Fascism

Note

This is a relatively underdeveloped garden page, despite the serious topic its talking about. I wouldn’t hold grudges based on how anarchists or communists have interacted with fascism historically; I don’t think they’ll hold particularly relevant today, and progressively less so in the future.

What is fascism?

• Militant authoritarianism, removal of rights
• Hyper nationalism
  • Often taking advantage of a “mythic past”, that never existed, where things were allegedly a lot better
• Scratch a liberal, a fascist bleeds
  • Liberals will side with state and capitalist structures, making them impotent against or even complicit with fascism. They're unlikely to ally with leftists.
  • Hell, the Democrats are making this argument today as they continue to believe success will come from further alienating the left and moving right
• Fascism is capitalism in decay
  • Essentially, that fascism arises in response to the contradictions of capitalism resulting in crises

Anarchism vs Fascism

Anarchists fought fascists throughout history:

• https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andrew-flood-remembering-the-anarchist-resistance-to-fascism

Communists have historically spread propaganda about anarchists being fascist or anarchism leading to fascism:

• Makhno vs Trotsky in Ukraine
• Communists try to argue their reasoning is scientific and anarchists' utopic, even though they're both rooted in materialism
  • This gets at a broader issue with people using appeals to science fallaciously. See scientific constructivism and the alt right playbook: doublewrong
    • For example, despite using the term "scientific communism", Stalin believed in pseudosciences and rejected genetics.
  • They argue anarchism creates a power vacuum, as if the anarchists who were just fighting fascists would suddenly just start following a fascist leader
  • Right wing anarchists/libertarians contradict anarchist values, in ways more similar to fascism than liberation.

Communism vs Fascism

• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
  • French communists initially didn't join the resistance against fascism because of this pact as well
  • FWIW a lot of countries had non-aggression pacts with Germany at the time
• USSR conquered territories taken over by Nazis and eventually won the war at the Battle of Berlin