National Conservatism as Marxism-Leninism: A genuine proposition for thought and political practice

My life is like a child’s illusions become reality.

KanYe West, ‘See Me Now’, from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, 2010.

An imaginary speech for concluding the National Conservatism Conference, London, 15-17 May 2023.

Media sources claim this Conference is unwelcoming to views that are in any way ‘left-wing’ — either Marxist or linked to the Frankfurt School of critical theory, the writings of which inspired my decision to support National Conservatism in the first place! I want to show why the media is wrong about this Conference.

On the first day of this Conference I asked a question. Conservatives challenge liberalism just as Marxists challenge capitalism. While conservatives wage a culture war against the destruction of local communities by global markets, Marxists wage a class war against the exploitation of labour [small ‘l’] by capital. But as many speakers of this Conference have argued, the working class is not liberal in its attitudes. It is conservative, opposing the liberalism of what Marxist writer Barbara Ehrenreich termed the ‘professional-managerial class.’ If conservatives oppose the liberalism of the university educated, perhaps we challenge the capitalism of the rich, too. Standing up for the working class, is not conservatism the new Marxism?

My question received gentle laughs, as did my question to Senator Vance about whether the most viable candidate for containing totalitarian China is Ye, who advocates a {quote} ‘Trump campaign with Bernie Sanders principles.’ In the UK, the ‘Marxist’ answer to Brexit was Corbyn, who won 40% of the vote in 2017 — before his and Bernie’s embrace of woke liberalism destroyed their chances in 2019 and 2020.

A similar problem existed in 1920s Russia, when Lenin’s pragmatic nationalist successor Joseph Stalin defeated the more ideologically Marxist Trotsky. Of course what they both opposed was liberal capitalism — but Stalin was more willing to compromise on economics than Lenin or Trotsky, before the rise of fascist Germany forced Russia to accelerate its economic socialization.

I don’t want to compromise on economics. But I also don’t want to compromise on culture war. I believe the further right we go on rhetorical conservatism, the further left we go on substantive Marxism.

Our opponents, the liberal capitalists, do the same thing but in the opposite direction. The further left they go on liberal culture war, the further right they go on capitalist class war — continuing Blair’s neoliberal revolution.

Trussonomics and Trumponomics may be the first step towards a synthesis — the rhetoric of Brexit and Trump, and the policy of Corbyn and Sanders. Conservative in rhetoric and Marxist in policy, we National Conservatives may be ready to embrace our true philosophy, one which the left parades as identity but refuses to put into real political practice: Marxism-Leninism. Stalin’s style and Trotsky’s substance may be the best way to stop the woke neofascism of the liberal left — which like the NSDAP conceals capitalist policy behind anticapitalist rhetoric.

But we are conservatives, and the first principle of conservatism is honesty. If we hope to expose our left-wing opponents for the fascism of their ‘antifascism,’ it may be time to expose the Marxian skin beneath our Burkean masks (to echo Marxist writer Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks). For beyond the hellworld of left-wing liberal fascism, there is a heaven of right-wing Christian communism. We have reached the fork in the path. I hope we choose National Conservatism, the true heir of Burke and Marx. Douglas Murray asked what we would do if we weren’t moving at liberalism’s snail pace. I hope my provocative remarks give a picture of what it might mean for conservative Marxists to hit ‘accelerate.’

Let me be frankly conservative: The future cannot wait for us to get over ideological prejudice. We must state the truth now, and allow conservatism to become Marxism before liberalism becomes fascism — if it has not already. Freedom, true freedom, cannot wait. Let us forget the lie of rhetoric and state the truth of policy now. It is time — for a real revolution, and a return to the values of friendship, family, and freedom, through the politics of truth — not liberal lies. I hope you agree. Thank you.