LEFT
ON THE MARCH
The
Left is on the march throughout Europe, screaming for the
blood of Joerg Haider, the photogenic leader of a party smeared
as "nativist" and even "Nazi," and the mob is not limited
to the streets. The EU Parliament has approved a policy of
diplomatic, political and perhaps even economic sanctions
against Austria if the Freedom Party enters the government.
A new wave of "antifascism" is sweeping the Continent, and
behind it is what British Tory leader William Hague described
as a campaign to establish a British super-state. With the
publication of new EU proposals this week abolishing the ability
of individual member to veto the Eurocrats in such vital areas
as "social security, social policy, industrial and transport
policy, financial regulation and the spending of the multi-million
pound structural and cohesion funds," even Hague, hardly a
Euroskeptic, is waking up to the fact that the Eurocrats intend
to abolish the sovereignty of member states. A few days after
Hague spoke out, Tony Blair's Labor Party was ready with its
answer. In the debate over the Austrian question in the European
Parliament, Labor Party member Glyn Ford rose to declare:
"Some
say that it is not right for us to interfere in Austrian politics.
They are wrong. Some say we have to accept the outcome of
democratic elections – but elections do not always make democrats."
DIALECTICS
AND "DEMOCRACY"
In
other words, elections can and should be nullified if they
don't measure up to the proper standards of political correctness.
Such is the nature of "democracy," EU-style. Elections are
fine, as long as no one takes them too seriously. If they
should somehow stray from their predetermined result, then
they are "undemocratic" – a dialectical sleight of hand
worthy of the EU's Soviet predecessors.
IS
COMMUNISM "BEAUTIFUL"?
Who
is Massimo D'Alema, the "ex-Communist" Prime Minister of Italy,
to berate the Austrians their insufficient devotion to "diversity"
and "tolerance"? This is a man who, far from repudiating his
support of totalitarianism, glories in it instead: he once
proudly declared that "it is practically impossible to find
a name as beautiful as Communist Party."
ARISE
YE PRISONERS OF STARVATION …
Our
own London-based columnist, Emmanuel
Goldstein, has traced and amply documented the Red network
inside the British Labor Party, with "ex-" Commies of one
sort or another permeating the Labor Party leadership, and
on a much smaller scale the same tactic has been employed
by the Left in the US, with social democratic and "former"
CPUSA members and factions all burrowed deep in the party
of Clinton. The International of the "Third Way" embraces
corporate transnationalism – not laissez-faire, but international
state capitalism – as a way to achieve the old
Marxist dream of abolishing national boundaries altogether.
As John Laughland points out in the Spectator,
"The
West is thus now on the verge of achieving that of which Lenin
and Trotsky dreamed in 1917. For the point is not, as many
Eurosceptics mistakenly believe, to replace nation-states
with a European or world super-state. It is instead to achieve
the old Marxist dream of abolishing statehood altogether."
THE
GLOBALIST DESIGN
As
I have
pointed out very recently, the EU is a key element of
the globalist design, the model of the emerging world state
being constructed by Western elites. Seeking to supplement
(not supplant) NATO as the military guarantor of regional
security, the Eurocrats are planning their own armed forces,
which will police the continent for any outbreaks of forbidden
"extremism," as in Serbia and Austria. It is not inconceivable
that Austria could find itself faced with more than the threat
of mere sanctions. Will "Allied" planes bomb Vienna, just
as they devastated Belgrade? If it were up to the right honorable
Glyn Ford and his fellow Brezhnevites, then the answer to
that question should be all too apparent. My advice to the
Viennese: out of the opera houses and into the bomb shelters.
THE
NEW BREZHNEV DOCTRINE
It
is the Brezhnev Doctrine all over again: once you "say yes
to Europe," as the EU slogan would have it, you have lost
forevermore the right to say no. Just as there was no getting
out of the Warsaw Pact at the height of the Kremlin's power,
so the EU has similarly lassoed its member states – and
is now hauling them in, in some instances kicking and screaming.
An example must be made, and that is what the "Haider is Hitler"
propaganda campaign is all about.
MASS
HYPNOSIS
The
demonization of "hate figures" in the mass media to achieve
certain policy ends is by now a familiar technique of the
power elite. If ever they set their sights on a particular
area of the world, all they have to do is compare its rulers
to Hitler and it isn't long before the bombs start to fall.
