A Match Made in NazBol Hell: When the So-Called “Communism” of the ASLN Meets the Ethnic Nationalism of Nouvelle Alliance

 

 

[In collaboration with Québec Antifasciste and Collectif Emma Goldman.]

Last February, the Poubelle Alliance Facebook page, which takes great pleasure in satirizing the identity group Nouvelle Alliance, which we’ve written about on several occasions (notably here and here), revealed alleged links between NA and the Action socialiste de libération nationale (ASLN, formerly the Parti communiste du Québec).

It was already clear that this groupuscule is from a section of the left we aren’t all that thrilled with: retrograde and ossified in its thinking, nationalist, anti-woke (in plain English, reactionary) and, true to the red-brown tradition, uncritical of autocratic regimes. After leaving Québec solidaire to throw its support behind its Parti québécois “comrades” Péladeau and Lisée—see “Le Parti communiste appuie… le PQ” (Journal de Québec, 2018); “Des communistes séduits par PKP” (La Presse, 2014)—the party’s youth wing seems to have fallen under the Stalinist spell, rehabilitating Enver Hoaxa, prime minister of Albania for over forty years, and Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

A quick look at the ASLN’s website and recent communications (including attempts at memes that could only be described as complete crap) is enough to reveal the deeply cringe-worthy nature of this tawdry trifle, both in form and content.

The exact nature of the ties between the ASLN and Nouvelle Alliance has been somewhat fuzzy, but we now have enough to allow us to hypothesize. It might seem strange that a group that claims to be left-wing, however reactionary it may be, would actively extend a hand to activists on the far right of the political spectrum on the basis of a shared aspiration for Québec’s independence. However, we now have tangible evidence of this rapprochement.

On March 24, the ASLN posted an invitation to a “Colloque des patriotes” to be held in Desbiens, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, on May 3–4, featuring a “debate” between ASLN and Nouvelle Alliance “leaders.” ASLN’s “leader” Billy Savoie subsequently promoted the event and the debate, promising to confront Nouvelle Alliance’s “nonsense”—that and a lot of other noise.

As we see it, holding a debate with ethnonationalists effectively legitimizes them, and any openness to them indicates a willingness to engage with their toxic ideology.

Beyond that, it’s questionable that the ASLN actually holds any positions that would actually challenge Nouvelle Alliance’s “nonsense” or even provide the basis for an interesting and relevant “debate” (spoiler alert: expectations are low). Here’s Billy Savoie’s response to a comment on the post announcing the colloquium:

 

Anti-woke nationalists deflecting attention from their reactionary nature by including a few tokenized people of color. . . on that basis, the difference from Nouvelle Alliance is hard to see. Fans of the Parti Québécois, Catholics, and opponents to “mass migration”; it’s more like the communist ASLN is trying to outdo Nouvelle Alliance in backwardness to carve out a niche for itself in the nationalist/independence scene. . . all the while waving a red flag.

It’s fairly evident that wanting to nationalize multinationals—if they’re foreign—and support PMEs—as long as they have the nationalist stamp of approval—has more or less become a typical communist feature. Communism that doesn’t aspire to abolish oppressive systems has already gone off the rails, but to declare oneself a communist and a nationalist, while proposing social policies largely in line with those of a far-right group is nothing more than toxic red-brownism.

The ASLN, it would seem, is playing directly into Nouvelle Alliance’s hands, legitimizing its orientation and giving it yet another platform to promote its narrow vision of the French-Canadian nation.

Nouvelle Alliance has always claimed to be neither right nor left, despite its clearly reactionary platform and its many fascist-adjacent and full-blown fascist sympathizers! Whatever its leaders may say, the ASLN seems to be bending over backward to give a group of right-wing activists a platform to amplify their message.

Nouvelle Alliance’s activists increasingly find themselves in situation where the only people still willing to talk to them are people who are clearly confused (to say the least).

Given this obvious rightward drift, the shine is coming off of the ASLN, its activists are finding themselves personae non grata in pro-independence circles, and some of the group’s founders have disappeared from its publications.

Could it be that kissing up to the far right has created tensions within what is allegedly a left-wing organization? Might it be that other members of their central committee understand who really benefits from this grotesque rapprochement?

 

Bonus track :

Billy Savoie, who is apparently a high school teacher, assigned a book by Alexsandr Dugin, infamous as Vladimir Putin’s ideological conscience and as a co-founder of the National-Bolshevik Party. There you have it.