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Angelus Novus wrote

Interesting breakdown by social class:
https://twitter.com/formelfriedrich/status/1168402855880994816
In confronting the rise of authoritarian far-right populism, Marxists should really re-think the old Trotskyist shibboleths about fascism being a primarily petit-bourgeois or "Bonapartist" phenomenon.  It's pretty clear that the new far-right has a substantial proletarian base.
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Oh wow. So many questions. How far do we have to reach to understand a trend such as this, which becomes general and undeniable in the west, no matter how you parse class, it seems. Why is the left so weak? Are we in abject denial about that? There is nothing in the recent history of the left, as presently perceived, to give the working class any real hope in a socialist direction. Social democracy, top-down authoritarianism in left history and experience, euro-communism and the communism of the USSR and eastern Europe, the experience of Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Chile, Portugal, and failed left-Bonapartism in Venezuela, the general failure of socialism in one country, now approaching in Cuba, as in North Korea in the face of China's trajectory, China's turn toward capitalist authoritarian government, and its success for some and for how long, as AI proceeds and resource wars and chaos kick in. The absence of a viable vision for the working class among Marxists. And the effects of nationalism-chauvinism-racism-immigrant-bashing-patriarchy in a fractured capitalist society and culture. Where the existing shallow version of capitalist governance is no longer serving the interests of the majority of workers and supporting their hopes for their life chances, as that burgeoning, dynamic system has in the recent past, and the vaguest promise on the right is the only alternative left to so many - for now. We know we're in deep doodoo, and we can see only faint, flickering embers in movements of protest around the world right now. We aren't really reaching effectively for underlying conditions producing that turn to the authoritarian right. And what we can do once we understand that. Where there is no vision the people perish., and yet never more needed, in a time of powerful waning-systemic centrifugal forces moving us closer to annihilation, and the irreversible effects of the past 200 years of capitalist surge on climate.

The surprise remaining may be due to the shallow nature of working class support for capitalism and its very evident lack of direction or program, and the coming economic (and environmental) collapse, which on the basis of past periodic recurrence of panic is overdue. Can we somehow come through the gathering storm without nuclear holocaust? Have contradictions in the system reached the point of impasse? Can capitalism find its way through, overcome yet another set of barriers and find its legs again? If not, socialism has an opening - if theory, from the working class itself, informs practice with a credible program and an awakened leadership. The working class appears to have come a long way on that path so far, in many vital respects, and has much experience to build on and lessons to be well-learned from. As communication, coordination and combination have become global for capitalist production, that is also true, potentially, for its adversary as well, renewing hope for solidarity. The challenge and the trend in the wrong direction seem insuperable, if we lose sight of our already amply demonstrated, potential collective genius and power, and build on it.
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