Theoretical Organ of the New Democratic Marxist Leninist Party

Marxist Leninist

New Democracy

December 2023                           77

European Fascism and

Asian Fascism

Defining Fascism

Fascism is more easily recognized than defined or explained consistently owing to the contextual nature of its arrival, growth and source of inspiration. Thus, haphazard use of the term could rob it of its essence.

Despite difficulty in arriving at a fairly universal definition of fascism, its salient features have been identified in the literature. Emphasis on any specific feature of fascism relies, however, on the class and ideological basis of the study. Individually, several features of fascism may apply to non-fascist bodies, while truly fascist outfits could lack some.

Fascism is mostly seen in terms of a phenomenon comprising the desperate response of a section of European capital to the post First World War (WWI) crisis of capitalism and grew to torment Europe until the end of the Second World War (WWII). Georgi Dimitrov in his Report to the 7^th World Congress of the Communist International in 1935, called it “an open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of the financial capital”.

[https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1935/08_02.htm].

Dimitrov further explains:

“(Fascism) is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. 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.

“This, the true character of fascism, must be particularly stressed because in a number of countries, under cover of social demagogy, fascism has managed to gain the following of the mass of the petty bourgeoisie that has been dislocated by the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most backward strata of the proletariat. These would never have supported fascism if they had understood its real character and its true nature”.

He adds: “the development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international position of the given country” and urged the importance of realising that fascism represents the interests of finance capital and not the petty bourgeoisie or a most backward layer of the proletariat which it used to seize power. He also noted that fascism, when politically weak, will resort to parliamentary democracy and make allies of capitalist and social-democratic parties, but shun communists.

Also the ruling bourgeoisie, for fear of a revolutionary uprising, will help fascism secure unrestricted political monopoly and, using its skill to blend open terrorist dictatorship with sham bourgeois democracy, even resort to a reign of terror against all rival parties and groups. Dimitrov stressed that the accession to power of fascism is not a succession of one bourgeois government by another but a replacement of one state form of bourgeois class domination by another, in other words, replacement of bourgeois democracy by an explicitly terrorist dictatorship.

Dimitrov’s insight is still valuable to evolve appropriate strategy to meet the manifestations of fascism in advanced capitalist countries. However, methods used successfully to confront fascism in the inter war period may fail against fascism in unlike contexts of Third World ‘democracies’.

As much has been written on the return of fascism to Europe and the Americas, this text will deal with that briefly and look closely at the rise of Third World fascism, mainly in South Asia with strong fascist trends. 

Characterizing Fascism

It helps to recognize features shared by fascist bodies, and assess the worth of each as a criterion to decide if a body is fascist.

Lawrence Britt in his “Fascism Anyone?” in the Free Inquiry Magazine 22 (2), 15 July 2003 (see http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27/076.html) lists 14 defining features of the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes, as listed below:

1. Powerful and continuing nationalism
2. Disdain for the recognition of human rights
3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause
4. Supremacy of the military.
5. Rampant sexism affirming traditional gender roles
6. Controlled mass media
7. Obsession with national security
8. Intertwining of religion and government
9. Protection of corporate power
10. Suppression of labour power
11. Disdain for intellectuals and the arts
12. Obsession with crime and punishment
13. Rampant cronyism and corruption
14. Fraudulent elections

Britt‘s study could seem a satire on US democracy, as the American state seems to fit on each count to some degree. It recalls Chomsky’s comment in the Wire, 31.1.2016: “the US is one of the most fundamentalist countries in the world” (https://chomsky.info/01312016/).

Marxists Internet Archive Encyclopedia.  a Trotskyite website, lists the key characteristics of fascism thus (https://www.marxists.org/glossary/):

1.  Right wing ideology

2.  Militant xenophobic nationalism

3.  Hierarchical social order in every sphere and sector of society.

4.  Anti-egalitarianism

5.  Emphasis on archaic religious values

6.  Support of capitalism

7.  War as a means to serve capitalist class interests

8.  Voluntarism (faith that a sufficiently powerful act of will can make something true).

9.  Anti-modernism

To use any combination of characteristics to define fascism would be to confuse symptoms with ailment. It will be fruitful to appreciate the essence of fascism and use it to recognize its emergence in any context.

The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) at its Congress of 2002 [http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/wim/cong/fascismdef.html], based on Georgi Dimitrov (Against Fascism and War, New York: International Publishers, 1986) and Rajani Palme-Dutt (Fascism and Social Revolution, New York: International Publishers, 1934), resolved that fascism is a terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital and an extreme measure by the bourgeoisie to thwart proletarian revolution.

