Book review: Walden Bello,Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right (Agrarian Change and Peasant Studies)

Walden Bello’s Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right intends to present a comprehensive work of counterrevolutionary experiences. The book analyses seven cases associated with counterrevolutionary characteristics from the early twentieth century to the present. It has nine chapters and one postscript that provide the reader with a detailed account of Post-First World War Fascist Italy, Post-Second World War Indonesia, Chile, Thailand, India, Philippines, America, Europe, and lastly, Brazil. Bello compares the examples of the Right’s rise in Global North and Global South by taking stock of capitalist transformation, role of peasants, urban middle class, illiberal trends, and their relationship with populism, fascism, and reaction.

Bello presents the book’s outline and its theoretical foundation in Chapter 1. He evaluates six national experiences of victorious counterrevolution from the Global South. He highlights the importance of classical theoretical works beginning with Karl Marx’s well-known The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. He refers to the works of Barrington Moore Jr, Nicolas Poulantzas, and Arno Mayer to figure out the role of the land-based elite, big bourgeoisie, peasants, and middle class in the rise of extreme or authoritarian right and fascism (p. 5).

Bello divides the theoretical consideration of counterrevolution into two categories: First, the ‘classical class-based counterrevolution’, in which elites and allied forces suppress the reformist or revolutionary attempts to change the social system. The second type of counterrevolution aims to overturn the ‘whole political and ideological paradigm’ (p. 9). The liberal-democratic system and elites who support the system by diminishing the people’s well-being can provoke a counterrevolution. Fascist Italy, Indonesia, Chile, and Thailand offer examples of the first kind, whereas, currently India, the Philippines, contemporary Europe, and the United States suit the second category.

Bello shows in Chapter 2 why the analysis of Fascist Italy matters for this study. He asserts that the counterrevolution in post-war Italy stemmed from the countryside since landowners could not deal with farm workers’ unions and production cooperatives in towns except with the help of fascist paramilitary organisations. Chapter 3 demonstrates the apprehensiveness of the elites and the big bourgeoisie in the face of the rising communist movement and peasant unions. Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) could mobilise its mass around a peaceful reformist strategy; however, the electoral road of PKI led to its own destruction by mass slaughter at the hands of the reactionaries in 1965–66 (pp. 24–25).

In the fourth chapter, Bello shifts his focus to Chile in the 1970s. As in Indonesia, an agrarian reform and collectivisation process by Popular Unity (UP) under the leadership of Salvador Allende threatened the dominant classes in Chile. The author underlines the fact that the middle class in Chile supported the violent suppression of Allende’s regime and the resultant military dictatorship.

Bello examines Thailand in the fifth chapter. This offers an interesting cave of ‘revolution and counterrevolution reloaded’. Despite the democratic forces’ large popular base, the Thai elites relied on the army to overthrow democracy in the name of the banner of ‘Nation-Religion-King.

Chapter 6 discusses the triumph of Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India. Narendra Modi, who based himself on the RSS-led ideology of Hindu ‘nationalism’, used religion as a means of overthrowing the established order of secularism. The author thinks the BJP’s triumph rested on the support of the conservative elements that were losing their status with globalisation and liberal democracy.

The Philippines, as the last example from Asia in the book, is evaluated in the context of Rodrigo Duterte’s original fascist actions. In contrast to the ordinary way of fascism, Duterte reversed the trajectory, and he directly attacked drug users and dealers. The author identifies Duterte’s way as blitzkrieg fascism replacing creeping fascism (p. 109).

The eighth chapter presents Bello’s analysis of the rise of the right in the Global North. Bello points out that the case of Donald Trump, Viktor Orban, and Marine Le Pen offer examples of the right’s attack on the neo-liberal agenda. The title of Chapter 8 reads ‘Right eats Left’s lunch’, because he feels these leaders could respond thus to the resentment of masses against neo-liberalism and globalisation (p. 127).

The book shares a new perspective by interpreting the rise of the right through the dialectics of revolution and counterrevolution. The author revisits such concepts as fascism, populism, globalisation, and neoliberalism, as representing different aspects of counterrevolution. The author collects data on what he regards as counterrevolutions at different times and places these in order to trace their common features, underlining the role of the countryside. The fact that the author himself is engaged in a political struggle in the Philippines offers one reason that makes his point of view unusually interesting. He is naturally concerned with the threat of counterrevolution and tries to establish how the left should reinforce itself by learning from its failures (and successes) in the past.