Nearly 25 years since the end of
Communism a new cultural and political divide has opened in Europe. This is
being exploited by the conservative right,that promotes a regressive ideology
of division around issues of gender in the East and immigration in the West.
As the Winter Olympics begins in
Russia, international attention has turned to the discriminatory laws signed by
Putin last year that outlaw the ‘propaganda of non-traditional sexual
relations’. These laws have helped fuel homophobia in Russia and have been
justified by the Russian President as protecting conservative family values against
the ‘genderless and infertile tolerance’ that has grown in the West.
This conservative turn in Russia
has been replicated in other countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). In
Poland the Catholic Church has rejected the mild liberal turn taking place in
the Vatican and declared war on ‘gender theory’. Gender has
become a ubiquitous term for the conservative right, bringing together diverse
issues such as sexual identity, contraception, equality, abortion, in-vitro
treatment, etc. Presently, the conservative right (including many in Citizens Platform - PO) has
been engaged in trying stop the passing of laws that outlaw discrimination
against lesbian and gays in the EU and defending ‘traditional family values’
in Poland.
An
awkward political alliance has been formed on this question, uniting Catholic
right-wing conservatives in Poland with those governing in the Kremlin. Both
see themselves as opposing the spread of liberal values from the west, and
rather ironically attempt to uphold the official social conservative stance to
sexuality that was propagated during Communism.
This
rise of conservative ideology is not
occurring in a social vacuum. In Russia the laws were passed with virtually no
opposition in parliament and are supported by the
vast majority of the population. In Poland, despite
society gradually becoming more liberal on issues of lesbian and gay rights, around
60% of society still oppose allowing same-sex legal partnerships. To some
extent, the preservation of conservative attitudes on this issue is one of the
failures of Communism, which entrenched the idea that homosexuality is abnormal
and a western deviation. Moreover, it reflects the limitations of liberalism,
where cultural liberalism has been combined with the precepts of neo-liberal
economics. The ideals of individual tolerance have become the symbolic property
of a privileged section of society, which excludes the vast majority. In response,
large sections of society have fallen back on the certainties of traditional
conservative values.
Whilst
the criticisms made against this conservative ideology are correct and
necessary, the hypocrisy of the West is evident. Obama may
describe the laws passed in Russia as being unacceptable but we hear no similar
denunciation of America’s ally Saudi Arabia where homosexuality is both
outlawed and punishable by death. The calls for a
boycott of the Olympics are reminiscent of the exaggerated and stereotyped
representation of the problem of racism in Poland and Ukraine made before
Euro2012. There is a certain neo-colonial smugness, that sees those in the east
as uneducated hordes who have not yet caught up with the west’s civilised
attitudes.
This viewpoint also represents an idealised view of life in
the West. For example, in 1988 Margaret Thatcher’s government introduced laws
that were almost identical to those recently passed in Russia and were only
repealed in 2003. In the 1980s, those supporting equal rights for lesbians and
gays in Britain were termed the ‘loony left’ and were a minority even in the
Labour Party. Homophobia remains a serious problem in the West and any advances
that have been made have been hard won and certainly not handed down by a
benign liberal elite.
The mainstream conservative right in the West can no longer
use homophobia as its ideological weapon, as society has generally moved beyond
it on this issue. Yet in these times of economic difficulty, a scapegoat is
needed to turn attention away from the regressive economic policies of
austerity and follow the tried and trusted strategy of ‘divide and rule’. The
chosen culprits are immigrants.
Whilst the conservative right in the east of Europe fear the
incursion of liberal values, those in the west of the continent see the influx
of migrants as the major threat. The availability of a new pool of cheap and
skilled labour from CEE has been exploited by businesses in Western Europe over
the past decade. However, since the outbreak of the economic crisis these
migrants have become a target for many venting their frustrations at declining living standards. The proposal of new laws restricting the right of
migrants to claim benefits in Britain is part of this upsurge in anti-immigrant
populism. The right-wing media paints a picture of people from the east `flooding’
the country to live off the social security system, when in fact over the past decade economic migrants from Europe have paid 34% more in tax than they have received in benefits.
An atmosphere of near hysteria was whipped up before labour market restrictions
were lifted on migrants from Bulgaria and Romania at the beginning of this
year, although the predicted flood has turned out to be little more than a
trickle.
Within the EU, the viewpoint that borders should be closed,
and the process of economic and social convergence halted, is most strongly
held in the richer states in the west. Conversely, the most liberal and
progressive stance on the movement and integration of people is held by those
in CEE, including by parties of the conservative right. The dictum that ‘being
determines consciousness’ is once again confirmed.
The depiction of migrants from CEE as benefit scroungers and
criminals is a different version of the same conservative ideology that sees
sexual equality as an unnatural deviation. It feeds on the inequalities
existent in Europe and offers simplistic although misguided solutions to
complex socio-economic problems. When the left is weak or succumbs to this (as
to some degree the Labour Party has on immigration in Britain), so the conservative
right and its retrograde ideas are strengthened.