American troops follow soon after. From Panama – remember,
if you will, that Noriega was absurdly compared to
Hitler – to Iraq to Serbia and now Austria, the vilification
process was eerily similar. Hitler, Hitler, Hitler –
the mere repetition of his name, over and over, in an endless
propaganda loop, has a kind of hypnotic effect. All critical
thought is suspended, and, instead, one is delivered over
to the tender mercies of the hypnotist, who looks down at
his patient through thick spectacles and speaks in a commanding
voice: "Now repeat after me. . . ."
THE
BIG SMEAR
The
characterization of Haider as some kind of neo-Nazi is known
by everyone in Austria, even the left-wing Social Democrats,
as a smear; after all, Glyn Ford's comrades in the Austrian
Social Democratic Party (affiliated with the British Labor
Party in the Socialist International) were also negotiating
with the Freedom Party to form a coalition government. As
the World
Socialist Website points out:
"Within
the SPÖ [Austrian socialist party], which for the first
time in 30 years is threatened with going into opposition,
indignation prevails about the recent turn of events. This
could easily cost Viktor Klima the party chairmanship. Klima's
inner-party opponents have not attacked him because negotiations
with the People's Party broke down, rather they accuse him
of failing to steal a march on Schüssel by approaching
Haider first. Last Monday Interior Minister Karl Schloegl,
an aspirant for the party presidency, called for negotiations
between the Social Democrats and the FPÖ. This was a
day before Haider opened discussions with [conservative party
leader] Schüssel."
A
LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS
In
his warmongering speech to the European Parliament, Glyn Ford
declared that the real villain of Vienna was not Haider –
"for a leopard never changes his spots" – but Schussel,,
"acting as a Judas goat resurrecting policies which we thought
had died in Berlin in 1945." But what does he think about
his fellow socialists of the Austrian SPO – why are they
not also condemned for attempting to get in bed with alleged
neo-Nazis?
ORIGINS
OF A CARNARD
The
neo-Nazi canard is universally applied to all the enemies
of the New World Order: never was it less deserved than in
the case of Joerg Haider. Yet virtually every "objective"
news account of the EU-Austrian face-off begins with a description
of Haider as the "far right" leader "who once praised Hitler's
employment policies." Nothing more is said about this accusation,
only the bare assertion, and its origin tells us a lot about
the propaganda techniques now in current usage. This is the
old cut-and-paste school of character assassination, in which
single sentences are lifted out of context and presented on
their face; in Haider's case, it is a single phrase,
a fragment of a sentence uttered in the heat of debate on
the floor of the Austrian Parliament. As I pointed out in
a previous
column on the subject, in answer to Haider's proposal
that welfare recipients, both native and foreign born, be
strongly encouraged to find private sector jobs under threat
of a cut-off in benefits, the socialists replied that Haider's
proposal would be a return to the policies of the Third Reich!
Overcome by such hypocrisy, the intemperate Haider replied
that, unlike the Social Democrats, the Nazis had actually
increased employment – a fact so politically incorrect
that he was forced to resign as governor of Carinthia.
CAUSE
AND EFFECT
Hyperbole
on the left is permitted, even encouraged, but is usually
the downfall of politicians on the right. Not in Haider's
case, however: he was later reelected, and his popularity
continues to surge. The attack of the Eurocrats has sent his
poll numbers skyrocketing: if the election were held today,
his Freedom Party could win a majority. At the height of the
debate in the European Parliament, an Irish Green Euro-MP,
Patricia McKenna, who abstained, naively warbled: "I wonder
at the wisdom of trying to combat intolerance with intolerance.
Is the Haider party getting more support because of the opposition
of outside governments? You just wonder, is this actually
feeding the flames of xenophobia?"
