The Far Left and far Right have been quietly swapping their political positions on a number of issues, namely Immigration, EU membership, NATO, Antisemitism and Globalisation. It will come as a surprise to younger, self-styled ‘Progressives’ that the Left used to be opposed to mass immigration, EU and NATO membership, Globalisation, and was the natural political home for British Jews. Anti-Islamic sentiment in the UK led to a new breed of pro-Israeli right wing activists in stark opposition to those on the Left. Leaving the EU used to be Labour Party policy, and certainly Labour Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, wasn’t exactly singing its praises in the 2016 referendum. A war in Ukraine and a resurgent Russian Federation has made the European Left rethink its anti-NATO stance, while an authoritarian far right attracted Putin admirers. A Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn resulted in the party being referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission because of the prevalence of anti-semitism in its supporters and membership. Left wing ‘Jew Hatred’ became a thing of the Left as well as the Right. Immigration and globalisation are closely linked and the British left used to be opposed to both. This is no longer the case. It wants a No Borders world, where it can expunge its historical guilt for the British Empire, colonialism and slavery by rendering Britain into an economic zone for aspiring third world immigrants
Mass Immigration
Karl Marx viewed mass immigration primarily as a structural tool used by the capitalist class to depress wages, divide the working class, and maintain economic power.
Marx observed how the large-scale influx of Irish workers into 19th-century England forced down wages and lowered the material and moral standing of the native English working class. He argued that capitalism naturally dispossesses people—driving them off rural land or out of colonised nations—and turns them into a mobile “reserve army of labour”. Employers use this surplus pool of desperate or displaced workers to keep competition high, prevent labour shortages, and maintain the upper hand over workers.
These days being opposed to mass immigration is seen as right wing and racist. Yet the trades unions and others led protests against mass immigration throughout the 1960s. The Left now sees new immigrants as a source of voters to be continuously imported.
https://monthlyreview.org/articles/marx-on-immigration/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5327924/
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+1academia.edu+1.
academia.edu+3whatnextjournal.org.uk+3pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+3.
More at:
https://notwokedot.com/ss-windrush-empire-the-story-of-unemployed-jamaicans/
EU Membership
Brexit reinforced the view that being opposed to EU membership was a right wing thing, which is not entirely wrong, but ignored the fact that many on the Left were opposed top the idea of the EU itself. Let’s examine also the 1983 Labour Party manifesto: “We will also open immediate negotiations with our EEC partners, and introduce the necessary legislation, to prepare for Britain’s withdrawal from the EEC, to be completed well within the lifetime of the Labour government”
Not even a referendum!
http://www.labour-party.org.uk/manifestos/1983/1983-labour-manifesto.shtml
Anti Globalisation
During the 1990s, you couldn’t host a G7/8 or G20 summit without catering for large scale protests– left wing protests. The 2005 G8 Gleneagles summit attracted two left wing protest camps, each of around 10,000 attendees. The lead-up featured massive global mobilisation, including the Live 8 concerts and a historic march of over 200,000 protesters in Edinburgh. Policing costs were in the region of £90 million.
Where are they now?
Globalisation is presented as a worldwide conspiracy against national identities, Western culture, and a global ethnic minority, white people. For right-wing exponents of antiglobalism, neoliberal globalisation is not the result of the structural logic of capitalism but, rather, the result of a political plan of powerful elites. Right-wing proponents of anti-globalism do not argue in favour of an alternative globalisation but suggest nationalism as a cure for the problems caused by the dominant form of globalisation.
Political parties like Reform UK and Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) reject unrestricted globalisation, framing it as a threat to national sovereignty, local industries, and cultural identity. While both lean into a “national first” economic and social outlook, their specific approaches combine nationalist protectionism with distinct tactical nuances. Remember that the movement of labour, ie immigration, is a feature of globalisation, which Marx opposed.
By way of contrast the Left these days advocates for progressive internationalism and global cooperation. Rather than scrapping international ties, left-wing platforms call for strengthening multilateral bodies like the International Labour Organization (ILO) and enforcing global climate targets through agreements such as the Paris Accord.
Left-wing parties reject anti-immigrant rhetoric, viewing refugees and immigrant labourers as vulnerable people who deserve human rights and international protection. They suffer from White Guilt and/or White Saviour syndrome. They believe that it is the duty of western nations to redress centuries of colonial oppression and to open both their borders and their wallets to a developing world, which would otherwise be unable to do what European-based cultures have achieved
https://www.britannica.com/event/antiglobalization/Right-and-left-wing-antiglobalism
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/anti-globalisation/
NATO Membership
In the UK the far left has traditionally been anti-NATO, and its critics have long called for NATO to disband. Its fiercest critics have been those darlings of the left, Jeremy Corbyn and Tony Benn. These days it’s a pro-Russian far-right which has been leading criticism of NATO and the post Cold War increase in NATO membership, but the Stop the War Coalition and Far Left are allied with the Far Right in opposing NATO.
https://www.stopwar.org.uk/events/stop-the-war-in-ukraine-no-to-nato-edinburgh-stwc-peace-rally/
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/02/23/nzup-f23.html
https://www.ft.com/content/556ed172-d0b9-11e4-982a-00144feab7de
https://hopenothate.org.uk/2022/03/25/patriotic-alternative-putins-fascist-sympathisers/
Antisemitism
Right wing antisemitism still exists, but the Left has been catching up. Dan Randall, from Workers Liberty explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQidlpuEGDM&list=WL&index=11
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/opinion/an-anti-semitism-of-the-left.html
https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/68854/pdf/
