Glass of red wine in hand, sprawled in front of the TV on a Saturday evening, watching the last episode in Season 2 of Breaking Bad, the furthest thing from my mind was politics or racists.
My semi-stupor was punctured by a call from a republican friend inquiring if I had watched the melee outside the Dail, where, as he described it, two groups of people waving the Irish national flag had battered each other.
The image conjured by his comments bore a resemblance to a caricature. Although I had not yet seen it my friend thought that visually it projected an image of an undifferentiated mass of green, white and orange, not exactly what a supposed anti-fascist protest would want when clear blue sea needs inserted between the clashing perspectives in order to offset the emergence of a plague on both houses response from the public.
My friend had previously expressed a concern about some former Sinn Fein and IRA activists being drawn to the far right, hence his flagging up of the tricolours and the symbolic role they are likely to play as Left and Right battle for ownership of them.
My wife, an unyielding critic of the far right and alert to the dangers of its growth - pointing to the history of right wing violence against direct provision centres - had mentioned earlier that the Garda had “chased the Nazis” in Dublin, but added that, to the viewer watching, it wasn’t readily apparent who was who. Curious, I planned to glance at the late evening news. As it turned out, more than just the “Nazis” got chased.
The anti-Fascist Left can hardly afford to ignore the far right phenomenon but needs to find a better way of confronting it which enables it to avoid being rendered indistinguishable from the very people it stands four square against. Slugging it out toe-to-toe, and head-to-head permits the issue to be framed as a law and order problem which the Garda alone are best equipped to deal with. The message of the Left risks being drowned out in the noise of battle.
It is a risky strategy. The far right is gaining momentum less by what they do on the streets, but as a result of their social media profile. How many of us would really have known they were on the streets of the capital yesterday but for the counter protest?
The image conjured by his comments bore a resemblance to a caricature. Although I had not yet seen it my friend thought that visually it projected an image of an undifferentiated mass of green, white and orange, not exactly what a supposed anti-fascist protest would want when clear blue sea needs inserted between the clashing perspectives in order to offset the emergence of a plague on both houses response from the public.
My friend had previously expressed a concern about some former Sinn Fein and IRA activists being drawn to the far right, hence his flagging up of the tricolours and the symbolic role they are likely to play as Left and Right battle for ownership of them.
My wife, an unyielding critic of the far right and alert to the dangers of its growth - pointing to the history of right wing violence against direct provision centres - had mentioned earlier that the Garda had “chased the Nazis” in Dublin, but added that, to the viewer watching, it wasn’t readily apparent who was who. Curious, I planned to glance at the late evening news. As it turned out, more than just the “Nazis” got chased.
My friend called it right. It took a lot of focusing to differentiate. A look at an Irish Times video eased the confusion somewhat but more because of the audio. We could at least hear what the respective bodies were shouting.
Mick Clifford wrote of what he observed:
If the impression formed by Clifford takes root the only group to emerge with "honour" from the clashes will be the Garda. Which invites the question of why the anti-fascists, with whom my own ideational sympathies lie, mount these counter protests in the first place. They fail to keep the far right off the streets and merely draw attention to the fact that they are on them, possibly acting as a magnet to draw more impressionable and excitable bodies onto the streets in support of them. Moreover, in failing to keep them off our streets the clashes have put them in our living rooms via the television news. Just as ominous, the Sunday Times observed:
Yesterday's clash will almost certainly be used as an online recruiting platform by the far right. The former Garda Assistant Commissioner for Dublin, Pat Leahy, reinforced the logic:
Mick Clifford wrote of what he observed:
They spat bile and hatred at each other, lunging across the barriers erected to separate them. A firecracker was set off, missiles fired … Two groups, claiming to represent extreme opposite positions on the political spectrum, debating the issues at parliament’s gate in their own styles. Social distancing was nowhere to be seen in the confrontation between the two sides, collectively numbering close to two hundred, albeit in two separate pods. There were plenty of masks and face coverings, but the impression lingered that some of the latter were designed to prevent identification rather than protect from the virus. Different groups operate under different flags but they all, right across the spectrum, proudly fly the tricolour. The anti-fascists are referred to an antifa, but it is not clear what exactly they represent. Some of their number have associations with disaffected so-called Republican outfits. The physical characteristics of both sides are pretty similar. Plenty of young men in dark clothings and face coverings and baseball hats. Plenty of tricolours flying. Plenty of older men who look like they’ve nothing better to be doing. Some, but not plenty, of women on both sides. A smattering of clothing items referencing the men and deeds of 1916. (Those poor signatories, they have ended up being claimed by every headbanger from Termonfeckin to Tehran) … “Nazi scum off our streets,” roared the antifa or whatever they were. “Paedo scum off our streets,” roared back the Nationalists.
If the impression formed by Clifford takes root the only group to emerge with "honour" from the clashes will be the Garda. Which invites the question of why the anti-fascists, with whom my own ideational sympathies lie, mount these counter protests in the first place. They fail to keep the far right off the streets and merely draw attention to the fact that they are on them, possibly acting as a magnet to draw more impressionable and excitable bodies onto the streets in support of them. Moreover, in failing to keep them off our streets the clashes have put them in our living rooms via the television news. Just as ominous, the Sunday Times observed:
more people of all ages, backgrounds and demographics do appear to be accessing material created by far-right outfits such as Siol na hEireann and the Irish Freedom Party ... The rise of extremism owes its success in part to social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, which have enabled radicals to connect.
In years gone by, people who held these views never had an audience. Social media has given them the audience they have always wanted.
The anti-Fascist Left can hardly afford to ignore the far right phenomenon but needs to find a better way of confronting it which enables it to avoid being rendered indistinguishable from the very people it stands four square against. Slugging it out toe-to-toe, and head-to-head permits the issue to be framed as a law and order problem which the Garda alone are best equipped to deal with. The message of the Left risks being drowned out in the noise of battle.
It is a risky strategy. The far right is gaining momentum less by what they do on the streets, but as a result of their social media profile. How many of us would really have known they were on the streets of the capital yesterday but for the counter protest?
The opposition to the far right, unless it is popularised through an expansive social protest movement similar to those that opposed water charges and the 8th Amendment, leaves itself vulnerable to being trapped on a square of the board chosen by the far right. It allows groups like the National Party to utilise the judo tactic of using your opponent’s strength to your own advantage, and have the street clashes serve as a springboard to catapult it to even more commanding heights on social media, where it is likely to accrue spinoffs such as network enhancement and recruitment.
The bid to curb the far right is not going to be won on the streets in the manner which it is being currently taken there, and where society is allowed to drift into viewing it all as a form of blood sport, where the ideas don't matter, just the punches.
⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.
Its not the 'far right' that worries me; it's the corrupt govts. They are the biggest threat.
ReplyDeleteGreat piece of writing.
ReplyDeleteFiguratively speaking it looks like one protest, three protesters, with 5 opposing opinions -and the Gardai trying to remind each protestor which group they belonged with so that they did not accidently end up supporting an opinion that was not their own.
ReplyDeleteAs a Republican, it saddens me to see see so-called Repubicans acting as pro-government militiias and attacking a demonstration.
ReplyDelete" Far right " - please define and give credible examples. Opposing limitless immigration is common sense and practised in every country. The " left " are largely middle class Globalists who are best represented by the irrelevant Labour party .
ReplyDelete