Trying to define fascism before acting against it is a fool’s errand. Like the cliche about pornography—you know it when you see it. Whether it is a movement or a government, if it evinces ultra-nationalism, authoritarian politics, toxic hypermasculinity, cruelty, militarism, racism, and acts in service to Capital and the state, fascism is as good a name as any other.
Particularly in 1930s Europe, the capitalist classes’ fear of communist revolution led them to gamble with the psychopathology of fascism to protect its rule. It was a risky gambit that paid off in the short run as revolutionary movements in Germany and Italy were thwarted. However, the dictators heading the ascendant movements that became the governments drastically went beyond their supposed task and plunged the world into a war in which tens of millions perished.
However, both trajectories endured the carnage. Capital triumphed even in the regions lost to supposedly socialist economies following WWII, while fascism suffered but a momentary setback with the collapse of the Third Reich. Fascism now functions with only its pathology intact as it is unneeded by Capital, there being no substantial threat to its operation.
However, as the madness of capitalism worsens with wars, climate collapse, and populations desperate for lives worth living, it re-emerges as the creator of chaos and cruelty. It needs to be stopped.
Can we accept the challenge to be at least a small piece of a vision that goes beyond what is threatening all of us? Not a vanguard, but part of a movement that begins with resistance and moves toward a revolution that will heal us and the world.
We dedicate this issue to resistance fighters everywhere.