At 7PM on September 16, I will get to open an on-line discussion about fascism. Even though these aren’t the times to sit around and study scholarly stuff, I couldn’t pass this one up. Fascism is upon us in America and people need to know what they are fighting. I’ve started circulating some questions and, bit by bit, some of the information I’ve gathered. Hopefully, people will get in touch about the link for the class.

Some questions to think about

When one considers the history of fascism in various nations, trying to define fascism is like nailing jelly to a wall. True? False?

Fascism is best described as “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” True? False?

“Fascism is capitalism in its death throes.” True? False?

A ruling class can opt for fascism at one time, then later opt for some other form of administering their state. True? False?

The United States is already fascist and has been for some time. True? False?

The Trump Administration has revealed itself to aspire to fascism. True? False?

The threat of fascism will be erased if Democrats win the 2026 mid term elections.  True? False?

Fascism comes when the capitalist class is at its strongest.  True? False?

Fascism comes when the capitalist class is at its weakest.  True? False?

When the capitalists’ economic situation is desperate, and when the progressive movement is threatening them, capitalists are likely to opt for autocracy and fascism.  True? False?

When the capitalists’ economic situation is desperate, and when the progressive movement is threatening them, socialists have a great opportunity.  True? False?

When confronted with the possibility of fascism, the united front is the way forward. True? False?

In America, the purpose of the united front is to elect anybody who opposes the Trump program.  True? False?

The united front is a broad coalition of all anti-fascist organizations and individuals. True? False?

In the broadest sense, the workers’ interest is always primarily in the form of government. Dictatorship versus democracy. True? False?

I’m creating a Power Point presentation to deal with the questions. But first, here’s what I have learned:

Why Study Up?

We study fascism today because we must stop it. Let us dispense with the academic side in as few words as possible, so that we can move on to the all-important prescriptions for how to overcome the fascist threat in America today.

WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW

The previous class on “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State gave us a clear idea on what constitutes a class and a state. That clarity is essential for understanding anything else.

In the present study of fascism, bear in mind that it is a form of government chosen deliberately by a capitalist class as a way of administering their state. Historically, capitalists chose limited democracy because it works best with their economy; but sometimes they choose fascism. This is one of those times.

ACADEMIC AND HISTORICAL DEFINITIONS

Fascism is best described as “the open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” According to Georgi Dmitrov, in a collection of his reports in 1935 and 1936, “Against Fascism and War,” fascism is “the power of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form, fomenting bestial hatred of other nations.”

Mussolini called it “corporatism.”

Google definition:

Fascism is a far-right, ultranationalist, and authoritarian political ideology that prioritizes the nation and its leader above all else, emphasizing national unity, military strength, and the elimination of perceived threats through violence and propaganda. It is characterized by a cult of personality, a rejection of individual rights and democratic processes, and a focus on national decline and rebirth. Fascism advocates for a totalitarian state with centralized economic control, often resulting in the suppression of dissent and the persecution of minority groups.”

IS FASCISM FATAL? IS IT PERMANENT?

We nearly always study fascism by looking at Italy and Germany in the 1930s and World War II, when fascism rose, was defined, and was crushed by the capitalist countries still operating under limited democracy.

But fascism has occurred at other times in other countries. These countries used limited democracy before they became fascist and were using limited democracy afterward as well. As these countries and situations are more recent, they may be more relevant for our present study. Why did their capitalist class choose fascism and why, later, did they let it go?

“WHAT” IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN “WHY”

As you learned in “Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State,” historical developments have an economic basis. A nation’s capitalist class chooses fascism as their way to deal with their economic problems. Authoritarian fascism is less efficient than partial democracy; consequently, fascists intervene in their capitalist economy. Hitler directed the corporations involved in war production and Donald Trump is today using state power to force business decisions and buy shares in key corporations. The need for higher profit rates call for another extreme government tool, and that tool is war.

