Two guys wished me a Happy Commy Day at the gym yesterday, which made me laugh. Whether they’re socialists or anti-socialists, it seems Europeans are much more cognizant of Labor Day’s true meaning. On a related note, it’s interesting to see the socialist New Statesman echo Daniel Hannan in pointing out the intrinsic left-wing nature of the British National Party:
Public anxiety about immigration may have helped fuel the BNP’s rise, but the party is about more than racism and xenophobia. Under the leadership of Nick Griffin, it has worked hard to develop a full manifesto of policies – a strategy that it hopes will pay dividends by improving its image and broadening its appeal. But who exactly is the party appealing to? A brief skim through BNP manifesto literature brings to light proposals for the following: large increases in state pensions; more money for the NHS; improved worker protection; state ownership of key industries. Under Griffin, the modern-day far right has positioned itself to the left of Labour.
How, one wonders, can the far right position itself to the left of a socialist party? The political spectrum is not a circle; the concept of two wings meeting at the extremes is nonsensical. The reality is that it’s just more of the same anti-right propaganda of the sort Jonah Goldberg explicated so thoroughly in Liberal Fascism. After all, when the Left engages in an internecine struggle, both sides usually call the other one “fascist” and “right-wing”. And, one of them is even correct, but only in relative, not absolute, terms.