Fascism

Fascism is a reactionary movement that rises in the imperialist stage of capitalism, based on policies that favors the ever-growing concentration of capital. As a political movement, it is marked by pervasive anti-communism, a profound aversion towards democracy, the justification and glorification of class society through class collaboration, and chauvinistic tendencies, namely ultranationalism, racism and sexism. Fascist ideologues usually promote conspiracy theories, irrationalist myths and manipulative distortions of truth to gather support of their popular base.

Throughout history, the fascists promoted policies that caused even more exploitation of the working class, allowing the “free market” to take over every aspect of society. So much so that The Economist magazine introduced the term privatization, unseen in political discourse at the time, to describe Nazi Germany's economic policies. The most well-known historical examples of fascism are Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, but there has been various historical examples of fascism, such as Japanese fascism, Spanish fascism and Portuguese fascism.

History

Origins

The term "fascism" comes from the Italian National Fascist Party, a party founded by Benito Mussolini in 1921, whose practices and ideology would later define this reactionary movement as a whole. The origins of fascism as a counter-revolutionary movement, however, can be traced as far as the French far-right French Action, which was an openly anti-Marxist political organization established in 1899 proposing an "integral nation" for French society through class collaboration.

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany, officially the Third Reich (Third Empire), was beaten into dissolution by the Soviet Union after the Battle of Berlin in May 1945.

Francoist Spain

Following the victory of the United Front in 1936, a fascist revolt led by General Franco and assisted by invading Germany and Italy, tacitly backed by the rest of the allies,broke out. A civil war lasting three years followed, culminating in the crushing of Republican forces. The regime went on to last three more decades and it is said that the current "reformed" Spanish state is a continuation of the same regime.

Modern fascist movements

2019 coup in Bolivia

President Evo Morales of Bolivia was reelected to this office in October 2019 with 47,08% of total votes. Soon after, opposing fascists called the results into question, helped by fraudulent reports from the Organisation of American States (OAS), which led to their paramilitary wing causing violence in the streets. After three weeks, Morales agreed to step down and left the country.

Later, accusations of electoral fraud were completely debunked by the same journals that initially reported on them, trusting the OAS.

The new government, led by Jeanine Añez, established a military junta in the country so as to dismantle popular support for MAS (Morales' party). They pushed elections back three times, eventually having them take place in November 2020, a full year after the coup. Their efforts failed, as MAS won the presidential election in 2020 with 55% of all votes (under candidate Luis Arce).

Since his election, Arce's government has announced that they would effectively purge the military's leadership, as their treason was pivotal in letting the coup succeed.

Ideology and practice

According to Communist writer and politician Rajani Palme Dutt, fascism was simply the result of a 'negative approach to marxism' with borrowing some tenets from older reactionary schools and ideologies in the respective country. Fascism aims to violently defend decaying capitalism, differing from other capitalist parties only in its methods.

References