If this is fascism, what are socialists doing?

Fin Laing is a student at Aberdeen University

Of all of George Orwell’s iconic works, I find ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ to be the most interesting. I began reading it under the mistaken impression that it was a novel about some artist on a quest to better understand the alien working class which, in some senses, it absolutely was. The second half provides a rather scathing critique of those that would consider themselves socialists from the perches of the middle class, decrying the over-reliance on terms such as ‘bourgeois’ and ‘proletariat’. 

First published in 1937, the book p a startlingly accurate picture of the future, from the frighteningly accurate prediction of how war would descend upon Europe again, to the battle for the hearts and minds of a subjugated working class in England. The latter, regrettably, is a battle that the left is losing; badly. If the race riots we’ve recently seen are anything to go by, it highlights a future in which fascism wins. A future where people hailing from the multicultural backgrounds which Britain should be proud of are truly fearful of leaving their houses. 

And this is fascism we watch on the news, make no mistake. We’re watching a group who have been battered by an elitist political class who believe they are fighting back on the basis of unity of nationality. What difference, if any, does this subset of the British people have to the basic principles of National Socialism found in 1930s Germany? It’s seems sort of close to socialism, and yet it so far misses the mark of ‘what it’s all about’. Why?

‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ was, by any metric, lightyears ahead of its time. It is, to political literature, what ‘The War of the Worlds’ is to science fiction, the author of which, H.G. Wells, takes a fair amount of abuse from Orwell for, remarkably, his lack of imagination. The criticism of socialists as ‘nudist sandal wearers’ is a perspective which remains very much alive in today's media. Earlier this year, right wing news outlet The Telegraph, published a story entitled ‘Calling the Countryside Racist is Ridiculous Left-Wing Militancy’. 

I’m very left-wing. I have Russian dolls on my bedside table. I have never once called the countryside racist, primarily because I don’t see the point. Despite hailing from Edinburgh, I grew up in the country, I went to high school in the country. Are the locals more socially conservative than their inner-city counterparts? Yes, that tends to be the case. 

Do farmers still stand to benefit from socialist principles regarding agriculture? They absolutely do, but why would they advocate for such principles when the people promoting them are so scathing of them and their viewpoints? While right-leaning tabloids and, my personal arch-nemesis, Piers Morgan, spend their time spewing nonsense about the ‘plight’ called veganism, Grassmen continue to merchandise their catchy slogan of ‘No Farmers, No Food, No Future’. 

In reality, of course, farmers stand to gain a great deal from veganism becoming more mainstream. It’s more cost-effective, more production effective and, actually, more profitable. And still, massive swathes of this demographic are, rightly or wrongly, fearful of, not Socialism, but socialists. 

The ‘Just Stop Oil’ campaign falls victim to the same trap. They are, by every metric possible, entirely correct in their assertion that continuing to rely on fossil fuels is an untenable position. Yet most of their media coverage centres around how much they annoy the average person; preventing them from getting to work, taking children to the hospital, reaching funerals. No matter how correct they are in the assertion that there needs to be an imminent energy transition, the message is lost amongst the negative press they were always going to receive. 

Now 68% of people disapprove of the movement, with as many as 44% stating that they hold a ‘very unfavourable opinion’ of the group. Nearly half of Britons are stuck in the ‘strongly disagree’ camp about a movement that, by every single metric, is right! 

Just Stop Oil, in particular, is the clearest parallel to the ‘nudist sandal wearers’ Orwell found himself terrified by. Fashion choices should never be a factor in deciding whether a political stance has merit, but this is where the omni-present right wing British media find much of their ammunition. 

I had a friend who grew up in an ex-mining community, a Labour stronghold; someone who is incredibly sympathetic to the notion of preventing the climate crisis and someone who, by every metric, should be staunchly in favour of socialist ideals turn around and say to me, on the matter of Just Stop Oil activists, “right or wrong, they look like tossers”. It’s impossible to counter that statement with the numbers and statistics which point towards the Earth tumbling into catastrophe, because it ceases to be about policy and principle, and shifts instead to tribal warfare. This cannot stand.

All the while that left argue about a boxer’s right to fight in a sporting competition that no one wants to host anymore, the right have cemented their position - ‘they probably shouldn’t but even if you don’t agree with that, come into the fold - it’s nice and warm’. The despicable race riots we’re watching unfold up and down the country at the moment are, almost definitely, a result of the massive ideological victory that Reform UK had at the recent General Election. 

While ordinary people burn down the (allegedly) high-end hotels housing asylum seekers, odious grifters like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon stoke the flames of the fire from, ironically, a five star hotel in another country. Yes, Reform only won four seats at the general election, but they came second place in another 98. Their vote share in Scotland, which under UKIP failed to reach 2%, has climbed as high as 7% in a country where the population is declining and immigration, generally, isn’t an issue at the forefront of the minds of the public. 

The far-right have firmly entrenched themselves into the bedsheets of our democratic system and, like bed bugs, it’ll take hell and high water to get them out. While I was pleasantly surprised by the success of the English Greens at this most recent election (they seem like such a friendly bunch!), they simply cannot provide the antidote to the venomous rhetoric of Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, Lee Anderson and a growingly hostile right wing media. 

That the centre cannot hold is one of the most entrenched facts of democracy. Keir Starmer, try as he may, is not Tony Blair. He lacks the charisma, the ability to build bridges and a clear vision for the country. That is by no means me advocating for Blair – I think he’s ghastly – but he placated the mob in a way that the current Labour government will never be able to. While the cross-party reaction to these racist riots has been of some comfort to those who are terrified by them, they suffer the key problem of being a movement which is cross-party. Come election day in 2029 (or sooner), they will fall back to their tribes and vote accordingly. 

Meanwhile, the continuation of budget-slashes and a lack of a complete overhaul of social democracy will further entrench the growing trend of othering and placing the blame for the working person's struggle on those who are trying to escape war, poverty, dictatorships and American missiles. The centre cannot hold. This is clear. The question, as written by Orwell nearly a century ago, is whether it will fall to socialism or fascism.