The MIM also exposed the hypocrisy of fascism and pointed to features shared by bourgeois democracy and fascism and collaboration between the two as class dictatorship of finance or comprador capital.

Post WWII Fascism in the West

Defeat in WWII, although a heavy blow, did not kill fascism in Europe or even the Americas where fleeing fascists were warmly received. While openly fascist parties ceased to be after WWII, neo-Nazi organizations that sprang in Europe endured. But Nazi derivatives in Europe and the Americas failed to mobilize enough electoral support to seize state power as fascism did in post-WWI Europe.

White racism substitutes for anti-Semitism

The centrality of anti-Semitism to fascism faded fast in the second half of the 20^th Century. White racism took its place amid a surge in Third World immigration to EU countries owing to poverty, famine and civil war, issues for which imperialism has much to answer. Fascism found a credible scapegoat.

The Shadow Report 2015‒2016 of the European Network Against Racism {https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/sites/default/files/2017-05/shadowreport_2015x2016_long_low_res.pdf] drew attention to a fivefold increase in immigration during 2015‒16 as a key aspect of European racism. The report, commenting on racism and discrimination against migrants, urged the need to protect African migrants, often framed as ‘economic’ or ‘illegal’ migrants without due process. It also noted the impunity with which politicians and the media indulge in anti-migrant statements and racist hate speech. It also noted that public support for far-right parties and groups was growing in several countries, to set the tone of the debate on immigration, especially of Muslim migrants.

Anti-migrant discourses and policies are increasingly appealing across the political spectrum so that new border policies and counter-terrorism measures are introduced with minimal resistance in some EU countries to compound the harassment suffered by migrants, asylum seekers and refugees at the hands of neo-fascists and other racists.

Neo-fascists gain in electoral politics 

Neo-Nazi parties ranging from the Deutsche Rechtspartei founded in 1946 in Lower Saxony to the National Democratic Party (NPD) founded in 1964 made minimal impact electorally until German reunification in 1990. Thereafter neo-Nazi groups gained status and grew amid economic dislocation and social unrest. As neo-fascist violence against immigrants and aliens did not take them far politically, they changed strategy and substituted explicit fascism with what was dubbed ‘far right democracy’. The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) founded in 2013 became the third largest party in Germany in 2017. Although it dropped to the fifth largest in the 2021 federal election, it is still strong.

Neo-fascists across Europe re-branded themselves as far right parties for electoral success. Notable among them are, besides the AfD, the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV), France’s National Front and the UK Independence Party (UKIP), all reputed for being Islamophobic, anti-immigration, narrow nationalist, conservative, Eurosceptical and, above all, bitterly hostile to socialism and communism.

Western media avoid calling fascistic forces fascist by calling them ‘far right’ or ‘anti-immigrant right’ or some such as convenient to make them ‘respectable’. In return the fascists oblige with cosmetic changes (like deferring their ‘Holocaust denial’) and are cheered for it by political and media establishments, despite their neo-fascist essence.

In Italy, the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI) founded in 1946 gained popularity in the early 1990’s after pervasive corruption in the ruling parties came to light. The MSI joining the conservatives in government following elections in 1994, dissolved itself in 1995 and became the far right National Alliance (NA), and nominally discarded its fascist ideology and anti-Semitism to join centre-right governments. Italy’s most right-wing post WWII governments, like Silvio Berlusconi’s in 1994, had NA as coalition partner. Italy has been ruled by centre-right governments throughout but for short spells of ‘left’ rule. But when an immigration crisis struck EU in the 2010s, with Italy as a doorway and destination for asylum, the far-right Eurosceptic parties stirred public discontent, paving the way for the far right to gain momentum. Election as prime minister in September 2022 of Giorgia Meloni (leader of the neo fascist Brothers of Italy (BoI) with roots going back to the neo-fascism of 1945) is a high point in the electoral fortunes of Italian neo-fascism,

The electoral success of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) ― a fascist outfit politely referred to as ‘right-wing populist’ ― in Austria in 1999 enabled it to join the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) in February 2000 with half of the posts and the Deputy Chancellorship. Pressure from the EU strained relations in the coalition which broke up in 2002, causing a sharp drop in support for the FPÖ. But the refugee crisis that gripped Europe in 2015 has assisted its recovery.

