How Neoliberalism Fuels the Racist Xenophobia behind Brexit and Donald Trump

[portlander23]

How neoliberalism fuels the racist xenophobia behind Brexit and Donald Trump
BEN NORTON
Salon

There is no question that xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments were strong drivers behind Brexit, the British vote to leave the E.U. But describing the vote solely as a racist phenomenon, as some media outlets and politicians have, is an oversimplification. It ignores how economic crisis, fueled by neoliberal policies, has inflamed this racism.

It is misleading to pit a racist explanation of the Brexit vote against an economic explanation and say only one is correct. Rather, both factors were closely tied together, and heavily influenced each other.

While the public sector is being gutted, wage growth in the U.K. is sluggish, and poverty — especially child poverty — is on the rise. As The Guardian put it, “Poverty in the UK is increasing after two years of heavy welfare cuts have helped to push hundreds of thousands of people below the breadline.”

Meanwhile, for years, both mainstream parties in the U.K., the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, have adopted neoliberal economics — that is to say, hyper-capitalist policies like privatization, deregulation and cuts in public spending, policies that shrink the state and give more power to corporations in its place.

The British left, however, did not articulate alternatives to E.U. neoliberalism. It missed the opportunity, leaving a political opening that the far-right took advantage of, by blaming immigration and bureaucracy. There certainly are many left-wing critiques to be made of the E.U., but the Brexit campaign was dominated by not just the right, but by the far-right.

Yep.

[MaggieD]

1. Oh please

Really. Just stop. Stop blaming liberals for conservative policies and their anti-immigrant bullshit. I think we get that the extreme left hates the Dem party. Enough already.

[NCTraveler]

2. They were sold a pack of lies. Ben Norton.

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/27/right_wing_brexit_leaders_retract_false_promises_as_racist_nationalism_explodes/