Quote Of The Day #60

“Anti-Semitism is the Socialism of fools.”

(German: “Der Antisemitismus ist der Socialismus der dummen kerle.”)

This quote is usually attributed to nineteenth century German politician August Bebel, one of the founders of the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands – Social Democratic Party of Germany); although there is doubt as to who coined the phrase it was in common use in Germany by the 1890s.

I have shared this quote because I believe it is still relevant in 2018. I’m not talking about the current rise in anti-Semitism on the pseudo-left (I wrote a post on Jeremy Corbyn’s ongoing problem with some of his Jew-hating followers here, with updates here and here) but because it sums up the nightmare of identity politics that has captured many left-wing parties in the West…

“Identity Politics is the Socialism of fools.”

Modern socialism is very much a product of the nineteenth century. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed their ideas against the background of the Industrial Revolution; modern trade unions were born to fight for the rights of workers in factories employing hundreds of workers in extremely challenging conditions. I graduated from university nearly thirty years ago but I vividly recall a lecturer trying to explain the basics of Marxism. He said that Marx did not believe that capitalists were intrinsically bad people – he gave the example of the Quaker Rowntree family and their many charitable efforts – but the problem lies with the system. The logic of capitalism is to increase revenues and decrease costs. One of the key costs in any business is labour – businesspeople wish to get the maximum amount of work for the minimum of wages. This is not a ‘left-wing’ or a ‘right-wing’ point, it is a simple statement of fact. Unfortunately, due to a variety of factors the last couple of generations has seen downward pressure on wages.

How have many left-wing political parties responded to these changes? By embracing neoliberal economics. Tony Blair in the UK, Bill Clinton in the United States and Chinese Communist Party all decided that the best way to run an economy is to let capitalists get on with making money and letting everyone else feed off the crumbs that will ‘trickle down.’ This lie was brutally exposed by the 2008 financial crash; since then wealth has not so much ‘trickled down’ as ‘gushed up.’

Regrettably, the pseudo-leftists who control UK Labour, the US Democrats and many other Western political parties do not seem to care. In a reversal of Classical Marxism they are no longer interested in Lenin’s “commanding heights of the economy” but seem to think the colour of your skin, the contents of your pants or the name of your imaginary friend is what really matters. I’ve said it before but it is no coincidence that most of the apostles of identity politics are minted – who cares about incidentals like rent and food when you have Daddy’s credit card?

Unlike Jeremy Corbyn’s pal Peter Willsman – who likes to blame Labour’s woes on “Jewish Trump fanatics” – I don’t believe there is a deliberate conspiracy. However, the amount of time the media devotes to nonsense like  ‘Islamophobia,’ transgenderism and ‘white privilege’ cannot help but suck attention away from real economic issues like stagnating wages, collapsing public services and increasing inequality. The powers-that-be love to play divide and rule, figuring if ordinary people are each others throats over pathetic non-issues then they will not be able to unite against their real enemies.

I’d like to end by saying that ordinary working people of whatever race, gender, sexual orientation or religion have much more in common with each other than with rich oppressors who happen to share the same race, gender, etc. As Tom Watson, a nineteenth century Georgia Congressman, said…

“Now the People’s party says to these two men, ‘you are kept apart that you may be separately fleeced of your earnings. You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. You are deceived and blinded that you may not see how this race antagonism perpetuate monetary system which beggars you both…

The conclusion, then, seems to me to be this: the crushing burdens which now oppress both races in the South will cause each to make an effort to cast them off. They will see a similarity of cause and a similarity of remedy. They will recognise each should help each other in the work of repealing bad laws and enacting good ones. They will become political allies, and neither can injure the other without weakening both. It will be to the interest of both that each should have justice. And on these broad lines of mutual interest, mutual forbearance, and mutual support the present will be made stepping stone to future peace and prosperity.”

Those words were written in 1892 about the antagonism fostered between white and black Americans in the South. Tell me that they do not equally apply to the deliberate stirring up of resentment based on the hollow, divisive and racist ideology of identity politics.