INTERVIEW
9 thing to make clear is the sort of discourses or ideologies that were mobilized during this particular vote have unleashed violence. A sort of nationalistic patriarchal identity was mobilized and the spillover effects seem to be quite violent, more than any others.
On a more positive side, I mean, there is a big Leftist backlash. The Brexit decision captured in a kind of identity politics what is much more an equality and class-based frustration. And the task, therefore, for the Left is to reclassify that. That doesn’ t mean that you don’ t also need to fight the racial origin of inequality, but it means putting the focus on equality more than on identity in the way that Brexit did and Tory language over the last few years has done.
E2C: Which result surprised you most: Brexit, Trump or the rejection of the Colombian peace agreement? Why?
NH: The Colombian one, probably, because I understand so much less about Colombian politics.
Neither eventuality, Trump or Brexit, seems to me surprising, it seems like they’ re both encoded in the hypocrisies of a Left-governed neoliberalism. The way that Clinton— both Clintons— and then Blair embraced neoliberalism was just so patently hypocritical. Their policies demonstrated to people that they didn’ t matter, whilst so inauthentically pretending that they do; the resentment was just gigantic. And there was a huge gaping hole that any self-respecting and halfintelligent populist could step into and say‘ Ok, I’ ll tell you that you matter. And I’ m going to meet your need for mattering by channeling all of your frustration into this Other, which is not a class or power based Other, but just some fictitious raceor gender-based Other.’
Resentment is the feeling du-jour now in most of the Western world, and it’ s just not being channeled by Leftists and alternatives. Or if it was, in the case of Sanders, or now in the case of Corbyn, these things were completely rejected and sort of demonized as naïve by the part of the center Left. They didn’ t offer a way of dealing with people’ s deep emotional dissatisfaction. Farage talks like a bloke down at the pub, even though he’ s definitely not a bloke down at the pub; Trump, he talks like he’ s a crazy grandad. And people genuinely find this appealing, because it at least gives the appearance of authenticity.
It’ s not that they are definitely and collectively more authentic, far from it, just they managed to mobilize a language of authenticity that works.
Italy
Date: 17 / 04 / 2016 Ref: Italian oil drilling referendum Turnout: 31.19 % Outcome: 85.85 % for 14.14 % against
Tajikistan
Date: 22 / 05 / 2016 Ref: Constitutional referendum Turnout: 91.63 % Outcome: 96.60 % for
3.40 % against the Netherlands San Marino
Date: 06 / 04 / 2016 Ref: Dutch Ukraine – European Union Association Agreement referendum Turnout: 32.28 % Outcome: 38.21 % for 61.00 % against
Date: 15 / 05 / 2016 Ref: Sammarinese referendum Turnout: 47.53 %
Exchange to change January 2017