Madrid hosted a convention of the global ultra-right, “Viva VOX 2024”, an event organized by Spain’s VOX party in May, perhaps an episode that augurs a turn in the strategy of domination and control, amid an acute crisis in the West. It is noteworthy that there, participated personalities such as the President of Argentina Javier Milei, Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Marine Le Pen of France, Victor Orban of Hungary. This event, held at the Palace of Vistalegre, enjoyed extensive media and propaganda coverage.
That is to say, there were also figures such as José Antonio Kast, who is preparing as a candidate for the next elections in Chile, and the newly elected Prime Minister of Portugal André Ventura, among others.
Although there are unconcealed differences between these sectors of the right, this event was full of actions, words and attitudes of hatred against social thought, social proposals, re-distributive and against the essence of the public. In addition, voices were heard referring to the need to redouble efforts to strengthen the cultural and political battle for “freedom against the ruin of the left”, as was stated by Milei, who ended up appearing as a visible figure of this group and ideology.
They discussed topics of particular interest to the diners: opposition to migration, to sexual diversity, the defence of an extreme and irrational European nationalism. In times of Western decadence, in the midst of the crisis of a unipolar, hegemonic world, this growing extremism, which increasingly resembles fascism, is re-emerging.
Humberto Eco gave an important speech that gives us light to understand the moment we live in. In his essay “ur-fascismo” or Eternal Fascismo, some of the characteristics are evident:
A strong cult of tradition, idealizes the past rejecting any modernism; contempt for science and knowledge; selective populism, one in which the leader is confused and falsely presented as a savior, as the authentic voice of the people, but who actually despises and abhors them; distortion of language, of its signifier and meaning to confuse, manipulate, control; attacking every possibility of critical thinking. It builds a strong political regime, to maintain its privileges and power.
Miguel Urbán, in his book “The Old Fascism and the New Radical Right”, compares the new radical right with the old Fascism, highlighting how these contemporary ultra-right movements reuse symbols, discourses and tactics of fascism, adapting them to the new social and political realities. Along the same lines, Urbán analyzes the role played today by social networks, digital platforms to spread their message, accompanied by the use of fear and disinformation.
Boaventura de Sousa, on the other hand, talks about social fascism, as a consequence of the cultural and information system, traced by the mass media and propaganda, it is an insidious and omnipresent form of oppression and control that infiltrates the structures and practices of everyday life. Unlike traditional fascism, which is violent, social fascism operates in a more subtle and covert way, but its effects are equally devastating. It is characterized by a clear erosion of social, economic and environmental rights, total denial of the right to peace, normalization of violence, oppression and repression, dehumanization of the other. racism is normalized and institutionalized, i. e. the bulk of the population is continually marginalized and excluded.
To all these expressions and explanations of fascism is added a constant dismantling of democracy in the name of “democracy”, attacks on the state in its role as guarantor of rights, although institutions survive, these are undermined by the open and cynical corruption that accompanies these tendencies, along with the manipulation of the media and the excessive power given to corporations and, of course, to the economic elites.
There is also an ideological and cultural control in which the media play a central role in that they will be responsible for disseminating thoughts, feelings and ways of explaining the world on the basis of stigmatization, exclusion and hatred.
This is a brief tour around what some thinkers warn about what is already a fact, the advance of irrationality and de-humanization, the advance and positioning of a strong fascist-style current, is ultimately a reaction from the West in the midst of its decadent curve.
It remains for us to redouble our efforts to articulate resistance in the creation of alternatives from below, to strengthen the ideological, cultural and meaning struggle. The struggle for socialism, for a culture of solidarity, of the common, to recover the value of the public, to strengthen the defence of the common good, all challenges that include the mobilization of thought, feeling, hope, social justice, the defence of Mother Earth, the collective construction of multiple plans of life in both urban and rural areas, the collective formation and qualification, the constant collective construction of thought and meaning. It remains for us to redouble our struggles.
Comandante Antonio Garcia
ELN