Subscription 790/year or 195/quarter

Presented as solidarity actions

Marielle Leranand
Marielle Leraand
Leader in Fred and Justice (FOR), regular commentator in MODERN TIMES, and former deputy leader in Rødt.
WAR / In the ongoing conflict between Russia and the West in Ukraine, social democrats, social liberals and green politicians have been among the most ardent supporters of war and confrontational politics. And when "solidarity" becomes a tool for warmongers, the political right can become a strategic ally.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

Is it true that we see tendencies towards the radical left more often finding themselves together with parts of the right in political conflicts, so that we can say that the so-called horseshoe theory has something to do with it? Yes, it applies far from all, nor most political conflicts, but it applies in some areas. One of the areas at issue is the most important of all political questions: the question of war and peace.

The anti-war strategy of the labor movement

Historically, the issue of war and peace has been one of the most defining divisions between right and left. The radical labor movement has from the beginning been associated with the idea that war between nations is an evil that should be stopped by workers on both sides refusing to fight each other, and if given the order to shoot, rather shoot their own officers than shoot at other workers on the other side of the border. On the opposite side, the far-right ideologies of fascism and Nazism arose in the wake of the First World War as an expression of the extreme opposition to this. For Høyreto the extremists, war was not simply an acceptable means of safeguarding the nation's interests in conflict with others, as it was in traditional bourgeois thinking at the time. For right-wing extremism, mobilizing the nation in war was also a romantic goal in itself.

Even though moderate social democrats undermined the anti-war strategy of the labor movement on both sides during the First World War, and even though most social democratic parties supported NATO during the Cold War, it was still in the centre-left that left-wing radicals could most often find an ear for disarmament and detente.

The falsity of rhetoric

This changed after the end of the Cold War. Fair enough, Tony Blair and British Labor were quite alone among historical centre-left parties in their enthusiastic support and participation in the war of aggression against Iraq in 2003, but both during the preceding NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 and in the ongoing conflict between Russia and the West in In Ukraine, social democrats, social liberals and green politicians have been among the most ardent supporters of war and confrontational politics.

For right-wing extremism, mobilizing the nation in war was also a romantic goal in itself.

One explanation is probably that several of the wars after the Cold War ended have been portrayed as solidarityactions, where the aim is not to promote the interests of one's own nation, but to help people in need. For those who have access to enough information, it is not difficult to see the inconsistency and thus the falsity of this rhetoric.

For example, the West has insisted on being able to intervene military to support a population group's right to self-government and a resistance to the incumbent regime i Syria, while insisting on respect for the principles of non-interference and respect for existing borders in today's ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Underlying are the same old interests in increasing the state's control and influence over other people's lands and resources – which underpinned the colonial era and the First World War.

#Propaganda works, however, and for the broad masses of people who do not have the opportunity or energy to seek out information and analyze inconsistencies that are not communicated, it is easier to believe that the world is actually as it is presented in the media. Therefore, the propaganda works as it was intended for gullible centre-left people who enthusiastically support the elite's war plans.

Right side

At the same time, those who think in traditional right-wing ways protest, and advocate that we should rather take care of our own problems than use the tax to give another country large quantities of advanced weapons for free.

Far from everyone on the right, however, are such "doves of peace", which we see clearly in the right-wing populist Polish government, which is among the most bellicose in the EU and NATO. But at the same time, the corresponding right-wing populist Hungarian government is the one that, in contrast to some centre-left governments, puts a damper on the EU's sanctions policy and refuses armsdeliveries to Ukraine through own territory.

Gullible center-left people enthusiastically support the elite's war plans.

In the United States, the leading voices against the proxy war against Russia are the ultra-liberal Republican senators Rand Paul and arch-conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson.

However, we still see the strongest organizational expressions of war resistance on the left wing, including in Green Party The United States, which, unlike its European sister parties, has retained the Green Movement's original radical left political position.

On the left, we should not be influenced by this. The left has not approached the politics and rhetoric of the right wing. The explanation is that it is the centre-left that has become the driving force behind a zeal for war that was previously a characteristic of the extreme right. It is the belligerent centre-left politicians who have reason to be ashamed of this new political pattern.

The fact that people on the right can also be against war is always only good. When the concept of "solidarity" is turned into a weapon of war, such "egoists" can become useful allies in the struggle for peace. We should have no problem defending that.



