“What is now in crisis is a whole conception of socialism
which rests upon the ontological centrality of the working class, upon the role
of Revolution, with a capital ‘r’, as the founding moment in the transition
from one type of society to another…”
Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe-Hegemony and
Socialist Strategy
The political alliance of the working class leaders with
the bourgeoisie is disguised as the defence of the “republic.” The experiences
of Spain show what this defence is in actuality. The word “republican,” like
the word “democrat,” is a deliberate charlatanism that serves to cover up class
contradictions. The bourgeoisie is republican so long as the republic defends
private property.
Leon Trotsky-Lessons
of Spain, 1936
The first thing that must be said about Chantal Mouffe’s
new book: For a Left Populism is that it has nothing to do with Marxism, let
alone Socialism. It would be more precise to describe her left populism theory
as a rehash of the popular front politics of the 1930s under a new guise. The Stalinist
popular front theory of the 1930s was responsible for some of the worst defeats
suffered by the working class worldwide.
Mouffe is a leading theoretician of this “left populism”.
While Left populism does bear some similarities of the Stalinist popular front
theory, it is not merely a repetition of it.
One similarity is its subservience to the capitalist's
system. However, Mouffe’s theory has no historical or political link to the
working class. According to her book “What is urgently needed is a left-populist
strategy aimed at the construction of a ‘people,’ combining the variety of
democratic resistances against post-democracy in order to establish a more democratic
hegemonic formation,”.I contend that it does not require a ‘revolutionary’
break with the liberal democratic regime”.[1]
Chantal Mouffe is a crucial thinker for a large number of
Pseudo Left movements around Europe and beyond. She is a critical advisor to
the Momentum group. Mouffe bears directly Momentum’s endorsement
of Aufstehen (Stand Up), a right-wing group that came out of Die Linke.
Aufstehen repeats much from the right-wing especially its denunciations of “unrestricted immigration”.
Her writings influenced groups such as Die Linke in
Germany and La France Insoumise. A
fervent admirer of Jeremy Corbyn because he “stands at the head of a great
party and enjoys the support of the trade unions.”
Mouffe likes The Labour party because of its break with
anything connected to the working class in favour of a defence of “political
liberal institutions. She writes “the traditional left political frontier was
established on the basis of class. There was the working class or the
proletariat, versus the bourgeoisie. Today, given the evolution of society,
that is not the way in which one should establish the political frontier
anymore,”
Mouffe believes that a change in society can come about
without destroying the capitalist state, she writes that “it is possible to
bring about a transformation of the existing hegemonic order without destroying
liberal-democratic institutions.”
Let us be clear Mouffe’s ideas have nothing to do with
Marxism. As a real Marxist once said: "Marx’s idea is that the working
class must break up, smash the ‘ready-made state machinery,’ and not confine
itself merely to laying hold of it."[2]
Mouffe’s unnecessary use of technical terms in place of
everyday language cannot mask the fact that this populist strategy is
anti-socialist and has disastrous implications for the working class around the
world.
Many pseudo-left parties in Latin America and here in
Europe such as Podemos and Syriza have implemented her theories which have seen
the imposing of EU austerity diktats and blocking the emergence of an
independent political alternative for the working class. Far from opposing the
far-right, her ideas have been central in disorienting and demoralizing workers.
Her form of petty-bourgeois politics is shared by
postmodernist and “post-Marxist” intellectuals, such as Ernesto Laclau. It is
no accident that Mouffe teamed up with Laclau, an Argentine professor, who was
responsible for training half the leading members of Syriza at Essex University
in Britain.
The book Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, co-written with
Chantal Mouffe was a major attack on Marxism and the concept of the working class
as a revolutionary force in society. Laclau and Mouffe called upon their readers “to discard
the idea of a perfectly unified and homogenous agent, such as the ‘working
class’ of classical discourse.” The search for the ‘true working class and its
limits is a false problem and as such, lacks any theoretical or political
relevance. Evidently, this implies. that fundamental interests in socialism
cannot be logically deduced from determinate positions in the economic
process.”[3]
Mouffe’s
Attack on Marxism
Like many other specialists in her field, Mouffe uses a specific type of language to mask over a deep-seated opposition to Marxism.
Mouffe bemoans Marxist’s “who keep reducing politics to the contradiction of
capital/labour and attribute an ontological privilege to the working class,
presented as the vehicle for socialist revolution.” In plain language, she is
trashing the entire basis of Marxist politics.
While Mouffe is evident in what she rejects what she
advocates is a little vaguer. Mouffe it would seem will collaborate with anyone
to build an “amorphous, programmatically undefined, supra-class and nationalist
movement.”
