The rise of right-wing populism and 'identity politics' in Hungary involving the political use and misuse of historical facts regarding the past dispersal of ethnic Hungarians and attempts to manipulate ethnic Hungarians outside the modern state of Hungary to reinforce nationalism and authoritarian state rule. Add to that the manufactured linkages of a supposed Christian heritage endangered by forced Muslim migration and a persistent popular homophobia and mix it all up with some distorted cultural expressions and things are certainly on a downward spiral these days.
Two interesting articles that relate to all this in the UK Guardian newspaper are worth a read:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/22/hungarian-nationalist-rock-opera-to-retell-1920s-grievances and
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/22/billy-elliot-musical-cuts-dates-hungary-claims-turn-children-gay
There is a liberal opposition to all this but it is on weak ground and little sign of any emerging independent class movement as far as I am aware.
Could say the same for
Could say the same for Eastern Europe no?
I would add that this
I would add that this rightward trend did not begin with the refugees arriving but earlier with the existing anti-Roma prejudice that the Right such as Jobbik incited.
The closure of the Lukacs
The closure of the Lukacs archive in Budapest was a bad sign, part of a cultural whitewashing of Hungary's radical past, and with a considerable dose of thinly veiled antisemitism.
Earlier this month a Frida Kahlo exhibition was being attacked in the press for 'promoting communism'
There's a real nasty, red scare atmosphere there, a marxist comrade I talk to quite regularly tells me she's experiencing a lot more in the way of threats and intimidation, online and off, in recent months.
And most recently this
And most recently this right-wing attack following celebrations of the Hungary 56 revolt against the old Soviet Union as reported here:
https://freedomnews.org.uk/hungary-neo-fascists-attack-aurora-jewish-community-centre
Just keeping this subject
Just keeping this subject upfront then it's not just Hungary of course. If you ignore the rather simplistic, non-strategic conclusions in this article from ajj, it paints a useful short, if depressing, summary of the increase in the political use of what some have labelled 'Nativism' here:
https://worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020/2020s/no-1385-january-2020/nativism-covert-racism/
"If you ignore the rather
"If you ignore the rather simplistic, non-strategic conclusions in this article from ajj"
I am a very simple soul, Spikey (but not a simpleton, I hastily add)
I leave the complicated complex analyses to others and hopefully leave my fellow-workers free to draw their own conclusions and details of what to do, rather impose the answers upon them...that's the hope, anyways.
But grateful to you for giving the link.
I say, let the people decide
I say, let the people decide for themselves. Sadly, it's usually the government doing that.