Anger at the ballet box across Europe –Understanding the rise of far right parties.

– Revisiting some questions regarding the victory of UKIP in Britain

Skewed maybe, but it is anger that has been expressed at the ballot boxes across Europe. While the political establishment boast of economic recovery, the living conditions for millions of working people are pushed back.

The super-rich have almost doubled their wealth since the beginning of the economic crisis. The number of UK billionaires increased from 56 in 2006 to 104 in 2014. At the same time many governments in power and the European Union become synonymous with ‘austerity’.

Anger against austerity and the driving down of social conditions was expressed in various ways at the election. Of course this is taking place against the background of the failure of the leadership of the workers’ movements in general to build organised opposition to austerity.

The trade union leaders across Europe in particular have failed to mobilise the full weight of the unions in opposition. Despite this weakness, the capitalist and the ruling elite are to an extent conscious of a potential revolt at the ballot box if not on the industrial plane – in Greece the rise of Syriza is an example.

But the most revealing point is that the current Coalition parties lost 540 seats. This is a reflection of the significant anger at the Con-Lib government policies. The right-wing media also conveniently ignored this point – that the overwhelming feeling is anger and frustration expressed against the government. Instead they are keen to highlight the victory of Ukip with special emphasis on their anti-immigrant stand.

Many so-called ‘liberals’ purified themselves by casting Ukip and its voters out as ‘racist’. Over four million voters voted for Ukip. Surely that demands a deeper investigation of what’s really going on among workers. All the establishment parties are also seen as a cuts parties – ie willing to take away the public services to protect the big business profits.

Labour party also proposes ‘cuts’ – but in different way. Rather than the direct offensive led by Britain’s current Tory-Liberal Coalition government. The Liberal Democrat party’s full participation in Tory policies made them one of the most unpopular parties in the country. It was certain that the current Coalition would be punished – but where would the voters go was the question asked by many in the run-up to the election.

A tactic employed by labour supporters should also be noted –tactics which were expressed openly by the editor of the Independent, a mainstream national newspaper. Amol Rajan argued that: “Tories already face huge electoral hurdles to get a majority; Ukip turns this big problem into something much bigger. That is why I say that if you are a Labour donor with a spare million, you would be mad to give it to Labour. Donate to Ukip instead.”

Splitting right-wing Tory votes at the same time as scare-mongering about the threat from Ukip (UK Independent Party) with the aim of carolling the left towards Labour can only be a winning strategy, they assumed. It was with this argument that the Independent justified giving a weekly Monday column to Nigel Farage, Ukip leader.

In addition he was given a Friday column every week in the Daily Express and appeared regularly on prime TV news programmes such as Question Time and Newsnight. According to the New Statesman, Farage had 25 appearances on Question time and had 23,000 press mentions. Jasmine Lawrence, a channel editor at BBC News, was banned from covering the election after she tweeted against Ukip, sarcastically saying that their “sexist/racist views” were “totally underrepresented in politics today”.

The BBC’s claims to ‘impartiality’ does not hold water. For instance its political editor Nick Robinson was once president of Oxford University Conservative Association. How many other senior staff and directors have links of sympathies with the anti-working class parties?

In addition to the unprecedented level of media coverage for a ‘minority party’, Ukip also received big financial support from mega-rich Eurosceptics and those who wanted to oppose Tory policies including on gay marriage.

A former director of news agency Reuters, to close friends of the queen mother (Lord Neidpath) are also reported to have donated to Ukip. Since 2001 Ukip received over £7 million in donations from individuals with big business interests. Stuart Wheeler, well-known opponent of the European Union and the single largest donor to the Tories, is reported to have donated over half a million pounds to Ukip. He is now a treasurer of Ukip.

Paul Sykes, another well-known big business tycoon and opponent of the EU, donated over £1.5 million to Ukip. John Craven, former chairman of Lonmin mining group, and many other big business figures continue to bankroll Ukip -it claims to represent the ‘ordinary working people’s jobs’.

In their defence of ‘British jobs’ Ukip attacked immigrant workers. Over £3 million are reported to have been spent on massive bill board adverts across the country that claimed that “26 million people in Europe are looking for work”. Then, with an enormous finger pointing at the reader it asks: “And whose jobs are they after?”

Every issue is turned into an immigration debate by Ukip. It wants to ride on British workers’ genuine fears of job insecurity, lack of decent jobs, increasing unemployment, and falling living standards. In addition, massive discontent exists among all sections of the British working class regarding immigration. It is true that successive Labour and Conservative governments have allowed big business to use immigrant workers to drive down wages and conditions.This discontent and anger against the EU, against immigrants and against all the mainstream parties is used by Ukip whipped up with a stream of incorrect facts and figures.

But the initial spur to Ukip’s electoral success was down to their opposition to the EU. Farage, made his name attacking the European Union. Unlike the standard ‘diplomatic’ rhetoric of the mainstream parties, he delivered full-throttled speeches attacking the EU. He spoke effectively about deteriorating living conditions – of course always linking it to immigration. No other party in the mainstream even admits that living conditions have changed for the worse for the working people.

The European Commission President José Manuel Barroso claimed in the European parliament last year that, “When it comes to Europe people will look at the original and copy – and they prefer original”, pointing out that on EU policy the Conservatives appear to be trailing Ukip. He went on to make the prediction that “Ukip is going to be the first force in the British election” beating the Tories. Barroso, also a former prime minister of Portugal, pioneered the right-wing attacks on services and is responsible for deteriorating living conditions in Portugal. As he explained he had no problem working with Conservatives but is irritated by their stance of pretending to oppose the European Union. So are millions of voters in Britain.

Barroso was right in his prediction. Ukip won 24 seats in the last European election and 163 seats in the council elections. Although Ukip increased its seats by 161, it is still lower than the increase for Labour party which gained 338 local government seats. As the Independent editor argued a number of voters did turn to Labour to oppose Ukip and the Tories. However, this protest doesn’t represent support for Labour, rather opposition to the government policies of cuts – which Labour agree with although the so called ‘left intellectuals’ never want to acknowledge that.

Ukip has certainly attracted a number of lunatics and disgraced personages like disgraced former Tory MP Neil Hamilton. Some of them deny climate change, saying it’s a conspiracy. There is a number of homophobic and racist members of Ukip. Just after the election its new councillor in Worcestershire, Dave Small, called gay people ‘perverts’ and immigrants ‘money grapping scum’ and claimed that immigration by Muslims is the reason for the spread of TB etc.

However Ukip is able to reach above this in a way to appeal to many working people by articulating a discontent that exists against all the main parties. It is this that needs to be address by those want to oppose Ukip and their racist, homophobic, and anti-working class views. And that cannot be done by simply indicating that it should be translated into a vote for Labour. Building a real alternative to all the mainstream parties and their policies is vital to fight back against the rise of the far right.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) had its widest stand so far and made significant gains. If the media allowed it at least a part of the time allocated to Ukip, TUSC could have pushed Ukip back in many places. Even without any media publicity they managed to win more votes than the Liberal Democrats and Ukip in a number of places. In Southampton Labour lost its seat to Keith Morrell. Keith was expelled from Labour for voting against cuts. This particular victory also shows the potential that exists to build a genuine alternative to all the mainstream parties. Which should be the main aspect of fighting the far right.