Real Left interview in The Light paper: Beyond the politics of left and right

Real Left’s Chris Rea is interviewed by Richard House

RICHARD HOUSE [RH]: Tell us about Real Left, Chris – when and by whom it was founded, and why.

CR: Real Left – which was originally Left Lockdown Sceptics until our name change in 2023 – was founded in January 2021 by David Fletcher and his colleagues from the Marxist theoretical journal Marxist World. Since then, through members leaving and joining, the demographic of the editorial has changed to a more libertarian left (anarchist) weighted makeup, although we still have active members/supporters who identify as communists, Marxists and socialists.

The founding purpose was to provide an online publishing platform for critiques of the ‘new normal’ or bio-security state from anti-capitalist perspectives. Such critiques were, and mostly still are, absent from left-wing discourse. We have since broadened the focus of our critique to all aspects of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, platforming ‘dissident’ positions on issues like net zero, for example.

RH: Those who’ve historically identified with the political left have been hugely frustrated by the robotic labelling of all those questioning establishment covid and globalist narratives as ‘far right’. Do you think that the labels of ‘left’ and ‘right’ still have any use or relevance?

CR: It is understandable that people claim that there is no longer any relevance to the traditional left-right political model. All mainstream and most non-mainstream political parties and organisations of all persuasions fell in step with the diktats of the covid tyranny. This led to generalised disgust within the freedom movement with the old political model.

The new forms of political resistance that emerged in response to lockdowns (properly speaking, lockouts) and ‘vaccine’ mandates were untrammelled by traditional political orthodoxies. But the underlying social and economic realities that gave rise to the left right model in the first place have not changed; in fact, since 2020 they have intensified.

We are engaged in a historical struggle – the class struggle. The only solution to the crisis we are in is organised action by the mass of the population directed against the ruling class, leading to the establishment of a new form of social and economic organisation under popular control and rooted in class solidarity and democratic participation. All other forms of anti-system resistance are subordinate to this objective. This is a classic left position; and just because in recent times the idea of leftness has been traduced by distracting outbursts of extreme liberalism (e.g. the transgender agenda, critical race theory and climate alarmism), it doesn’t follow that authentic left ideology and practice are redundant; on the contrary, they are more relevant than ever.

RH: A fascinating answer – thank you. ‘Action by the mass of the population directed against the ruling class’ are words that could also be signed up to by many on the anti-globalist right! How much overlap is there in the commitments of the Real Left and those on the libertarian, anti-globalist right? And is any constructive co-operation happening across the left-right divide?

CR: We certainly share more common ground with many on the libertarian right than your average Socialist Workers Party sort, who are often some of the most aggressive defenders of the ruling class’s Great Reset related propaganda. One key way in which we diverge from the the anti-lockdown-and-anti-mandates Right, though, is in our economic analysis, which we have found that the majority in the freedom movement (and Light paper readers) share.

I have not seen amongst organisations like the (Brexit Party/Reform linked) Together Declaration, The Daily Sceptic or The Conservative Woman a willingness to name the root cause of the resource and power inequality that made the covid-1984 event possible, i.e. the debt-based monetary system created by the cartel who run fractional reserve central banking. The Great Reset from this perspective is in actuality an attempted resuscitation of this collapsing ponzi scheme, through the creation of massive untapped markets in (digitally tracked and surveilled) living things for the new big data economy.

Partially due to ignoring or dismissing this piece, the right-libertarians also miss the mark on other issues – in their support of the Ukraine-NATO war and the Zionist settler-colonialist project, for example. Our upcoming conference, ‘Uniting the Pro-Freedom and Pro-Palestine Liberation Left’, aims to build solidarity with others who are concerned with the increasingly police state-like powers – such as indefinite detention without charge – that are being used to chill and repress anti genocide speech and protest.

RH: Where does Real Left stand on the vexed question of ‘wokeness’ and the culture wars – assuming you have a definable position on these issues?

CR: Usually, phenomena labelled ‘wokeness’ connote a trickle-down manifestation of the transition to stakeholder capitalism – with its introduction of diversity, equality and inclusion; environmental and social governance, and social impact corporate frameworks. This, to eventually align all economic activity with the Sustainable Development Goals: the new rules of the (digital prison) game. Global techno-fascism has constructed socially and environmentally conscious sounding PR – green/sustainable, people-powered, inclusive, etc. – to disguise its real goals.

Finally, a note of caution regarding the way the term ‘woke’ is sometimes used to disparage or dismiss past or present grassroots activities towards improved social justice. We live under a hierarchical system designed by highly adept predators. The raison d’etre of essentially all institutions and mass media-propagated culture is to disseminate, manage and normalise the abuse and exploitation of the population in a myriad of ways. If we are serious about egalitarian revolution, that must include a willingness to examine the culturally-imbibed attitudes and behaviours that make us complicit in the oppression of those with (even) less social and economic power than ourselves.

RH: How can people follow the work of The Real Left and get involved?

CR: If you sign up to our subscriber list at www.realleft.substack.com, you’ll receive notifications of all our articles and in person events. You can also find our back catalogue there. We would be very happy to hear from anyone who would like to get involved in any writing, editing, posting or events-organising for Real Left. Please drop us an email at llsinbox@posteo.net.

• Next public meeting is the conference on Saturday 3 May in London. Tickets: tinyurl.com/283prkeu Or email us at: realleftevents@yahoo.com to register to pay cash on the day. And if you’re skint, we do have a few free places.
• The Money Masters documentary: tinyurl.com/y4878hed