Was reading Cas Muddle's piece on left conservatism and the odd thing was just how familiar this 'left conservatism' seems to be. Muddle noted that:
Germany's favourite "firebrand politician", Sahra Wagenknecht, has finally launched her long-awaited new party, the awkwardly named Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – Reason and Fairness. After years of speculation, the German and some of the international media went into overdrive, predicting that the "leftwing conservative" party (Wagenknecht talks about combining job security, higher wages and generous benefits with a restrictive immigration and asylum policy) would "shake up" the German party system and "could eat into the far right's support".
Some on the left might find the branding of a 'left' party focused around an individual a little… curious. Problematic even. But, your mileage may vary. Note the focus on immigration.
But as Muddle points out that may not function in the way Wagenknecht et al hope.
Probably most importantly, there is significant electoral potential for this new party. In September 2023, a poll found that one in five Germans "could imagine" voting for the (not yet founded) party. In fact, as the German political scientist Sarah Wagner recently argued, a significant part of the German electorate combines leftwing economic views with rightwing cultural views, but no German party offers such a "leftwing authoritarian" (or "leftwing conservative") programme. Unlike other far-right parties in western Europe, such as the French National Rally (RN) or the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), the AfD has not (yet) made the switch from a pro-market to a welfare chauvinist agenda.
But, although Wagner and her colleagues found that Wagenknecht "has the ability to build bridges between left and right", they were less sure "whether current AfD voters would be willing to turn their backs on the AfD and vote for a Wagenknecht party instead". Leaving aside that leftwing authoritarians tend to be less likely to vote, they also tend to vote rightwing more often than leftwing, particularly when cultural issues such as immigration dominate the political agenda, as they have been doing for most of the 21st century so far.
And worse:
And given that such issues continue to dominate, Wagenknecht's "anti-immigrant" and "anti-woke" discourse will only strengthen the mainstreaming of far-right talking points. In most cases, this leads to more, not less, electoral support for the far right – as in the the most recent Dutch elections, in November 2023. The Dutch Socialist party (SP) campaigned on an "old left" platform combiningtraditional leftwing economic positions, for example on healthcare, with demands for a temporary stop on migrant workers anda popular leader, Lilian Marijnissen,attacking "identity politics". Butit lost yet again, while the (combined) far right won a postwar record number of votes. In some countries this "leftwing conservative" approach has led to a fall in far-right support: for example, it benefited the Danish Social Democrats. But even this was mostly because of internal problems in the far-right party, and eventually gave way to a successful new Danish anti-immigrant party.
To be honest we in Ireland have had experience of all this. Parties of the right that are profoundly socially and economically conservative who offer a patina of some economic populism or even leftism. What social democracy we have in this state is in spite rather than because of their ideologies - simply because private capital couldn't provide the necessary. How else to explain the fact we have a welfare system, broadly speaking public (albeit with a religious inflection) education, a two-tier public-part private health system and on and on and on and on. Granted other states have arrived at their social and economic dispensation through a process of accrual or default or provision in the absence of other alternatives but here we have never had a left-led, let alone left, government and yet those protections do exist albeit patchily and imperfectly in many areas (consider special needs education and care for children as one where resources are partial to put it kindly).
And our parties of the right have tilted left, somewhat, when it suited them. As with social housing provision in the 1950s and 1960s and through into the 1970s. Credit them with housing tens of thousands and more. Of course the current situation is one where ideologically they remain averse to the point of insanity to public provision. And yet they remain in government.
So rather as Muddle notes above, in Europe anti-immigrant parties of the hard and far right have offered the transition to a sort of faux 'left' conservatism. And that makes sense, they are - after all, attempting to widen their appeal and pull in more voters, particularly those of the parties that have been obstacles to their electoral progress, those being parties of the left (not that those parties have always covered themselves in glory on issues around immigration). The Wagenknecht project is unusual only in that it comes from the left of left. But form - one suspects - follows function. And oddly, and this is often forgotten, we already have a splinter from a larger left political party.
