Donald Trump’s erstwhile chief strategist and current occasional telephone adviser, Steve Bannon, has made no secret of his admiration for hedge fund tycoon George Soros and his ability to influence elections around the world to benefit neo-liberal politicians and parties. In creating his Brussels-based group, called simply, “The Movement,” Bannon is emulating Soros’s techniques on behalf of the liberal left in providing electoral advice to neo-Nazi, fascist, and white supremacist political parties around the globe.
“The Movement” is a version of the Soviet-led Comintern—or Communist International—an international grouping of Communist parties that existed from 1919 to 1943. In fact Bannon has called himself a “Leninist,” not so much for any sympathies for leftist politics, but because of his belief that Lenin wanted to destroy the modern state. In 2013, a few years before he became campaign manager for Trump, Bannon told a reporter for The Daily Beast that, “Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal too. I want to bring everything crashing down, and destroy all of today’s establishment.”
Bannon’s views are more in line with those of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose promotion of nihilism, which included a call for the destruction of the church and the end of obedience to and worship of God, found its way into Adolf Hitler’s playbook. It also served as a basis for the political theology of Ayn Rand, a virtual goddess for Republican anti-government libertarians.
Bannon has united with like-minded politicians in Europe, Latin America, and states like Florida and Georgia in a common political front, a far-right version of the Comintern that could be called the Fascist International or “Fascintern,” instead of the non-descriptive “Movement.”
Make no mistake about what the far-right and racist Trump clones Ron DeSantis and Brian Kemp will do in their southeastern states. There will be an influx of white supremacists, anti-Semites, and fascists knocking on doors for political patronage jobs in Tallahassee and Atlanta. Bannon has close friends in Miami-Dade, where he once lived and where he and his ex-wife are suspected of having been involved in the production of methamphetamines and pornography in the presence of children. Miami is the southern gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean and its metropolitan region hosts exile groups intent on overthrowing progressive governments in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. These nations were recently referred to as the “Troika of Tyranny” by Trump national security adviser John Bolton. It was the John Bolton SuperPAC that originally contracted with the defunct election manipulation firm, Cambridge Analytica, while Bannon was closely associated with the company.
Bannon’s Citizens of the American Republic is currently working with a number of alt-right groups and outlets, including the White House Press Office-accredited fake news conspiracy site, The Gateway Pundit.
Atlanta is also a major economic, media, and transportation bridge between the United States and Latin America and the Caribbean. With racist Trump-loving governors in charge in Tallahassee and Atlanta, the “New South” states of Florida and Georgia—both seen as gateways to the Americas—will revert to the Old South The last time Florida had a governor harboring racist views was from 1967 to 1971, when Claude Kirk, the first Republican governor since Reconstruction, served as the state’s chief executive. For Georgia, one has to go back to Governor Lester Maddox, who achieved political notoriety for chasing three black Georgia Tech students out of his Pickrick Restaurant in Atlanta and in 1966 was elected governor, serving one term in office. It was in 1971, when Jimmy Carter was elected Georgia’s governor and Reubin Askew became Florida’s governor, that the term “New South” was coined by the media to reflect the political ascendancy of two Democrats who ran as racial unifiers, not segregationists.
The “New South,” as far as Georgia and Florida are concerned, ended on November 6. Both states are now political incubators for Trump’s Republican Party’s racist cult members. DeSantis normalized the use of the term “monkey” in reference to African-Americans, while Kemp was slow to condemn racist robocalls, made on his behalf, that referred to Oprah Winfrey as the “magical negro.”
In order to establish their Fascintern, Bolton and Bannon have at their disposal, the immense financial resources of hedge fund multi-billionaire Robert Mercer, and his daughter, Rebekah Mercer. Bannon and Bolton who have condemned the global political operations of Soros, which are now drastically ebbing in many regions, have warmly embraced those of the Mercers. Trump supporters, including some acting out violently, deride Soros, but are mum when it comes to the Mercers and their support for far-right political parties and leaders.
Bannon provided political advice to the presidential campaign of Brazil’s new fascist president, Jair Bolsonaro. There is also evidence that affiliates of Cambridge Analytica helped elect far-right wing Ivan Duque as president of Colombia. Bolsonaro and Duque reportedly have political and financial connections in Miami that include the U.S. Southern Command, formerly headed by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly. The Brazilian political campaign, like that of Trump, Kemp, DeSantis, and other Republicans, was marked by attacks on the press, dissemination of “fake news” on social media, and a disdain for the constitutional process.
Bannon, Bolton, and the Mercers are actively trying to install other far-right governments in power in Latin America and ensure the demise of progressive opposition forces. These actions have the support of Trump and his rubber stamp Republican Party. In Europe, Bannon and the Mercer network of election manipulation firms and political operatives have seen the installation of right-wing and fascist-oriented nationalist governments in Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, and Switzerland, with far-right parties well-positioned in national parliaments to possibly enter governments in Sweden, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Norway. Bannon and his European allies believe that their Movement can pick up a third of the seats in upcoming elections for the European Parliament. Bannon’s friends in the far-right French National Rally see hope in declining opinion poll numbers for President Emmanuel Macron. The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which harbors a number of covert neo-Nazis—some of whom are in close contact with Bannon and The Movement—is now the third largest party in Germany.
The Fascintern has a fellow-traveler in the office of the prime minister of Australia. Scott Morrison is a right-wing Christian evangelical who is known for his very un-Christian bullying tactics. Morrison shares the bullying trait with Bolsonaro, who has threatened to kill or exile his political opponents and steal the lands of native Brazilian tribes people. Morrison and Bolsonaro can look to the grotesque example set by Trump, when it comes to insults and uncouth comments about opponents.
In the past, international Communist movements were actively opposed by the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department, and the National Security Council. Bannon’s and Bolton’s Fascist International operates under no such constraints. To the contrary, the operations of American citizens in the promotion of fascism abroad is encouraged by Bolton’s National Security Council and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s State Department.
True progressives, bona fide religious people, and people of color around the world are under assault from a resurgent far-right global political movement. It has embedded itself deep into the strata of the U.S. federal bureaucracy, state governments, foreign governments, and international institutions like the United Nations and NATO. The coming battle between the right-wing forces of oppression and hatred and the champions of democracy and civil liberties will be one of overall strategy and carefully applied tactics. If the far-right is not curbed now, the past will be prologue.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2018 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
