Thread by @SimonCopland

Incoming: long thread about the #melbourneprotests. TLDR: the institutional left are massively failing in the response, and in doing so I really worry are going to push even more people to the far-right. #tradiesprotest #covid19aus

Before I begin, a note about what I mean by the institutional left, because I always get in trouble about this. I’m specifically referring to those in powerful mainstream orgs – the ALP, elements of the Greens, unions, left-wing think tanks and some progressive NGOs.

There’s been a lot of debate about the Melbourne protests, and whether they are all from the far-right. There was a mix – tradies with genuine issues and right-wing grifters who latched on. At times those two are the same, with an influence of the right in construction industry.

How has this influence happened? The far-right are often good at recruitment, and they spend a lot of time working on their recruitment tactics. But I also think the institutional left is actively pushing away the working class, with potentially awful consequences.

In Australia, this started in the 70s and 80s, when Labor (both the party and the movement) were the key architects of neoliberalism. If you haven't read @anintegralstate's book about this, you really need to. brill.com/view/title/350…

The Accords cut conditions and have resulted in long-term wage stagnation. They also resulted in a strategy where union leaders focused more on being ‘at the table’ than being on the factory floor. It furthered a disconnect between union leaders and the working class.

Just as importantly, the Accords, and subsequent legislation from both the ALP and Coalition, have made strikes extremely difficult (see this excellent article from Bruce Knobloch on this issue in the latest Green Agenda). greenagenda.org.au/2021/08/withou…

This has taken away a key means through which the working class have been able to express their discontent and to improve their pay and living conditions. It has been a shocking loss, that has rarely been a focus on the institutional left.

In addition to these structural changes, the institutional left has increasingly adopted what @Jeff_Sparrow has called a “smug politics”, one which increasingly looks down upon the working class. As Sparrow argues:

"rather than treating working people as an agency for change or a constituency to be served, they publicly declared them a problem to be solved, and explained racism, sexism and other forms of bigotry as the consequence of the public’s lamentable ignorance"overland.org.au/2021/09/covid-…

This is a politic of paternalism – that we middle class lefties need to control the bad behaviours of the working classes. They cannot be trusted to live their lives or make risk-based decisions. (Of course conservatives do this too.)

What this means is that the institutional left have failed at increasing people’s wages and conditions and have cut their social welfare blanket, but then at the same time turn around and tell people how to live their lives. Of course much of the working class doesn’t trust them.

I think all of this has become much worse during COVID-19. As lockdowns have dragged on people have naturally become frustrated.

As I said in this article in the Canberra times, It is not surprising that these protests are happening in Melbourne – the city with the longest, and often harshest, lockdowns in the world. canberratimes.com.au/story/7444150/…

However, when people get frustrated or complain, they are immediately told by those in the institutional left that they want to kill grandma. A weird binary developed in the last where you were either for harsh lockdowns or 'let it rip'. There was nothing in between.

While there have been some great campaigns to provide support for those struggling during lockdown, big chunks of the institutional left have focused most of their energy on how harsh things can be. Suffering has become a virtue, and freedom something easily given away.

Moreover, genuine concerns have been mocked. This whole thing started when tradies protested peacefully about the loss of tearooms – which is a major OH&S issue. They were told they are having “man baby tantrums”. Where is the empathy? Where is the solidarity?

Who would respond well to that? What person is going to turn around and say “yes, I am a man baby throwing a tantrum!” There is no actual theory of change here, just a rhetoric that pushes people further away.

The LNP are worse. While they often try to direct their rhetoric toward the working class, their policies are abhorrent. They implemented the ABCC, which targets construction workers. They have failed at providing support the lockdowns, and their vaccine rollout was a shambles.

But the far-right also taps into these failures. What they are doing very well, at least in some segments, is tapping into genuine anger about long-term institutional failures and directed individuals toward far-right groups. They target both mainstream left and conservatives.

This is why COVID has been a boon. After decades of institutional failure ppl have been told we must trust them blindly to implement some of the biggest social changes ever experienced. Some people are going to be suspicious of that, and the far-right are good at exploiting that.

Hence you get people who aren’t actually ideologically aligned to far right ideas joining these groups. This has been documented by Kimmel – who showed a lot of people join the far right first for the community, with ideological commitment following after. ucpress.edu/book/978052029…

I really worry that a similar trend could happen here. Much of the left has abandoned the working class, and this has gotten worse during COVID. Of course not everyone will flood to far-right groups, but many could, and it will have disastrous outcomes.

When I think about how to counteract the far-right, I often think that the best way to counteract them is with something better – a better narrative based in solidarity. The left is absolutely failing to do that. “You are throwing man-baby tantrums” just ain’t gonna cut it.

I've turned this into a blog post (with a bit more detail) if you don't want to just read it in thread form. I actually wanted to say more but there is a limit on thread lengths!

simoncopland.com/blog/melbourne…