Introduction
We are living through a period defined in large part by the growing political dominance of the far right internationally. In the U.S., we experience this as the rise of Trump and MAGA.
In this essay, I first identify several factors that have facilitated the rise of the far right both in the US and internationally. These include secular stagflation, imperial conflict, and failure of political opposition from the center and the left. Finally, I consider ways the Green Party US might contribute to the building of an effective left opposition to Trump by combining electoral work with local and national coalition building.
Emergence of the 21st Century Global Far Right
As Shannon Ikebe has written, the European far right leads the governments in Hungary and Italy, with the regimes of Viktor Orban and Giorgia Meloni. At the end of 2024, the far right supports or participates in the government in three additional European states. Far-right parties occupy at least 10 percent of the parliamentary seats in 12 European states. Looking beyond Europe, we can add India, Israel, Argentina, Brazil (until recently), and, of course, the U.S. under Trump.
Trumpism and the Global Far Right
Trump’s 2024 election victory has been a victory for far right forces around the world.
This begs the question as to why the far right has grown and prospered not only within the US, but internationally as well. Here I will consider three factors over the last several decades that I believe are critical for understanding this development globally.
Secular Stagflation
Perhaps the most significant economic factor leading to the growth of the far right remains the Great Recession of 2007-08 and its aftermath . The recession began largely in the US financial sector. It was fueled by the collapse of the US housing bubble of 2000-2006 and its dependence on inherently unstable and novel financial instruments, including sub-prime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations. Beginning in the US, the crisis spread rapidly throughout the world. Although the crisis resolved in a formal sense by mid-2009, its fallout, In combination with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic (2019-2023), has continued into the present.
Organizationally, the roots of the current right wing resurgence in the US may be identified largely as a reaction to the Great Recession, with the founding of the Tea Party movement in 2009. This was followed by the Oath Keepers in the same year. The right found natural allies in the existing Christian nationalist groups like Focus on the Family. These groups and others like them formed the base for the creation of the House Freedom caucus and the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
Through a focus on nationalism, authoritarianism, faux-populism, racism, and social conservatism, Trump, and the far right more generally, leveraged real economic distress and discontent into a dangerously reactionary channel.
Imperialism and Immigration
Without an understanding of imperialism there can be no understanding of the role of immigration in the far right ideological narrative.
There are two central roles that imperialist military and economic policies play in the emergence and growth of the far right. First are the consequences of imperialist war and second, the effects of neoliberal globalization. Taken together, they provide a framework necessary to understand the centrality that undocumented immigration plays in far right ideology and practice.
What we might think of as imperialist war may take several forms. There is direct military intervention of the imperial center into the subjugated nations, as was the case in Afghanistan and Iraq.
There is also the unfolding class struggle within the neocolonial nations themselves. This was particularly salient during and after the Arab Spring of 2012.
These two factors can be (and often are) intertwined. Russian military support for the al-Assad regime in Syria is a clear example.
Twenty-first century imperialist wars have played a larger role in shaping the European far right than they have in the rise of Trumpism. This is a result largely of the geographic proximity of Europe to the Middle East and the Maghreb, as well as the earlier history of direct European colonial expansion.
Neoliberal globalization has been the ideological underpinning of imperialist practice for the last half century. This has entailed the expansion of multinational finance capital into the neocolonial world through a market-based approach that prioritizes privatization, reduced government social services, and free trade. It has also led to the increased economic dependence of the imperialist and neocolonial economies. Immensely profitable for the imperialist financial centers, it has led to displacement of millions, first from their domestic economy, and ultimately from their own homes. Economically and politically displaced, millions seek to find a new life within the imperial centers. Undocumented immigration goes hand in hand with imperialist globalization. It can only be addressed by an end to neoliberal globalization or by brutal police repression. Once the elimination of undocumented immigration has become the chosen goal, the imperial ruling classes have only one realistic option: suppression.
Failure of Political Opposition
The wars in Afghanistan (2001-2021) and Iraq (2003-2011) resulted in political defeats for the U.S. empire, defeats from which it has yet to fully recover. Begun under Republican president George Bush, the wars received bipartisan support. The failure of the Democratic Party to provide an alternative to these forever wars helped set the stage for Trump’s election to the presidency.
As the 2024 presidential election made clear, the Democratic Party has failed as an electoral alternative to Trump. The roots of this failure may be traced to the adoption of a neoliberal agenda, especially since the Clinton presidency, though beginning with Jimmy Carter. Since the Great Recession of 2008, an increasing percentage of voters have either given up on electoral politics, or have come to support Trump. As Trump’s policies are implemented end their negative consequences for many become clear; it seems likely that this support may prove transitory. We have entered into a constitutional crisis as Trump increasingly ignores and bypasses the judiciary. The Republicans support him (at least in public) and the Democrats appear hopelessly weak and disorganized. We have only ourselves to rely on. We need to establish the organizations of resistance.
The most prominent group to the left of the Democratic Party is arguably the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). DSA gained thousands of new members following 2016 as Bernie Sanders supporters left the Democrats seeking an alternative. However, the DSA’s orientation to working within the Democratic Party has hobbled its efforts to be an independent socialist alternative.
The Green Party (GP), while independent of the Democrats, has been unable to overcome the obstacles posed by the undemocratic U.S. electoral system.
Nominally to the left of the DSA and the GP, there is a collection of small to microscopic left parties. In spite of many committed and self-sacrificing supporters, sectarian divisions and a failure to develop roots within the trade unions and the working class more generally have resigned them largely to a weak and peripheral status.
Green Party Goals and Strategy
The Green Party can play a leading role in developing resistance to Trump. To develop and implement an effective strategy, we need to understand our goals. We also need to understand both our current historical conjuncture and how it is changing over time.
In the short term, we should seek to build an organized mass movement with sufficient social power to resist the worst practices of Trumpism. Looking further down the road, we seek to build towards a society consistent with the Green Party’s key values.
To realize these goals, we need to combine electoral work with movement building from below.
Election campaigns can play an important role in challenging both the system and the class that largely controls it. Elections, even for an electoral party, do not exhaust the possibilities, however. They are necessary but not sufficient. To be effective, electoralism should be combined with organized activism.
A look at the antiwar movements of the last half century points to the importance of organized coalition building. During the Vietnam era, we had, for example, the National Peace Action Coalition. During the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, we had United for Peace and Justice. These and other coalitions were based on local affiliates. At the local level, coalitions like these created organizing spaces where activists from different backgrounds and organizational affiliations could come together to develop and implement a shared strategy of resistance. The GPUS can play an important role in building both nationwide and local coalitions. This work is essential to take on Trump.
We need a broad left, pro-working-class electoral option, not the false choice between the Democrats and the Republicans. By organizing in our communities, workplaces and schools, we can go beyond electoralism to create spaces for discussion and participation, as Arun Gupta has observed, joining together to defend our communities against the far right, the racists, and the government.
Conclusion
We stand at an historical crossroads. Trump and his allies represent an existential threat to people, planet, and peace. As humanists, as socialists, as environmentalists, and as defenders of democracy, we are faced with the challenge of redirecting the flow of history. This challenge has both ideological and organizational dimensions. It is a generational challenge. While our individual contributions may seem hopelessly weak, we have the collective power to redirect the flow of history.
