Four theses for the discussion

  1. “Right populism” is a misleading term because it confuses “populism” as a communication technique aiming at influencing, activating and organising individuals and collective agents in contemporary societies with the notion of an extreme right wing policy. Trump and May and Orban and Co. should also be analysed in this double perspective.

  1. To deal adequately with this populism as a type of communication and with rising right wing policy, and with ambiguous cases like Trump and May, we need to analyse the political and economic reasons which promote their development – especially with regard to financialisation and oligarchisation which are connected with liberalization and privatization and with the systematic reduction of basic social, cultural and political rights. In this connection, the analysis of the present dynamics of the media sector has to be of special interest.
  2. The comprehensive analysis, which we shall need, will have to include the dismantling of the positions and conceptions of extreme right wing forces or of forces like Trump, May, Orban and Co. concerning economic policy. Therefore, also the question of the theoretical basis of these positions and conceptions will be of high interest as an object of our analysis.
  3. The orientation on the appropriation of the commons will be of essential importance for the development of effective strategies to deal with “right wing populism“. In order to develop adequate strategies, the financial system as such will have to be discussed and rearticulated as a common good.

Published by

Judith Dellheim

Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Referentin Solidarische Ökonomie