SOCIALIST
NOSTALGIA
As
we say in America: Duh-uh! All across Europe, the "ex"-Commies
and their Blairite allies are gearing up for a reenactment
of socialism's finest hour: the historic "anti-fascist" crusade
that ended with the lowering of the Iron Curtain over half
of Europe. In the 1930s and 40s, Communists and their fellow
travelers sent packages to Loyalist Spain, picketed the antiwar
rallies of the America First Committee after Hitler invaded
the Soviet Union, and made opposition to fascism the leitmotif
of their political work in every field. Dozens of "anti-Nazi"
groups sprang up like mushroom after a rain: from the mainline
Communist Party, with tens of thousands of members, to the
smallest Trotskyist sect, each group had its own "anti-Nazi"
front with which it hoped to draw closer to the masses –
and hitch a ride on the war hysteria. Today, the same scenario
is being played over again, this time with an eye to history:
the "Anti-Nazi League" of Great Britain announced a boycott
of Austria
"unless Joerg Haider is voted out of office." It won't
be long before this takes the place of the old anti-apartheid
boycotts of the 1980s; in old-line Stalinists it will evoke
the memory of the boycott of Japanese products in solidarity
with the people of China in the 1930s.
SHOCK
TROOPS
That
the Left is serving as the shock troops of the EU couldn't
have been made clearer by ANL spokesperson Julie Waterson,
who screeched: "There should be no cooperation with the Freedom
Party. We are supporting the European Union's position. The
anti-Nazi and antifascist campaigners need to show solidarity
with the people who were fighting back in Austria today."
In America, we are told, "leaders of more than 50 groups were
holding an emergency conference last night to decide what
action to take." Malcolm Hoenlein, the conference organizer,
told the Times that: "Feelings are running very high."
But what kinds of "feelings"? Certainly pure hatred, expressed
in the stridently self-righteous tones of today's "antifascists,"
but also a strong feeling of nostalgia for a time when socialism
meant something other than the Gulag.
THE
INVENTION OF NEO-FASCISM
With
this great "antifascist" machine humming and spinning its
wheels, what is needed above all is a target: for anti-fascism
assumes the existence of authentic fascism. But in all of
Europe it is hard to find an authentic advocate of National
Socialism: real live Nazis are even rarer than old-fashioned
Stalinists. The solution is to invent "Nazism" where there
is none – or, better yet, create the conditions for its
reemergence, and once it appears nurture it and coax it into
rapid growth with plenty of provocations. Haider is no Nazi:
the Freedom Party platform advocates radical privatization
of public property and the complete dismantling of the Austrian
spoils system, in which the two major parties have doled our
special privileges and subsidies to their supporters and undermined
the economic and moral health of the nation. The international
Left has seized on the party's opposition to immigration –
and EU diktats that require the importation of hundreds of
thousands of refugees from the conquest of Kosovo – to
portray Haider as a "nativist" and "xenophobe." Once again,
sovereignty, the right of a nation to control its own borders,
is the crux of the matter – with the globalists of all
countries and factions on one side, and patriots of all nations
on the other.
MAD
MADDY IS WATCHING YOU
With
the lines drawn in this manner, it is no surprise that the
US government is lining up behind the Eurocrats, and is likely
to endorse and honor the sanctions on Austria that are set
to be imposed this Friday. Madeleine Albright, speaking
in Croatia, joined in the smearing of Haider and declared
that while "obviously the Austrian people have the right to
elect whom they want," Austria must "maintain its international
reputation." She gave the Austrians a clear warning: "We are
going to be watching everything very closely and we will take
the appropriate steps." Clearly, the EU is acting in concert
with Washington in setting up Austria for a major bashing
– on any pretext, even the flimsiest.
BEARING
DOWN
As
the London Times [February 3, 2000] put
it, "the European Commission yesterday vowed to punish
Austria for any transgression of human rights, however small."
Commission President Romano Prodi virtually personified the
Eurocratic spirit as he haughtily proclaimed: "We will bear
down heavily on even the slightest breach of the rights of
individuals, or of any minority." It could be something as
seemingly marginal as the failure to fully welcome gays in
the Austrian military: the European Parliament has decreed
that all the member states must comply with its gay rights
regulations. Or perhaps the failure of the Austrian Interior
Ministry, which will be in the hands of the Freedom Party,
to countenance the invasion of their country of 8 million
by tens and hundreds of thousands of refugees from Eastern
Europe will provide a convincing pretext.