The other, perhaps more pertinent, way to explain why capitalists choose fascism is that they need it to overcome their own domestic opposition. The German capitalists allied with the Social Democrats in order to stop the growing Communist opposition. After World War II, the Indonesian capitalists murdered a million Communist voters. The Vietnamese, Chileans, Brazilians, Argentinians and others, allied with U.S. imperialism, used “the Jakarta method” to violently overcome opposition in their countries. In later periods, when socialist opposition was less of a threat, they allowed partial democracy to return as their form of government. It’s more efficient.

WHAT MARX DIDN’T TELL US

Marx correctly predicted that capitalism will fall of its own weight. For example, the worldwide depression of the 1930s convinced many progressives that capitalism was finished. What Marx didn’t predict and what he never saw, was that capitalists can conduct world wars that destroy commodities, people, and factories. Then, afterward, the survivors effectively get to leave all our dead behind and start anew!

A SHORT HISTORY OF AMERICAN FASCISM

Early American fascism evaporated almost immediately after Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. In the 1960s, as a response to a growing civil rights and anti-war movement internally and the beginnings of a slip in American economic domination of the planet, the John Birch Society began to take the main role in promoting American fascism. When the Republican Party under Reagan embraced white nationalism, fascism bloomed. Careful and deliberate legal, electoral, and cultural schemes, underwritten deliberately by some of the richest Americans, paid off for them in 2024 when they consolidated their hold over one of the two major capitalist political parties. They are, at present, using every apparatus, including state power, to dismantle the former method of class rule and implement autocracy and fascism.

IS THIS CRISIS A DISASTER OR AN OPPORTUNITY?

American capitalists are losing their economic hegemony over the world and their political hold on the people. Opting for fascism is a sign of their weakness and desperation. Would any set of rational and strong people choose an unstable spokesperson like Donald Trump if they were comfortable with their choices?

Fascism is not an inevitable extension of capitalism. It can be stopped and, in fact, the weakness of the capitalist class gives progressive forces their best possible opportunity.

THE UNTED FRONT IS OUR STRATEGY

A united front is a broad coalition of working class and allied forces who agree to stop fascism. It is built by a serious of concerted working class activities that draw our class forces together. Concerted activities include strikes, boycotts, organizing drives, contract fights, and more general activities for progress such as civil rights and civil liberties fights. Unions, as the strongest, most democratic, and most popular institutions in America are of special importance. Activists deliberately initiate and/or support activities in order to build the necessary national coalition. Our goal is a socialist system where everyone’s human needs come before the desires of the tiny capitalist class.

From Dmitrov: “CONTENT AND FORMS OF THE UNITED FRONT”

“We must tirelessly prepare the working class for a rapid change in forms and methods of struggle when there is a change in the situation. As the movement grows and the unity of the working class strengthens, we must go further, and prepare the transition from the defensive to the offensive against capital, steering towards the organization of a mass political strike. It must be an absolute condition of such a strike to draw into it the main trade unions of the countries concerned.”

SUMMARY

American capitalists are opting for fascism because 1) they are losing their economic hegemony over the world and 2) they are losing political control over the people. Left unchecked, they will commit greater and greater atrocities, up to and including world war. The working class and its allies, working in a united front, can stop them. Further, we can break their rule and allow the people to move up to a better system.

FURTHER STUDY FOR SCHOLARS

Recent article from Sept 9, 2025: https://peoplesworld.org/article/defining-fascism-think-unpaid-labor-slavery/

CPUSA Video: https://cpusa.org/party_voices/good-morning-revolution-fascism-what-it-is-and-how-to-fight-it/

Book Review: “The Jakarta Method” https://genelantz.org/2020/08/17/american-mass-murders/

Podcast: “Where’s our Offensive Team?” https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/XHtTZgkAlWb

Podcast: Building successful coalitions https://spotifycreators-web.app.link/e/z01GBekAlWb

Georgi Dimitrov: Against War & Fascism [1935]