Agrarian social movements: The absurdly difficult but not impossible agenda of defeating right‐wing populism and exploring a socialist future

Abstract

Parallels, resemblances, and interconnections between contemporary right‐wing populism and the populism of agrarian movements are examined in this essay. The two are partly linked through their social base in the countryside. This paper explores an agenda for political conversation and research on possible contributions to the twin efforts of splitting the ranks of right‐wing populists while expanding the united front of democratic challengers. The challenge is how to transform the identified interconnections into a left‐wing political project that can erode right‐wing populism. This requires a reclaiming of populism. In exploring this agenda, the paper revisits the ideas and practices of right‐wing populism and agrarian populism and the awkward overlaps and fundamental differences between them. It concludes with a discussion on the challenge of forging a reformulated class‐conscious left‐wing populism as a countercurrent to right‐wing populism, and as a possible political force against capitalism and towards a socialist future.

The rural roots of the rise of the Justice and Development Party in Turkey

“…On the other hand, many left-wing parties and governments (especially in Latin America) are both populist and authoritarian, and therefore fit in this broad definition. Hence, we need to acknowledge the substantial differences between left-wing and right-wing authoritarian populisms (Borras 2019) and that the recent global rise of authoritarian populism is mainly about the rise of the far-right (Gürel 2018). By implementing neoliberal policies, frequently defining its opponents as anti-national and anti-religious enemies, presenting its rule as a historically significant transfer of power from the elites to the people and thereby the end/reversal of (more than a century long) decline of the Muslim Turks, creating a personality cult around its leader, and dramatically weakening the checks and balances mechanisms, the AKP rule is clearly a part of the recent global ascent of the far-right.…”

Solidarities from Below in the Making of Emancipatory Rural Politics: Insights from Food Sovereignty Struggles in the Basque Country

“…This involves an understanding that social class and other identity struggles are fought in local communities, but that solidarity struggles are necessary, and necessarily cross-border in character, because of the international interconnection of the causes, conditions, and consequences of the multiple crises caused by capitalism. (Borras 2019, p. 26) We engage with Featherstone's (2008Featherstone's ( , 2012 and Massey's (2005Massey's ( , 2009 works on left politics, solidarity, and space as an analytical lens through which to examine how food sovereignty movements engage with some of the main axes identified by Borras (2019) as crucial in the struggle against right-wing populism: class-based alliances; messy social identities involving cross-cutting divides of generation, gender, race and nationalism; and internationalism. Featherstone's (2008Featherstone's ( , 2012 notion of 'solidarity from below' centres on the creation of political bonds within and between marginalised and oppressed social groups.…”

Rights in the Time of Populism: Land and Institutional Change Amid the Reemergence of Right-Wing Authoritarianism in Colombia

“…In such a context, one of the key questions was around their capacity for undermining multilateral European Union institutions from within 2 . On the other hand, agrarian social movements as "La Via Campesina" have alerted about the risk of the rise of right-wing populism and its impacts on migrant and refugee policies and the violation of human and environmental rights of indigenous and peasants in countries under right-wing populist regimes as Bolsonaro's Brazil 3 .…”

“…While some consider accurate to draw on Hall's concept of authoritarian populism, others argue that using such notion is a misunderstanding of Hall's original proposition, because it was coined for denoting the ideological consent around neoliberalism during the 1980s [2]. Furthermore, critical discussions have emerged, for instance, regarding the causes behind populisms' episodic character, whether such character relates to its ambivalent positions towards institutions, or its relationship with capitalism's cyclical crises, among other topics [3].…”

“…Scholars have drawn on such debate for developing notions that are useful for analyzing each country's political momentum. Such concepts include 'authoritarian corpopulism', for highlighting the interconnections of agribusiness corporations with the state and the elites amid the rise of conservative politicians in Guatemala [4]; 'right-wing populism' for distinguish it as a "regressive, conservative or reactionary type of populism that promotes or defends capitalism in the name of the people; in its current manifestation, it is also xenophobic, nationalist, racist, and/or misogynistic" ( [3], p. 3), or for stressing its particular appeal to the-white and Christian-people to engage against both elites acting from above and parasites from below in the current political scenario in the United States [5]. Therefore, although the notion of authoritarian populism is useful as an overarching concept for raising the attention of the current political momentum and some of its features beyond countries' borders, it also results clear that each 1 See:…”