Editorial: From Seoul to Istanbul – Growing Mass Struggle Against a Rising Right
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Issue #1 of International Marxism tackles the subject of the rise of the right in the 2020s, a phenomenon which is crucial to understand in the current world situation, dominated by the re-election of Donald Trump and its explosive impact.
This is the first issue of the relaunched political journal of International Socialist Alternative, replacing Socialist World which was published between 2019 and 2024. International Marxism is a new Marxist publication, arriving at a momentous time. In its pages, it will dive into decisive political, social, economic and historic themes, from a revolutionary socialist perspective. Two issues will be published in 2025, and three issues in 2026.
Millions of workers and young people around the world today are looking for a way to fight back and recognize that the capitalist parties offer no real answers. Marxist ideas, if they are boldly argued for and connected to powerful working class struggles can point a real way forward. In this sense, beyond the vital analysis this journal provides, it should crucially serve as a guide to action, outlining a strategy on how the workers’ movement can push back the right.
Trump’s erratic, schoolyard bully approach to both domestic and foreign policy has turned world events on their head in the course of only a few months. While the rise of Trump 2.0 is its most dramatic expression, the growth of the far right is not at all contained to the United States. With few exceptions, the right has gained ground in country after country. The ruling class, fumbling around in the dark for a way forward for their crisis-ridden system, has turned towards right-wing nationalist parties and ideology. Authoritarian regimes have tightened their grip, and many countries, including “stable” bourgeois democracies have seen a clamp down on democratic rights such as the right to protest.
From Italy to Argentina to Austria, right-wing parties have made gains in elections, and in many cases seen increased support for their policies among working and middle class people. Extreme-right parties like the Alternative für Deutschland in Germany, previously seen as fringe, are being tolerated or even embraced by a wing of the ruling class. So-called “center” parties have also shifted to the right, though in many cases with more limited success, as the voter bases of right-wing parties prefer the original to an imitation.
Donald Trump—a nationalist, sexist, racist, transphobic, billionaire war-mongerer—embodies this reactionary turn by the bourgeoisie. But while it has been turbo-charged by Trump 2.0, this reactionary turn is not just about one individual politician or party. It is rooted in the transition to a new era, which is characterized by inter-imperialist conflict, especially between U.S. and Chinese imperialism, a turn away from neoliberal globalization, and the reassertion of the nation-state. Coming out of the extremely turbulent past two decades—with the 2008/9 economic crisis and the pandemic being defining moments—the ruling class is searching for a new, more stable basis for profit making and to maintain their rule.
However, identifying the deeper roots of this rise of the right is not at all to say the triumph of the right wing is inevitable. While the right has the upper hand in many countries today, the situation is also marked by political polarization, revulsion with establishment parties, and a deep distrust of the traditional institutions of capitalism by the working class. Trump’s election has cemented the transition to a new era, but the ruling class has anything but a stable mandate for their rule. As they continue to press forward with their agenda of divide-and-rule, austerity, militarization and war, this also sets the stage for explosive class battles.
Rising Wave of Protest
As we are finalizing this issue, there have been key developments that point to a developing international resistance to the rising right among sections of workers and young people. This includes mass protests and movements against a number of right-wing authoritarian regimes.
In Turkey, a massive struggle has erupted against president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan whose right wing authoritarian regime has ruled the country for over 20 years. This was sparked by the arrest of the proposed presidential candidate of the main opposition party, Istanbul Mayor Ekram Imamoglu, on trumped-up charges on March 19. Since then, ongoing mass protests have brought millions into the streets. With Erdogan’s popularity declining in the context of a worsening economic situation and the corrupt regime digging in and heading in a more dictatorial direction, a large section of the population—especially young people—have defied mass arrests, hoping to defeat Erdogan once and for all.
In Serbia, a student-led movement has exploded throughout society, culminating in the biggest demonstration in the country’s history in Belgrade on March 15 against the corrupt and increasingly authoritarian regime of Aleksandar Vučić. Meanwhile, last December, a mass movement in South Korea—with the labor movement playing a key role—stopped the attempted coup by right-wing president Yoon Suk Yeol, who has now been removed from office by the Constitutional Court.
And in the U.S., the “Hands Off” call to action on April 5 brought out millions against the world’s most prominent right-wing authoritarian regime, that of Donald Trump. This was the biggest day of protest in the U.S.—in over 1,200 cities and towns around the country—since the height of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
While Trump goes after immigrants, trans people, federal workers and students who have opposed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza domestically, he simultaneously launched his tariff war, against allies and adversaries alike, across the world. At the time of writing, he has been forced by the threat of a full-scale global economic crisis into a partial but significant climbdown. His threats to undermine social programs and having federal agents throw legal residents who dissent into cars to be sent hundreds of miles to await deportations, on top of bringing the economy to the edge of collapse, are all sowing the seeds of potentially explosive struggle in the weeks and months ahead.
Mass protests from Turkey to the U.S. are extremely important and heartening. However, it must be acknowledged that these emerging movements also have significant weaknesses. In some cases, these include being tied to pro-capitalist parties like the Turkish CHP or the Democratic Party in the U.S. In addition to the mass protests on April 5, Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have been holding rallies in the Midwest and Southwest on their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, the largest being in Denver, Colorado and Los Angeles, California, bringing out over 30,000 people each. They raise demands directed against the “billionaire class” but unfortunately remain clearly within the framework of the Democrats and ultimately do not pose a challenge to capitalism. It is this social system which is breeding right wing authoritarianism, militarism and reactionary ideology generally in the new era.
Sanders and AOC are one example of the challenge to authoritarianism from the left and its weaknesses. In their case, they are focused on waiting for the next round of elections rather than building the fightback here and now, and clinging to the coattails of the liberal establishment and its version of liberal authoritarianism. They also fail to clearly oppose U.S. imperialism, including in its militarist buildup against Chinese imperialism.
In this issue we discuss the dramatic growth of Die Linke (The Left) in Germany and the potential for Jeremy Corbyn and others to launch a new party in Britain. These represent major potential counterweights to the far right. However, important weaknesses also exist in both of these cases which center on the need to boldly build a mass working-class centered movement in the streets, workplaces, as well as the ballot box against the far right and the capitalist system.
Another development which is increasingly relevant is the search by sections of the establishment which are threatened by the rise of the far right and populist right for a “legal” route to cut across their growth. Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Rally (RN) which currently leads polls in France, has been recently banned from standing in elections over charges of “embezzlement” in the European Parliament. In Brazil, state prosecutors are seeking to jail Jair Bolsonaro, who sought to lead a right wing coup in 2022. In Romania, the far-right presidential candidate, Călin Georgescu, who was leading polls, was banned by the judiciary because of alleged Russian election interference. These attempts will not in the end destroy the roots of the far right and can in fact backfire by making them stronger, as evidenced by Trump’s comeback after two impeachment proceedings, the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, and a plethora of trials and convictions in the courts.
The Role of Marxism Today
The total depravity of the capitalist system is on full display in every corner of the globe. Devastating wars, poverty, and oppression run rampant while the billionaires get richer. The only thing that can counter this is an international mass movement, based on the power of the working class, against imperialism, austerity, militarism, attacks on women, LGBTQ people, migrants and all oppressed people. While many people are looking for a way to fight back, the left internationally is weak and the workers’ movement has just begun to find its feet again after a long period of retreat. Revolutionary socialist analysis and a fighting Marxist pole with a clear program within movements against the right wing are absolutely vital. This is what International Socialist Alternative aims to build. If you agree, subscribe to International Marxism today and join ISA!