AUSTRO-PHOBIA
In
any event, a pretext will be found, some principle
of political correctness which the Austrians fail to uphold
in every detail. Sanctions will follow, along with a stepped-up
propaganda campaign, in which Haider and his party will be
depicted as goose-stepping Hitlerites – after all, didn't
Hitler hail from Austria? The very scenery of his birthplace
is cursed, a sour land permanently poisoned by the National
Socialist infestation, its people imprinted with the sins
of their fathers. Haider is nearly always described in the
Western media as "the son of a Nazi official." Of course,
each and every official, including the postman, the
schoolteacher, and the mayor of each and every village and
hamlet in wartime Austria was technically a "Nazi official."
The clear implication is that the Austrians, like the Germans,
are collectively guilty, as a people. This is the psycho-political
basis of the Western media's rabid Austro-phobia.
A
TEST CASE
Austria
is a test case. If the Eurocrats can get away with this brazen
assault on the sovereignty of member states, then the principle
is established and the EU's hegemony is legitimized. All over
Europe, the parties of the Right will face the prospect of
an enforced political correctness: immigration, sovereignty,
the championing of cultural and ethnic values that have persisted
over millennia – none of this will be tolerated
any longer. Elections that result in defeat for the advocates
of the New Order will be promptly and forcefully nullified.
Less than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a new
Iron Curtain is descending over Europe.
ROLE
REVERSAL
And
you thought the Cold War was over? Not only has it restarted,
but East and West have switched sides: the West is
now embarked on a campaign of world conquest, asserting its
hegemony not only in Europe but on every continent. Only in
the East, in Russia, the Balkans, and China, and in some Middle
Eastern countries, is there any resistance – although
there is a growing realization right here in America, in what
the New Left used to call "the belly of the beast," of the
rising danger of globalism.
IS
COCKBURN ALONE?
For
the moment, his realization seems pretty much confined to
the Right side of the political spectrum, with such champions
of American nationalism as presidential candidate Pat Buchanan
mobilizing Americans to save their sovereignty. But perhaps
the Left, or what remains of the old, principled anti-imperialist
Left – is Alexander Cockburn the last one left standing?
– will be wakened from its slumber in time to reclaim
some of its honor.
THE
DANCE OF THE ACRONYMS
But
what is the issue for Americans? We, after all, are not directly
involved in the EU and its machinations, although you can
bet that Washington's imprimatur is on the sanctions. But
why should ordinary Americans care? The reason is that we
will surely be drawn into the wars it will take to establish
the political supremacy of the EU in around the fringes of
Western Europe. The expansion of the EU to include political,
economic and military links to the Caucasus nations, particularly
Georgia, is yet another tripwire that could set off American
military intervention. The alleged tension between NATO and
the evolving EU armed forces is illusory: what it involves
is not a struggle for power so much as a rearrangement of
acronyms. Instead of describing the "US-NATO" bombing of Vienna,
future news reports will refer to the "US-EU" planes delivering
their payloads – a distinction without a difference.
SEND
EUROPE A MESSAGE
The
globalist dream cannot be achieved by means short of war;
the resistance is already taking shape, and the globalists
are taking aim. This is the reason Americans must be vitally
concerned with the rise of the EU and the victimization of
Austria. But what can we do about it? The answer is: plenty.
Let us take advantage of our diversity: a great many Americans
trace their ancestry back to Europe, to the very nations whose
governments are now combining to do to Austria what they did
to Serbia. Usually these countries utilize their countrymen
and agents in America to affect US foreign policy: this is
one reason why the foreign aid gravy train continues to flow.
But why not reverse the process? Let Americans of European
descent put pressure on the old country – whether it
be England, France, Italy, Germany, or whatever – to
keep their hands off of Austria. Ethnic organizations in the
US, if they take a stand, can have a powerful effect: the
mother country, to a large extent, depends on the good will
and public relations savvy of hyphenated Americans. A flood
of resolutions from interested organizations in America and
elsewhere would do much to send the Europeans a much-need
message: Hands off Austria!
AN
OPEN LETTER TO ROMANO PRODI
Let
me start off the process by directly addressing Romano Prodi:
as an Italian-American, Mr. Prodi, I am embarrassed by your
bombast. You strut and issue grandiose proclamations just
like that other woppish poseur who thought he was building
an empire: but at least Mussolini's imperial vision was rooted
in his own nation's history, however mythologized and glamorized:
yours is rootless, tied to nothing but a soulless corporatism
and a bureaucratic sterility that destroys everything it touches.
Like Mussolini, you will fail. Let us hope, however, that
not nearly as many die fighting you.
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