The Threat from the plunging markets and the resurgent far-right

By Andrew R-Taylor

Recent elections in Austria have brought democrats
world over a wake-up call: 30% of voters have given
their support to the Far-Right,-- to holocaust
revisionists like Jörg Haider,of the Freedom Party,--
and to Heinz-Christian Strache, the thug leader of the
Alliance for Austria's Future.

Why is this particular electoral outcome so
threatening -- after all, democratic and left forces
have just to keep up the old vigilant fight against
tolerance for such forces? The threat is much more
menacing today because it arrives in sync with the panic of Europe's political class, as they flounder
in the Banking Meltdown following years of unprecedented
economic prosperity. The threat lies in the political
vacuum of this kairos1 moment.


The corporate press' talking heads keep telling us we
are moving into "uncharted waters". They are
correct. What toll will the global banking Crisis take
in job layoffs, home repossessions, and pension
savings? No one has a precise answer to that question
but commentators from all points on the political
spectrum agree that the damage will be considerable
and long-lasting,- and they concede that the political
leaders of Europe and N. America and Asia are
discredited. This combination of factors opens the
possibility of mass growth for the socialist left worldwide,
for the growth of a more militant trade unionism, but it
has also pushed the door open for the demagogues of
the racist, anti-immigrant Far-Right, for concessions by
labour, and the demoralisation of the progressive movements.

Class lines are hardening, and as the crisis deepens the struggle
of the antagonistic classes will deepen: there is great confusion,
it is time to dig deep foundations and build well.
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1. Kairos moment: In addition to chronos or
chronological time, the Greeks also spoke of time as a breakthrough, time as occasion, time as qualitative rather than quantitative, time as significant rather than dimensional. This latter word for time is kairos.