Democracy at work and in society: populist antidote

Trade unions and other civil-society organisations are key to fending off the threat from the far right.

In 1941 the French writer Albert Camus began his work on a novel about a virus that ends up destroying half the population of a town in northern Africa. Camus said that The Plague was also an allegory for the French resistance to the pestilence of Nazism and the German occupation during the second world war, and that the book could be read on several levels.

As we enter the super election year of 2024, with half of the world’s adult population ready to cast a vote, the last sentences of Camus’ novel, when the plague has been beaten back, resonate down the decades (Penguin Books translation):

As he listened to the cries of joy that rose above the town, Rieux recalled that this joy was always under threat. He knew that this happy crowd was unaware of something that one reads in books, which is that the plague bacillus never dies or vanishes entirely, that it remains dormant for dozens of years, that it waits patiently in bedrooms, cellars, trunks, handkerchiefs and old papers, and that the day will come when, for the instruction or misfortune of mankind, the plague will once again rouse its rats and send them to die in some new well-contented city [une cité heureuse].

Dark valley

This could be the year that brings back the plague at full scale. Around the world, many ask why intolerance, right-wing populism, the far right, even fascism, have returned to politics and our societies.

There will be elections in at least 64 countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Indonesia, to mention but a few. There will also be important elections to the European Parliament. As Camus’ character, Dr Rieux, observed, no victories last forever. This year marks a potential turning-point for democracy, but also for the postwar compromises between labour and capital challenged in countries such as Finland and the UK.

The interwar period was a spiral of contradictions. But the trend towards war was not inevitable. Conflicting interests and human decisions took the world into an abyss. During a single winter, between 1932 and 1933, much went wrong: Adolf Hitler came to power, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Jehol and abandoned the League of Nations, Benito Mussolini looked towards Africa, France changed governments three times and so on.

Collective mentalities and popular beliefs sent nations on the path to war. Hope about the future was lost in too many camps. Pessimism got the upper hand and the world entered a dark valley.

Today many seem to have forgotten that interwar fascism was a global phenomenon. The fight for the survival of democracy took place on every continent. The darkness that could descend on us today is reminiscent of the 1930s, yet different.

Market fundamentalism

The recent outbreak of right-wing populism and far-right activism has evoked mainly two explanations. One is primarily economic, with economists such as Thomas Piketty emphasising the impact of a growing gap in living standards. It is argued that the populist counter-movement grows out of the growing economic divide.

The other approach is cultural, with the American political scientists Pippa Norris and the late Ronald Inglehart at its centre. The return of the far right and right-wing populism is explained as a shift in values. It is described as a reaction to increased gender equality, multiculturalism, environmental awareness and identity politics.

Yet behind both explanations lurks the political doctrine of market ‘freedom’ and deregulation. Neoliberalism, with its market fundamentalism—a religious faith in the self-correcting ability of markets—has had a profound effect on our societies in recent decades. Institutions and compromises that supported democracy have been weakened, even uprooted.

The prominent right-wing populists and far-right politicians of today are well established: Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orbán, Donald Trump, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin. Jair Bolsanaro, Boris Johnson and Jarosław Kaczyński may have faded but there are newcomers such as Giorgia Meloni and Javier Milei. They all limit the voice of civil society and fundamental rights, including the rule of law. Cavalier towards the actual pandemic, they all carry the plague. 

Unlike fascists and Nazis, most of them do not declare war on democracy directly. The right-wing populists of our time have learnt to coexist with democracy—while voiding it of its basic conditions. And the age of neoliberalism did not only weaken trade unions: it made democracy less resilient.

Pillars of democracy

The trade-union movement and civil-society organisations are pillars of democracy. So free organisations and institutions—including the media and universities—are primary targets of the populists in power. Without genuine freedom of expression, opponents can be kept on a short leash.

Conversely, democracy’s most important self-defence lies in society’s own organisations, which draw strength from the popular desire to form and maintain communities of interest and associations, outside the control of the state. Democracy must thus be practised in everyday life—and trade unions are particularly important schools.

The struggle for democracy must make the practical exercise of fundamental democratic rights—such as organising and bargaining, strikes and protests—second-nature. Democracy at work leads to higher democratic participation beyond. Every legislative measure, every political and legal decision must be judged by whether the exercise of rights is strengthened or weakened. (This includes free-trade agreements.) Fundamental rights must be protected and promoted in all political arenas.

Shaping the future

The current wave of right-wing populism feeds off an idea that our societies are in inexorable decline, with some collectivised Other—then the Jew, today the asylum-seeker—held to blame. Some seem to conclude that any attempt to improve things will only make them worse. Darkness pervades discussions about our large societal transitions.

Yet there are further lessons to be drawn from Camus novel. The battle against right-wing populism and the far right is only lost if progressives give up in despair. It matters what we do—our actions, how we talk and think, have a profound importance:

And indeed it could be said that once the faintest stirring of hope became possible, the dominion of plague was ended.

The idea that the future is open—not closed—has to be reclaimed. One does not have to be blithely optimistic but we can choose to be drawn towards the light and progressive politicians must put hope first. The world is not coming to an end: we can jointly shape the future and the world-to-come as we want it to be.

The battle against the far right and right-wing populism can be won with secure jobs, full employment, decent pay, functioning public services, equality and strong workers’ rights based on collective bargaining. Democracy has to respond better to the demands of working people and ensure these are met, so they cannot be seduced by the populists’ siren songs.

Everywhere where people meet to discuss how to make our workplaces better, debating how to improve our lives and change our societies, participating in demonstrations—as happened recently in Germany, Austria and France—there we find hope. Practising democracy is how we defend it best.