Prospect is weak for total neo fascist control in post-WWII states in Europe or the Americas. But that is not to deny neo fascist ability to use populist means to impose on governments parts of the fascist agenda. Racist immigration control in Europe owes much to ‘far right’ pressure. Centrist and moderate parties have yielded on immigration and social welfare to avert losing electoral ground to the far right. Countries with no credible alternative to their main political parties that have repeatedly failed to address key issues risk the fascist ‘far right’ moving in to fill the vacuum. It happened in the 1990s amid the state of disarray of European socialists and communists in the face of rising neoliberalism and the ‘shock’ of the fall of the Soviet Union. The fact that the Front National (FN) in France gathered enough votes to contest the presidential runoff in 2017 is fair warning that the bourgeois democratic parties, be they Centrist or Centre-Left, cannot be fully entrusted with the job of resisting European neo-fascism. Already far-right parties are either in government or supporting the government from within parliament in Poland, Finland and Sweden and have come to power in Italy in 2022.

Among Nordic countries, neo-fascism is weakest in Iceland, but growing. In Sweden, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, the fastest-growing political party, secured 20.5% of the vote in 2022 to be the second largest after Social Democrats with 30.3%. It kept out the Social Democrats by supporting a centre-right alliance to form a minority government. Neo-fascists are thus well placed to dictate government policy on key issues. Norway, now home for neo-Nazi activists, has since 2013 the right-wing populist Progress Party as a junior partner of the ruling Conservatives. (http://www.tnp.no/norway/panorama/4554-scandinavian-neo-nazis-make-norway-headquarter). The anti-immigrant, Euro-sceptic Danish People’s Party, pledging higher public spending than its rivals and restoration of border controls, came second in the general election of June 2015. In Finland, the right-wing populist Finns Party got 17.5% of the popular vote to be the dominant partner in the ruling alliance. What is significant in Nordic countries is the growing support for the ‘far right’ amid the rise of potent neo-fascist anti-immigrant groups since 2015.

In Switzerland, the ultra-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP) rose steadily to fetch 29% of the national vote and claim most votes in 16 of 26 cantons in 2015. The SVP upholds a national conservative policy bitterly hostile to Islam and immigration and, despite its neoliberal economic policy, opposes Swiss membership of EU and partnership with NATO.

Fascist resurgence was slow in Spain ruled by Francisco Franco (1939‒75), the fascist dictator and US ally since 1953, despite his support for Nazi Germany in WWII. But, the far-right Vox party founded in 2013 grew rapidly to win 15% of the vote in 2019. Its failure to win a place in the coalition government of 2023 does not mean a major drop in support.

Fascist dictator Antonio Salazar ruled Portugal from 1932 to 1968. While the legacy of his fascist order Estado Novo held on, Portugal had until recently no significant neo-fascist groups. Voters resisted far-right parties until legislative elections in 2019. The right-wing populist party Chega propelled itself forward with an anti-system posture backed by anti-LGBTQ, anti-immigration, and anti-women discourse, to get its leader André Ventura elected to the legislature in 2019, the year of its founding. In 2022 Chega came third, with 12 seats and 7.2% of the vote, to revive the residues of racism of a colonial era that ended in 1974 marking the end of Portuguese colonialism in Africa and its fascist dictatorship.

The fascist 4^th of August Party of Greece assisted the US-backed 1967 military coup, launched on pretext of containing ‘communist subversion’. Although military rule lasted till 1974, Greece was allowed its presence in NATO. Greek neo-fascism re-emerged in 1980 as the brutally racist ultra-right Golden Dawn with explicit Nazi affinities. Its success peaked in 2012 with 7% of the vote, only to slip soon after. The Court of Appeals in Athens deemed it a criminal organisation in a landmark verdict in 2020 in the biggest post Nuremberg trial of self-professed fascists. But the neo-fascist Spartans, Greek Solution and Niki (Victory) have emerged from the shadows to claim 34 seats of 300 between them in June 2023.

Despite the racism of British society, British neo-fascists were for long politically weak. The British National Party (BNP), the most successful of them, that made an electoral breakthrough in local elections in 2008-9, collapsed in 2010. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), as racist and anti-left, gained from BNP’s fall. UKIP ‘s campaign to get Britain out of EU helped it to overtake the Liberals and then Labour to be the second most popular party in the UK in 2014 and the leading party at elections to European Parliament in 2014. But its electoral fortunes dwindled as it had little else to offer after the UK voted to leave the EU.