It's called Aontú! Here's their Workers' Rights policies:
Committed to fair pay for fair work to allow fair living conditions
Workplace Justice
Aontú is committed to justice in the workplace and the rights of all workers on the island of Ireland to get fair pay for fair work to allow fair living conditions. We affirm the dignity of work and the right of workers to equitable pay and working environment.
Low pay and precarious work affects the lives of many workers across the island of Ireland. In many sectors and firms workers are treated without respect and with limited guarantees to paid hours. Recent legislative provisions on zero-hour contracts and banded hours in the South are welcome, however it remains to be seen how these provisions will be applied in practice and what loop holes will appear.
We need a strong and well-resourced agency to inspect compliance with labour legislation including practices in relation to minimum pay, contract work and rights to parental leave and sick pay.
Zero hour contracts should be outlawed once and for all across the whole island of Ireland with no opt outs by employers.
Exploitive work such as 'bogus self-employment' where workers are forced by employers to declare themselves as self-employed in order for the employers to avoid tax and PRSI needs to be rooted out. This type of exploitation also results in workers being denied rights and safeguards that should go with their contract, as well as the State losing out on millions in tax.
The national minimum wage must be sufficient to lift the 100,000 working poor out of poverty. The living wage in Ireland is calculated as EUR11.90 per hour whereas the current minimum wage for those over 20 years old is EUR9.80. A 'living wage' is what is deemed the necessary earnings to allow the average person to achieve a minimum acceptable standard of living. The minimum wage should reflect the living wage, albeit with separate formulae for the Greater Dublin Area and the rest of the island given the massive differences in cost of living.
Availing of work, education or training should be a right for all, worker and non-worker alike regardless of socio economic background, location, age or gender. Lifelong learning needs to be encouraged both for the benefit of the economy and society as a whole. Finland is a good case study for this, where one in five adults are engaged in self-motivated study at any one time. Implementation of a 'Job or Training' guarantee should start with persons under 25 and be extended gradually to the entire workforce.
A right to decent income during retirement must be established. While progress has been made over recent decades, many workers are extremely vulnerable to losing pension rights due to ever changing market conditions. The current pensions structure also means that state contributions rather than residency are the primary driver behind pension payments. The way to secure pensions is to link employee, employer and government contributions as part of a reformed social insurance model based on residency. All residents of pensionable age should receive a full state pension rather than partial payments. Like the minimum wage and the living wage; the minimum pension needs to reflect a living pension. No person in Ireland should be choosing between food and heat.
To prevent exploitation, there must be protections put in place and penalties for employers who sack domestic employees to be replaced with workers from abroad for slave wages.
It is vital that workers have access to a range of services and supports including payment during periods of sickness, parental leave and study leave. We should be moving towards best practice in Scandinavian countries.
Finally, it is imperative on this centenary of the First Dáil that workers have an unambiguous right to collective bargaining and trade union membership across the whole island. A constitutional referendum should be held to enshrine this right in Bunreacht na hÉireann.
Some good stuff in there. You could imagine they'd wind up on economic/workers rights policy somewhere about traditional social democracy - though I do like the reference to a referendum on the right to collective bargaining etc. That'd be useful.
Granted their views on abortion wouldn't endear themselves to some, and while their immigration policy makes some reasonable points I'd imagine few of us would be entirely on board.
But isn't that what left conservatism is - one doesn't get to determine the 'good' parts from the not so good parts. And if it looks better to some from a distance than when it is up front and immediate, well, perhaps that's a function of its intrinsic nature rather than proximity. Muddle's point about parties of the left who adopt such positions channelling hard and far-right discourse into the mainstream has the ring of truth too. Really, one could argue that in any party that claims to be left (or leftish) and conservative it is always the conservative part that wins out. There's also this tantalising piece of evidence from polling:
But, although Wagner and her colleagues found that Wagenknecht "has the ability to build bridges between left and right", they were less sure "whether current AfD voters would be willing to turn their backs on the AfD and vote for a Wagenknecht party instead". Leaving aside that leftwing authoritarians tend to be less likely to vote, they also tend to vote rightwing more often than leftwing, particularly when cultural issues such as immigration dominate the political agenda, as they have been doing for most of the 21st century so far.
And in terms of actual polling - this looks decidedly mixed.
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