The dominance of right-wing ideas reflects capitalism’s control of society, writes Jacob Starling, but new ideas alone are not what drives social change, in the next article in our series on what socialists say
Socialists spend much of our time fighting against right-wing ideas and arguing that a better world is possible.
Often it can feel like we are swimming against the tide. Only a tiny sliver of the Australian working class would call themselves revolutionary socialists, and conservative ideas have much more influence.
When the Indigenous Voice to Parliament was voted down in 2023, it was seen as evidence that Australian society was hopelessly racist. Similarly, many on the left have been dismayed to see sections of the American working class side with Trump against their own interests.
What explains the influence of these ideas? This is not a new problem for socialists. Marx famously argued that “the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas”. We live in a society run by capitalists, in the service of profit, and the capitalist class has many ways of spreading their ideas.
Anyone who has turned on the news over the past two years will have noticed how much the mainstream media sides with Israel in its genocidal war, while attacking supporters of Palestine.
The media has a massive influence on popular opinion, dictating what is common sense and what is “extreme”. Some media platforms, like the Murdoch press, have a conscious commitment to spreading right wing ideas. Even less overtly ideological platforms are still owned and funded by the rich and have an interest in promoting ideas which preserve their wealth and influence.
These ideas are in turn reinforced by the education system, parliament, the courts, social media, and every other institution of the ruling class.
How can ideas change?
In fact, there are many examples throughout history of ideas changing quickly on a massive scale. Just over 50 years ago, homosexuality was still categorised as a mental illness, but now gay marriage has massive popular support.
Many people mistakenly believe that these changes are simply the result of society becoming more “enlightened”, as better ideas replace worse ones in a logical sequence. History would then be the story of rationality gradually defeating irrationality. This is what Marxists call “idealism”.
However, ideas do not bring change on their own. If it hadn’t been for the decades of struggle from below in support of gay rights, homophobia would be far more mainstream today.
Socialists believe that ideas come primarily from our concrete experiences of living in any given society. If capitalism is all we know, it is easy to take for granted that inequality, war, selfishness and oppression are inevitable and natural features of human society.
Similarly, medieval peasants accepted their exploitation by feudal lords as divinely ordained. In the ancient world, slavery was taken for granted.
Because capitalist society is a class society, with a working class that faces exploitation and a cost-of-living crisis, and a ruling class that profits from their work to amass huge wealth, an individual’s experience of life is deeply affected by their position within society.
The ideas propagated by the ruling class are reinforced by the lack of control workers have over their lives under capitalism. At work, they are under the control of a boss, and the products of their labour belong to somebody else. Many workers therefore come to accept that they are not suited to make decisions about how their workplace, or how society as a whole, should run.
Our experience of life is also the basis for changes in ideas.
Key to this is the contradictory nature of life under capitalism. Capitalism alienates workers, encouraging passivity, but it also forces them to work together, often in large numbers. As the capitalists fight to squeeze more and more profit out of their workers, they can provoke working class resistance and opposition to how society is run.
The history of capitalism shows how massive waves of resistance can erupt seemingly out of nowhere, as workers unite to demand better wages and conditions.
This means that most workers have a mix of ruling class ideas and working-class ideas. Involvement in struggle is the most powerful way to challenge ruling class ideas.
During the 1984-85 miners’ strike in Britain, the right-wing ideas of many of the workers were challenged by their experiences of solidarity from other oppressed groups.
At first, when gay and lesbian groups raised money to support them, workers turned them down. However, after police attacks, and right-wing smear campaigns, they realised that they shared a common struggle against the ruling class. As a result, the 1985 Gay Pride march was led by a group of striking miners.
Racist ideas can also be challenged by class struggle. Racism is a tool used by the ruling class to divide workers and create a scapegoat for popular frustration. However, it is only through challenging racist ideas that working class unity can be forged. Without this unity, it is almost impossible to win major strikes and struggles.
Revolutions offer us the most vivid examples of how quickly ideas can change during collective struggle. In the 2011 Egyptian revolution, religious sectarianism between Muslims and Christians was broken down by the united fight against the dictatorship. Christians formed a human chain to protect Muslim worshippers as they prayed, and Muslims defended churches from pro-regime thugs.
However, this doesn’t mean that ideas change evenly and automatically across the whole working class.
Inside every struggle there is a contest over ideas that is crucial to their victory or defeat.
This is why revolutionary organisations, and revolutionary newspapers, are so important. We are fighting a war of ideas against the ruling class. Only the socialist transformation of society can consign their ideas to the dustbin of history.
