At WCDC 2018 Peter Westoby argued that community development had not responded effectively to the problem of malignant anti state, anti expert right-wing nativist populism, and the structural violences creating the anxieties that feed it. Westoby believes that community development agencies, practitioners and educators need to oppose this movement by highlighting in our practice and publications community as an important ‘site’ of democratic struggle; re-orientating CD practice again towards popular education; helping to build counter-veiling organisations; and, being pro-state.
Right wing populism is not a new phenomena. In the 1930s and 40s it was called fascism and then, as now, it was fuelled and given oxygen by a conservative media owned by billionaires. Their political agenda has always been hostile to the post WW2 social democratic policy agenda that saw a redistributive, interventionist and regulatory role by local and national governments and multi-national bodies like the EU and UN.
Since the 1970s and especially the 1980 what has been called the Neo-Con movement has captured many moderate conservative political parties, most notably in the USA. In turn social democratic parties have been forced to abandon much of their post war policy agenda such as public ownership. Many commentators call their response in turn Neo-Liberalism, which is criticised as having negatively shaped many development policies by the IMF and World Bank.
What’s for sure is that the 2008 Western financial crisis was used by Neo Con governments as an excuse to further their hostility towards the interventionist/redistributive state with savage cutbacks in public investment that hit vulnerable communities the hardest, together with cuts in community development budgets and staffing. The apogee of the Neo-Con fight back was the election of President Trump in the USA in 2016; a billionaire right wing property developer and TV media performer who was able to convince millions of rust belt and rural Americans that the causes of their problems was globalisation, the interventionist/regulatory/welfare state and non white immigrants. This also explains Trump’s huge hostility towards the EU and support for Brexit, a movement led by the Right in Britain.
These are hugely challenging times and Westoby is right in his call to arms for community developers to play a more pro-active role in challenging right wing nativist populism.