Follow editor Truls Lie on X(twitter) or Telegram

- self-advertisement -

Recent Comments:

Siste artikler

Being able to offer a positive vision of the future

THOMAS HYLLAND ERIKSEN: MODERN TIMES brings here, on the occasion of the death of the social anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen, a longer essay about his latest book Det Umistelige – a book that is both down-to-earth and full of promise. His life's work is a perfect illustration of the principle of 'individuation': You can only become yourself by relating to a 'we' – by interacting with the collective.

Our relationship with sister earth

NATURE: Latour wants to problematize how several features of the Christian tradition have stood in opposition to man's relationship with nature. Religious thinking usually has an indifference towards the natural world. And it is not unusual that the most militant climate skeptics often also have a positive and religious expectation of the end of the world – where the saved will be saved and the sinners lost.

There is no such thing as 'healthy', 'normal' or 'sick'

HEALTH: From patient associations and wheelchair train blockades to queer protests and artistic projects, this book shows how people in Britain have resisted the power of diagnosis.

Somewhere between popular belief and the consensus of the wise

PSYCHOLOGY If we sapiens are so wise, why are we so self-destructive? The problem of the human species is, according to Harari, a network problem. For him, populism ultimately appears much more dangerous than a global liberal elite.

Information, knowledge and wisdom

KI: Some books take up familiar themes, but manage to put them into a context that makes the pieces fall more into place. Yuval Noah Harari's Nexus is one such book. For him, human political development rests on our ability to form and maintain networks.

Afghan media history

MEDIA: Saad Mohseni's book is an important and well-written account of what an active entrepreneur achieved together with and thanks to a diverse and courageous group of journalists.

"You were never fat and full, you went to the bottom."

POEM: Politically, Olav Nygard seems to have been in line with his friends, the cultural leaders Arne and Hulda Garborg, who complained about materialism and capitalism.

5532 Norwegians trained by the Americans

WAR: Norwegian officers see the world from the US. Johan Galtung interviewed about the publication of War Without End in Norwegian, where he wrote the foreword. Among other things, it is mentioned here that the integration of the armaments industry is the part of the economic sector that is coordinated the fastest in the EC area.

I was completely out of the world

Essay: The author Hanne Ramsdal tells here what it means to be put out of action – and come back again. A concussion leads, among other things, to the brain not being able to dampen impressions and emotions.

Silently disciplining research

PRIORITIES: Many who question the legitimacy of the US wars seem to be pressured by research and media institutions. An example here is the Institute for Peace Research (PRIO), which has had researchers who have historically been critical of any war of aggression – who have hardly belonged to the close friends of nuclear weapons.

Is Spain a terrorist state?

SPAIN: The country receives sharp international criticism for the police and the Civil Guard's extensive use of torture, which is never prosecuted. Regime rebels are imprisoned for trifles. European accusations and objections are ignored.

Is there any reason to rejoice over the coronary vaccine?

COVID-19: There is no real skepticism from the public sector about the coronary vaccine – vaccination is recommended, and the people are positive about the vaccine. But is the embrace of the vaccine based on an informed decision or a blind hope for a normal everyday life?

The military commanders wanted to annihilate the Soviet Union and China, but Kennedy stood in the way

Military: We focus on American Strategic Military Thinking (SAC) from 1950 to the present. Will the economic war be supplemented by a biological war?

homesickness

Bjørnboe: In this essay, Jens Bjørneboe's eldest daughter reflects on a lesser – known psychological side of her father.

Arrested and put on smooth cell for Y block

Y-Block: Five protesters were led away yesterday, including Ellen de Vibe, former director of the Oslo Planning and Building Agency. At the same time, the Y interior ended up in containers.

A forgiven, refined and anointed basket boy

Pliers: The financial industry takes control of the Norwegian public.

Michael Moore's new film: Critical to alternative energy

EnvironmentFor many, green energy solutions are just a new way to make money, says director Jeff Gibbs.

The pandemic will create a new world order

Mike Davis: According to activist and historian Mike Davis, wild reservoirs, like bats, contain up to 400 types of coronavirus that are just waiting to spread to other animals and humans.

The shaman and the Norwegian engineer

cohesion: The expectation of a paradise free of modern progress became the opposite, but most of all, Newtopia is about two very different men who support and help each other when life is at its most brutal.

Skinless exposure

Anorexia: shameless uses Lene Marie Fossen's own tortured body as a canvas for grief, pain and longing in her series of self portraits – relevant both in the documentary self Portrait and in the exhibition Gatekeeper.