waiting for more suitable conditions for growth.

The fact that we have to fight this battle time and again is testament to both the depth of the economic and social crisis in Europe, the resilience of fascist organisation and their ability to reinvent themselves.