Fascism
As was made clear
in the first paragraph, Mouffe does not class herself as a socialist and does not
advocate a struggle against capitalism. In her many books, she does not rule out
collaborating with right-wing forces.
In a recent Guardian article, she writes “It
is vital to realise that the moral condemnation and demonisation of rightwing
populism is totally counterproductive – it merely reinforces anti-establishment
feelings among those who lack a vocabulary to formulate what are, at core,
genuine grievances. Classifying rightwing populist parties as “extreme right”
or “fascist”, presenting them as a kind of moral disease and attributing their
appeal to a lack of education is, of course, very convenient for the
centre-left. It allows them to dismiss any populists’ demands and to avoid
acknowledging responsibility for their rise ”.[4]
It is hard to think of a more crass idea or a more shaper
expression of her political bankruptcy. The genuine dangers of fascism cannot
be opposed without mobilizing the working class on the basis of a revolutionary
program. It will need to do more than “decorate reformism with a new vocabulary”.
The logical outcome of pandering to the fascists is her fascination and rehabilitation
of the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt.
Schmitt was a leading Nazi jurist who opposed the doctrine
“no punishment without a law” writing “Everyone understands that it is a
requirement of justice to punish crimes. Those who, in the Van der Lubbe case
constantly spoke of the Rechtsstaat did not place primary importance on the
fact that an evil crime must find a just punishment. For them, the issue lay in
a different principle which, according to the situation, can lead to the
opposite of just punishment, namely the Rechtsstaat principle of no punishment
without law, nulla poena sine lege. By contrast, those who think justly in a
case see to it that no crime remains without a just punishment. I pit the
Rechtsstaat principle against the principle of justice: nulla crimen sine
poena—no crime without a punishment. The discrepancy between the Rechtsstaat
and the Just State then becomes immediately visible.[5]
As the old adage says “by their friends shall ye know them”
Carl Schmitt is not the only fascist that is having his
work rehabilitated. A significant number of avowedly fascist theorists like Julius Evola and some still active today
such as Alain de Benoist, Paul
Gottfried and Alexander Dugin are increasingly been given a platform both in bourgeois and
petty-bourgeois media.
Mouffe’s attitude towards fascism bears a striking
resemblance to the professors of the Frankfurt School who were advocates of the
utilization of myths and other forms of irrationalist politics” in combating
the fascists.
The demoralized professors of the Frankfurt School were
experts in denying the revolutionary capacity of the working class, objective
truth and the “grand narrative” of the
revolutionary class struggle.
As Mouffe’s writings owe a lot to the various professors
of the "Frankfurt School" it is worth bearing in mind its origins as
David North writes “Associated with the
work of Max Horkheimer, Theodore Adorno, Karl Korsch, Herbert Marcuse, Ernst
Bloch, Erich Fromm and Wilhelm Reich, the influence of the Frankfurt School
reached its apogee during the heyday of radical student protests in the late
1960s. After that wave of middle-class radicalism receded, the influence of the
Frankfurt School was consolidated in universities and colleges, where so many
ex-radicals found tenured positions. From within the walls of the academy, the
partisans of the Frankfurt School conducted unrelenting war—not against
capitalism, but, rather, against Marxism. In this struggle, they were
remarkably successful. With rare exceptions, very little resembling
Marxism—even if one means by that term only the rigorous application of
philosophical materialism to the study of history, society and social
consciousness—has been taught for several decades in the humanities departments
of colleges and universities.[6]
Mouffe’s new book is not an easy read and should only be
attempted on a full stomach and with a glass of wine or two in hand. As was
said earlier in the review her theories are nothing but rehashes of Stalin’s popular front theory
and owe a lot to the professors of the Frankfurt school. That does not mean they
are no less dangerous. Acceptance of her ideas are leading to significant betrayals
of struggles throughout the world and should be opposed.
[1] :For
a Left Populism-by Chantal Mouffe-Verso-112 pages / August 2019 / 9781786637567
[2] State
and Revolution, V Lenin:
[3] Hegemony
and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics (Radical
Thinkers)-
[4] Populists
are on the rise but this can be a moment for progressives too- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/10/populists-rise-progressives-radical-right
Chantal Mouffe- https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/10/populists-rise-progressives-radical-right
[5] [Carl Schmit, Nationalsozialismus und
Rechtsstaat; Juristische Wochenschrift 63, 1934]
[6] The
Frankfurt School vs. Marxism:The Political and Intellectual Odyssey of Alex
Steiner—Part 1By David North-22 October 2008- https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/10/fran-o22.html
