Capitalist tech barons, led by Elon Musk, seek to enhance their power and profits at the expense of workers. Movements focussed on class and inequality can rebut the siren calls of the far right argues Grace Blakeley.
Just a few years ago, billionaire tech bros were trying to present themselves as the “good guys” of modern capitalism. Elon Musk liked to advertise how tolerant and accepting he was, while Mark Zuckerberg presented a friendly and welcoming image to the world. The tech bros claimed that their companies were examples of the clean, green capitalism of the future, which put power back in the hands of ordinary people.
Fast forward to today, and the tech bros have made a stark U-turn. Musk previously supported the Democrats, but in the 2024 election many – most notably Musk –supported Donald Trump. Even those that didn’t throw their full weight behind Trump turned up dutifully to his inauguration.
In part, this was about monopoly power. Under Joe Biden, the new anti-trust movement – led by influential figures like Lina Khan – gained significant influence. The big tech companies feared that this movement might stand in the way of their expansionist ambitions.
But it’s also about political power. The tech bros want to maintain, and expand, their influence over the US state.
Billionaires like Musk have a vested interest in exacerbating the culture wars. If they want to retain the corporate welfare, tax breaks and permissive regulation provided to them by right-wing governments, they need to ensure people continue to elect right wing governments. But these kinds of inequality-enhancing economic policies do not win elections. Culture wars do, however, win elections. And they tend to win elections for the right.
As I pointed out in a thread the other day, for Musk, the stakes of ensuring the ongoing dominance of the right in the context of economic decline are particularly high. Musk is one of the world’s most notorious union bashers. He needs to ensure that the kind of anti-union policies pursued by neoliberal governments all over the world for the last several decades remain in vogue.
But, as inequality has increased, these kinds of policies have become deeply unpopular with the electorate. Culture war politics provides a kind of Trojan Horse for billionaires like Musk, ensuring the election of right-wing governments that can sneak in inequality-enhancing economic policies through the back door.
The problem is, of course, that such policies are favoured by mainstream parties of both left and right. The difference between the centre-left and the centre-right is that the former tend to combine neoliberal economics with more liberal approaches to social policy, making these parties ideal targets for the new far-right.
The only politicians that would really pose a threat to the kind of politics advocated by Musk and his ilk are those who attempt to push political debate onto issues of class and inequality. As I wrote in a recent article for Tribune, the Belgian Workers’ Party provides an excellent example of how this kind of politics can be put into practice.
But in the US and the UK, the politicians who advocated these policies have been decisively defeated by liberals within their own parties. How, then, can ordinary people hope to fight back against the astonishing power wielded by people like Elon Musk? How can we hope to defeat the far right as they continue to embed themselves in working class communities around the rich world?
The only way to do this is to build movements that help people to find new ways of making sense of a broken economy. And one of the most exciting things about progressive politics today is the astonishing diversity of movements that are cropping up on the ground to support those struggling to survive in a broken economy and fight back against the far right.
The most significant base of working-class power – and that most feared by the far-right – is the labour movement. Across both the US and the UK, unions are some of the last progressive institutions that continue to operate in communities torn apart by poverty, inequality, and despair. They work with members who have a variety of different views on social policy, but who share the same fundamental interest in building a fairer economy.
But working-class power is being built beyond the labour movement too. In 2022, I travelled to a small village in North Wales where local people came together to found a network of social enterprises that provided jobs, food, and energy – not to mention hope – to the community. I’ve spoken to organisers at the renters’ union ACORN, who are doing incredible work in some of the poorest communities in the country, directly engaging with working class people to help them challenge the appalling conditions they face in the private and social rented sectors.
And many other groups are working to change politics for the better. Organisations like Migrants’ Voice are empowering migrants to resolve their collective challenges and build political power. Activists at groups like Just Stop Oil and Palestine Action are putting their bodies on the line to challenge a political consensus that is proving deadly for people and planet. And campaigners at groups like Every Doctor and Keep Our NHS Public are fighting the stealth privatisation of the NHS to support the interests of doctors, nurses and patients.
When these movements can engage people on issues of economic inequality and show them how to organise to find a way forward, their views start to shift. It’s not as though they become progressive overnight, but they do start to see through the tactics of billionaires like Musk to the economic interests that drive his politics. They also start to see through the opportunism of upper-class far-right politicians like Nigel Farage, who offer nothing to working class communities other than division.