From March 26-29 an international “anti fascist” conference was held in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It turned out, though, that it was not about anti-fascism at all, as I point out below. The main organizers of the conference were Putin apologists or outright supporters. Despite that, some supporters of Ukraine attended in order to engage with these people who I call the “Putinized left”.

Following the conference, most of the non-Putinized left who attended issued reports that were critical of the conference in some respects, but overall they congratulated themselves for having attended. Christian Zeller of Europe United without Borders issued one report. Here is my reply, slightly edited for clarity and also expanded upon in a few ways:

I was not at the conference and have not spoken directly with anybody who attended, so I cannot have clear opinion on what could be accomplished by the genuine pro-working class internationalists who attended. I did hold reservations because in my experience almost all who attend this sort of conference do so with their minds already made up as far as issues like Ukraine. Therefore, I would like to know if there is evidence that any significant number of the attendees were actually swayed and if they will actually raise any questions in the groups in which they participate.

Title of conference a misnomer; silence means assent
My more fundamental issue is this: The title of the conference was a misnomer. It was not an anti-fascist conference. In reality, it was a conference called to oppose US/Western European imperialism. How can one have a serious discussion about the dangers of fascism and underlying issues – ethno-nationalism, homophobia, male supremacy, and white supremacy – without discussing Putin’s Russia? As they say “silence means assent”, or in reality silence means complicity when it comes to fascism. That is harsh, but how else can we phrase it? If in discussing the situation of the Palestinians one were to leave out Israel’s policy of genocide and ethnic cleansing, they would justifiably be accused of being complicit with that policy. It is the same with Putin’s Russia. We are not talking about Russia’s relationship to Ukraine, whether one defends Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or not. Nor are we talking simply about imperialism. We are talking about fascism, which is not exactly the same. After all, there can be fascist movements in former colonial countries. What is the Islamic State, for example? And in regard to fascism, it is untrue that the US represents the foremost threat, although with Trump now in office that threat coming from the US has increased qualitatively. It is Putin who is the foremost centralizer of fascist forces throughout Europe and beyond. That leads to the main point: It’s no accident that one of Trump’s two closest allies is Putin. (The other is Netanyahu.) In part that’s because they have a political affinity. Putin and one of the foremost Russian ideologues – Aleksandr Dugin – base themselves on Traditionalism, which is the 21st century ideology of fascism. (See: Aleksandr Dugin – alchemist of mysticism, Traditionalism and fascism.) It is worse than a mistake to leave out naming Russia when discussing opposition to fascism. It is complicit. The international pro-fascist role played by Putin can be seen very clearly here in the US and it

White nationalist/Christian Nationalist and Nazi friendly Tucker Carlson kissing up to Putin.

starts at the top, with one of two of Trump’s closest allies being Putin. The white nationalist/Christian nationalist Nazi friendly US leader Tucker Carlson is also a Putin supporter as are groups like the fascist America First (led by the white supremacist pro-Nazi Nick Fuentes). Other racists and fascists were supporters of Putin’s ally Assad when he was in power. The one who comes immediately to mind is the former KKK leader David Duke. This role of Putin is not confined to the United States. For example, Britain’s foremost fascist friendly white nationalist party – Reform UK – has now been revealed to be connected with Putin. Something similar is the case around the world.

Putin also plays a really disastrous role in drawing a whole layer of the “left” into his far right and even fascist network. The most clear example of that was the Anti Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR) conference of a few years ago. Attendees at that conference were several well known fascists and racists including the racist League of the South, the Texas Nationalist Movement (from the U.S.), and Italy’s neo fascist Millenium party. Also important representatives of the “left” here in the United States attended!

Top: “left” attendees at AGMR conference along with conference organizer Ionov.
Bottom: Openly right wing attendees at same conference

Putin’s linking up the “left” with the far right is documented in my article “Putin draws the left into the far right”. Among other things, that article documents the AGMR conference, complete with photos of who was there and the fact that the “lefts” in attendance returned home singing the praises of the conference with not a word about the racists and fascists with whom they’d rubbed elbows. In other words, they were complicit. It is the same as the complicity of the organizers of the Porto Alegre “anti-fascist” conference, which was similarly complicit with Putin’s fascism/ethno-nationalism/ etc. Such bluntness may make some socialists uncomfortable, but how can it be disputed?

It is not only major sectors of the left in the US that have been drawn into Putin’s far right web; the same is the case internationally. How can we organize against this tendency without explicitly exposing it? Unfortunately, many on the left who oppose this tendency are reluctant to do exactly that, maybe because they entertain hopes that significant sectors of this Putinized left can be won over to international working class solidarity. In my opinion they cannot. They have traveled too far down that road to turn back; they have evolved too far to turn back the clock of evolution.

Porto Alegre “anti-fascist” march – tiny when considering the 1.4 million residents of Porto Alegre.

This leaves the non-Putinized left in a difficult position because – let’s face it – we are in a small minority on the left. But we need a sense of proportion. Much has been made of the fact that the conference in Porto Alegre had a march of 7,000, but what does that represent in reality? After all, Porto Alegre has a population of 1.4 million! Was any effort even made to involve the hundreds of thousands of workers there? If not, why not and if so why was the effort evidently unsuccessful? Here in the San Francisco Bay area, which is a center for the “left”, that left has absolutely collapsed in broader support. For example, despite the fact that the US/Israeli war against Iran is more unpopular than any other U.S. war at its outset in my lifetime, anti-war protests have been pathetically small. Only the pro-Democratic controlled No Kings marches have been any size and the socialist left has had hardly any real presence at those events. Today, when anti-capitalist sentiment is higher than it ever has been in the U.S. since WW II, the “socialist left” has hardly grown at all.

The underlying problem is the crisis in the working class. The very concept of our class playing an independent political role in society has almost disappeared within the working class. That goes along with the near collapse of the level of organization of the class. Until that changes, I fear the non-Putinized left will remain in a minority within the left and within the socialist movement. Let us prepare for a renewal of the broader working class movement by encouraging whatever small signs of it exist of course, but also by clarifying the actual state of affairs. That means being brutally honest among ourselves.

I think an important step in the right direction would be to organize a true anti-fascist conference around international working class solidarity and exposing the “holy trinity” of fascism, ethno-nationalism and Traditionalism: Trump, Putin and Netanyahu. This would not to the exclusion of all others but with that focus since the other world leaders and movements basically revolve around this “holy trinity”. I hope the non-Putin left, especially the socialists within it, will take this opportunity to initiate an open discussion on these questions.