Rough notes about the definition of Fascism through a Marxist lens.
Classical Fascism is not simply state violence or racism per se; it is a forme of corporatism, which is a political ideology whereby groups collaborate based on their common interests. A corporatist political system is a managed economy in which employers, workers, and state officials work together, and the state mediates and manages each conflicting interest in order to preserve capitalist class relations.
Corporatism functions to dissolve class antagonism into state mediation by practicing class collaboration.
Fascism is a historical appearance (erscheinung) of Capital that materializes when bourgeois democracy can no longer suppress proletarian movements made by Capital’s internal contradictions.
Origin of Fascism
Where did the original conception of Italian fascism come from? It was ironically influenced by Sorel’s theory of Syndicalism, which was later coined Sorelianism. Sorel’s Syndicalism is a revisionist interpretation of Marxism that incorporated “myths”. Let us explore his definition of myths in Reflections on Violence:
“In the course of these studies one thing seemed so evident to me that I did not believe that I needed to lay much stress on it: men who are participating in great social movements always picture their coming action in the form of images of battle in which their cause is certain to triumph. I proposed to give the name of ‘myths’ to these constructions, knowledge of which is so important for historians: the general strikes of the syndicalists and Marx’s catastrophic revolution are such myths.”
– Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence (1908).
Sorel believed that the proletariat could achieve victory through the power of myth. The “myth” of a general strike (will later be influenced by Integral Nationalism as conceived by Maurrass), an image that can mobilize the workers. In this sense, Sorel rejected historical materialism’s emphasis on objective development in favor of voluntarism and moral mobilization. He later rejected these theories and became disillusioned after World War 1.
Mussolini was influenced by Sorel1 and fused his syndicalist theories with nationalism and corporatism. Classical fascism is originally a left-nationalist movement, but was later modified with the theatrics and characteristics of dictatorship in Fiume created by the Il Profeta himself, Gabriele D’Annunzio2, the imagery of Arditi in WW1, and Italian irredentism. Fascism emerged as a nationalist movement that was influenced by revolutionary syndicalism, but subordinated class politics to the nation-state.
But ideas alone do not formulate the emergence of Fascism. We must understand that the historical material contexts shape it too. We must remember that Fascism emerged from the crises created by the Capital itself. Due to Italy’s Two Red Years, the middle class and the elite supported the Fascist movement due to their fears of a socialist revolution materializing.
To protect the ideology of Fascism, Mussolini created Camicie Nere or Blackshirts (modeled on Arditi), which functioned as a militia, which later became a police and repressive state organ as Mussolini grew in power. This targeted trade unions, socialists, and proletariats, etc. The Blackshirts function not merely as an instrument of violence, but also to destroy proletarian unions, and to stabilize Capital during the periods of crises.
Fascism is defined by combination of militant nationalism, organized mass violence (use of paramilitaries), and through class collaborations to mislead and destroy proletarian independence and absorb them into nation-state. This, in turn, stabilizes the capitalist class relations during crises.
Ending Paragraphs
If we throw away the intellectual genealogy, Fascism is a forme of appearance that the Capital assumes when bourgeois democracy can no longer contain the internal contradictions of Capital, it is defined by centralized and open repression of the proletariat.
Semantics aside, this concludes that the bourgeois state (even with different appearances such as democratic or fascist) does not represent the interests of the proletariat3 as its goal was only preserving the capitalist class relations. The realization of class independence is essential, as only the proletariat can save themselves to the chains of capital…
In the heat of class war, only the independence of the working class can exorcise the capital’s horns.
- “Reformism, revolutionism, centrism, the very echo of that terminology is dead, while in the great river of Fascism one can trace currents which had their source in Sorel, Peguy, Lagardelle of the Movement Socialists, and in the cohort of Italian syndicalist who from 1904 to 1914 brought a new note into the Italian socialist environment — previously emasculated and chloroformed by fornicating with Giolitti’s party — a note sounded in Olivetti’s Pagine Libere, Orano’s Lupa, Enrico Leone’s Divenirs Socials.” – Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (1932). p.3
- “Certainly these discussions would have been driven by the skilled rhetoric of D’Annunzio. They were often preceded by song and dancing, which formed an amorphic state religion, and marked by flowery speeches by D’Annunzio to elicit feverish devotion from the townsfolk for his personal cult. Much of D’Annunzio’s political life in Fiume revolved around ceremony and mass participation in state events. Besides communal banquets and balls, D’Annunzio encouraged citizens to listen to his daily addresses from his balcony and to adopt symbolic gestures like the Roman salute.” – Patrick Merkle, Gabriele D’Annunzio and the Regency of Carnaro” (2020). p.14-15
- “Our critique refutes the deceitful theory that the democratic and parliamentary state machine which arose from modern liberal constitutions is an organization of all citizens in the interests of all citizens. From the moment that opposing interests and class conflicts exist, there can be no unity of organization, and in spite of the outward appearance of popular sovereignty, the state remains the organ of the economically dominant class and the instrument of defence of its interests.” – Amadeo Bordiga, The Democratic Principle (1922).
References:
Bordiga, A. (1922). The democratic principle. Marxists Internet Archive. https://www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1922/democratic-principle.htm
Merkel, P. (2020). Gabriele D’Annunzio and the Regency of Carnaro. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/studentpub_uht/166
Mussolini, B. (1932). The doctrine of fascism.
Sorel, G. (1908). Reflections on violence.
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