Left-wing movements often worry about right-wing infiltration or cooptation by being too open, which I understand. But I was wondering if there's examples of things going in the other direction. Maybe France's gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement? That started as kind of a rural tax revolt (certainly conservative-coded from a North American perspective), but the formal demands they issued were largely about opposing austerity, climate justice and other progressive goals — although there was also a nationalist/anti-immigration component.
Many left-wingers believe that their organisational structures should reflect the society which they hope to build. Do right-wingers care about stuff like that at all?
This is the subject of a long discussion in my second book so I didn't want to rehash it here, but to answer your question: no, the right doesn't care. Even on the left the role of "prefiguration" and what it actually means and whether it is important is the subject of intense debate.
Ever since reading your latest book, I've thought about this a lot too, and how some structure can be very useful.
Recently in Canada, the federal NDP voted for Avi Lewis to be its leader, and I'm thrilled! He's doing all he can to empower the party and bring it to the left while championing green policies. Having a leader isn't very horizontal, but I love that his values are mostly aligned with mine and many others who haven't felt represented politically.
I don't see a lot of truly left wing movements in Canada. The environmental movement is very middle class and often leans right in many ways.
Examples of the right using left-wing arguments and tactics: the Metropolitan French far-right supported anti-racist policies like affirmative action during the period of the Algerian Revolution because they thought it would function as a useful counter insurgency tool to keep Algeria part of France
Left-wing movements often worry about right-wing infiltration or cooptation by being too open, which I understand. But I was wondering if there's examples of things going in the other direction. Maybe France's gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement? That started as kind of a rural tax revolt (certainly conservative-coded from a North American perspective), but the formal demands they issued were largely about opposing austerity, climate justice and other progressive goals — although there was also a nationalist/anti-immigration component.
Many left-wingers believe that their organisational structures should reflect the society which they hope to build. Do right-wingers care about stuff like that at all?
This is the subject of a long discussion in my second book so I didn't want to rehash it here, but to answer your question: no, the right doesn't care. Even on the left the role of "prefiguration" and what it actually means and whether it is important is the subject of intense debate.
Ever since reading your latest book, I've thought about this a lot too, and how some structure can be very useful.
Recently in Canada, the federal NDP voted for Avi Lewis to be its leader, and I'm thrilled! He's doing all he can to empower the party and bring it to the left while championing green policies. Having a leader isn't very horizontal, but I love that his values are mostly aligned with mine and many others who haven't felt represented politically.
I don't see a lot of truly left wing movements in Canada. The environmental movement is very middle class and often leans right in many ways.
Examples of the right using left-wing arguments and tactics: the Metropolitan French far-right supported anti-racist policies like affirmative action during the period of the Algerian Revolution because they thought it would function as a useful counter insurgency tool to keep Algeria part of France