Since we as citizens live within the belly of the most consequential empire within World history, all other events in lands far away from the American homeland, at first glance, feel distant and frivolous. We at Black Label Detroit not only seek to change this mistaken, ignorant and chauvinistic attitude (which could fill the pages of a top-notch dissertation), but, we wish to elaborate upon the idea that we can understand the failings of our nation, it's laws, and the ways that it's government conducts day-to-day business by analyzing yet another empire that has passed it's prime days and appears to be on a trajectory of irreversible decline.
The decayed empire in question just so happens to be America's "Mother Country", the United Kingdom, and this publication sees it necessary to dissect the UK's many issues and crises to show those concerned with the direction of this nation's political system that decline is not inevitable, nor is a slide into Authoritarian and racist politics and provide a blueprint of what local Radicals can do in order for us to seize state power while using as little effort as possible to end our artificial Boujee "Democracy" in favor of a Mass Democracy that'll stand the test of time.
However, this report won't be an unfocused, rambling history of stuffy heads of state. Instead, we will focus and take a peek at the life of someone who could rightly hold the title of "most influential and successful politician within the English speaking world". The man, who is pictured above, has been styled by masses of British workers as a "man of the people" despite coming from an upper-tier/socially elite background, and, despite this mismatch of perception, many voices within journalism are referring to him, potentially, as the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
This report is a profile of none other than Nigel Paul Farage (his last name is pronounced like how Americans say "garage" but, with an "f")
Before we focus on playing copycat however, we have to see how Farage rose to be so influential in the first place: Farage was born into a comfortably wealthy family, hailing from a formerly rural town in Kent that would later be gobbled up by the expanding borders of London. As a child, he was characterized as a bit "unruly", taking pleasure in getting into arguments with his teachers some biographers of his call "left-wing and humorless" as well as ideologically opposed classmates of his. Yet, his involvement with politics wouldn't officially start until he was accepted into the elite private school of Dulwich College, when he would become a card carrying member of the Conservative party (sometimes known as the "Tories").
Like many of the Tories within his social class, Farage would take up his father's line of work and become a stockbroker, where he amassed a considerable amount of wealth during his time as a trader, which, he would later use to bankroll his political endeavors. He seemed resigned to having a boring life within the British financial system up until ruling Conservative politicians would inch closer and closer to economic and political union with Europe, which Farage deeply rejected. In fact, Farage hated the concept of a union with Europe so much that when Tory Prime Minister John Major would sign the "Maastrict Treaty" which created the European Union and established a wide landmass of borderless trade and immigration, Farage renounced his membership to the Conservative Party in 1992 and join a political party that opposed closer institutional ties with Europe, before rebranding his new political home from "the British Anti-Federalist League" to "the United Kingdom Independence Party (commonly known as UKIP) just a few years later.
After UKIP was formed, Farage wasted no time in attempting to make his political project and unavoidable headache for establishment British politicians. Farage would win a seat within European Parliament in 1999 and would use that victory to build up UKIP as a real political force. Being duly elected as the party's leader in 2006, Farage decided to shift his focus from the European Parliament to local and national politics. He hit a major milestone as leader in the 2014 local elections and 2015 general election, where UKIP came first in the popular vote and came third with 12% of the vote respectively.
Farage's profile shook the foundations of the British political class so much despite UKIP only being able to elect one candidate despite the votes it got was because the British Prime minister at the time, David Cameron (who was also a Tory) made a political promise before the election to hold an in-out referendum on the UK's membership with the European Union, and, since UKIP did so well, he was basically backed into a corner that he couldn't escape and was forced to carry out a policy he really din't believe in. This led to the 2016 Brexit referendum which resulted in 52% of British voters telling the political establishment that they no longer wanted to be a part of the European project.
The words escape us when it comes to emphasizing just how big Brexit's victory was a victory for Farage, even though he had to wage future campaigns to make sure the break from Europe was as complete as possible in future elections, and despite running and losing seven campaigns to become a member of parliament, he caused global shockwaves and was able to affect the course of British history without being in government. The rise of Farage and his use of racist/bigoted messaging has been the cause of concern of many British Radicals who see his rise as an existential threat to Britain's most vulnerable people. People found UKIP to be so racist that, when Farage asked retired Fascist politician Oswald Mosley to endorse the party, he declined.
A UKIP poster from their 'Vote Leave' Brexit campaign
Now, as of writing this report, Farage was finally able to win a seat within British Parliament during the 2024 general election and his party is currently polling ahead of the ruling Labour Party. This has caused pollsters to see Farage as a top contender for the next Prime Minister.
While it must be seen how the British Left will withstand the rise of Populist far-right politics, local Radicals here have a clear example to follow when it comes to attempting to capture state power such as the fight to establish Metropolitan Parliaments and Parliamentary Democracy on the national stage, if we are able to flip Farage's tactics against the far-right, we'll undoubtedly be just as popular against the bigots who wish to shut-out the World's most vulnerable people and sell the big lie to the public that they're the ones who're the cause of society's problems.
So, what can we learn from Farage? Well, first off, a unavoidable tactic that we must learn is to find a way to bankroll our Radical projects. Campaigns are nothing without a strong foundation based on money, they buy ads, posters, feed volunteers, etc. Of course, this shouldn't be confused as a call to commit crimes to bankroll the revolution (non-violent crimes though? we'll leave that up to y'all), it just means that Radicals must be willing to put their money where our mouths are so that we can see our endeavors succeed.
The next lesson goes hand in hand with the first because political movements are fleeting and failure is common. What Radicals need to do is find a pet issue that the political establishment has a consensus around and then hammer home to the public how the consensus hurts them and force them to pick a side. The creation of a Metropolitan Parliament is a perfect example because, this publication was able to exchange some words with current Detroit mayor Mike Duggan recently, and we took the opportunity to ask him about the prospect of creating a Metropolitan Parliament within Metro Detroit, he said the following:
"I think that people are happy with the governments they currently have, me and [the county executives of Metro Detroit] are all friends and we get along pretty well together, I just don't see it happening"
It usually takes decades in order to find issues that'll resonate with voters, but, with that quote in mind, any Radical within Metro Detroit would be crazy not to believe that the fight for a Metropolitan Parliament isn't our clear wedge, issue that needs to be used to break our political establishment.
Last, but not least of all, Radicals must position ourselves to scale up fast, so, like the rise of UKIP, our current political class would be scared into giving into our demands for fear of being locked out of power. and hold their feet to the fire for as long as it takes to see our movement to success.
The time for Radicals within Metro Detroit to mobilize is fast approaching, we cannot engage with politics and political campaigns the same way establishment volunteers do, our politics must seek to liberate the people instead of managing them, and the seriousness of the political moment we find ourselves in requires to engage with our enemies relentlessly until we exhaust them into submission. We must fight because no one is coming to save us, we must fight because it's the only thing left to do.
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