Right wing parties dominate in former member states of the Soviet Union and former socialist states of Europe, at times with neo-fascist allies. Fascism re-emerged strongly in Ukraine, where the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party entered government with US backing after the coup of 2014. Nazi targeting of speakers of Russian has escalated since then. Of former Socialist states, Hungary, Bulgaria and Czech Republic and some born of the former Yugoslavia have strong groups with clearly fascist traits.

Arrival of large numbers of West Asian refugees of war in Europe amid an economic slump was a boon for neo fascists. Remarkably, the radical right Alliance for the Unification of Romanians (AUR), founded in September 2019 won 8.7% of the votes for the Chamber of Deputies and 8.8% for the Senate in 2020 making it the fourth largest party in Romania.

The Polish far-right fuses Catholic fundamentalism with radical ethnic nationalism. By 2012, it had impact on mainstream politics. The National-Radical Camp (ONR), a force, comprising three highly active far-right extremist groups, even without an elected MP, enjoys the patronage of the ruling right wing Law & Justice (PiS), which has embraced much of the radical nationalist ideology. Besides its anti-Semitism, ONR locates ethnic identity above economic and social policy, and like PiS upholds orthodox views on family and gender roles, much against EU policy.

Rightist nationalism dominates in Hungary, and the far-right nationalist party Jobbik founded in 2003, is among powerful political forces. After becoming the third-largest political party in 2010 it abandoned its neo-fascist identity in the interest of popular support. But a more extreme faction split to create the Our Homeland Movement in 2018.

European neo-fascism has grown to win power electorally in Italy, Sweden and Finland. Mainstream media politely call it nationalist, conservative, far right, populist etc. but not fascist. Endurance of the neo-fascist grip on power depends on international political developments. But it will take a strong left challenge to arrest the rise of neo-fascism.

Several left and liberal intellectuals in Europe and North America locate post-WWII fascism on European fascism and see an ideological affinity to pre-WWII European fascism. Thus, they miss how different forms of neo-fascism work to condition society and control government. Notably, anti-Semitism has long forfeited its prominence in fascist politics.

Features of European Neo-Fascism

European neo-fascism is a post–WWII phenomenon with the reactionary, racist, chauvinist and anti-left traits and the dictatorial terrorist ways of pre-WWII fascism. While its immediate enemy is defined by context, overall, Muslims rank high and the Roma (gypsies) remain a target of ethnic hate in parts of Europe. Blacks and Asians suffer neo-Fascist initiated hate cycles. Ukraine’s neo-Nazi factions are inspired by an anti-Semitic history and a record of collaboration with German Nazis. Anti-Russian sentiment whipped up by the neo-Nazis since 2014 has been followed by attacks on all aspects of Russian identity.

Neo-fascism upholds the interests of imperialist bourgeoisie and finance capital and loathes proletarian revolution. It gained immensely from the weakening of the Left― the only credible opponent of racism. It indulges in populist politics with ultra-nationalism and racism as salient features.

The fading significance of anti-Semitism should be seen in the context of Zionist alliance with Imperialism and Jewish migration to Israel in late 20^th Century, causing a fall in Jewish population in Europe. European neo-fascism now draws on racist values that struck root in Europe during European colonial rule over what is the Third World or Global South. In West Europe, racism based on colour drives anti-immigrant policies. But the focus varies. For example, neo-fascist targeting of West Indians in Britain gave way to targeting South Asians, amid strong colour prejudice.

French neo-fascists targeted Algerians after Algerian liberation in 1962, and German neo-fascist mostly targeted Turkish nationals (including Kurds). While post-WWII neo-Nazis attacks on European Jews faded in the last quarter of the 20^th Century, the Roma (gypsies) remain a target in Europe, particularly in Eastern Europe where, after the fall of socialist regimes in 1989, they became the target of emergent far right groups. 

Most neo-fascist groups are not Nazi residues, and anti-Semitism (really anti-Jewish politics) is almost irrelevant to neo-fascism, which despite its chauvinist anti-EU posturing and even rejection of NATO, are part and parcel of imperialism and resolute enemies of proletarian revolution. Neo-fascists moved into the political vacuum caused by the failure of the European left and use populist slogans to stir racism among the lower middle and working classes who bear the brunt of the economic crises.

There is still tendency among the Western media to stick the neo-fascist label on anti-Semitic groups and holocaust deniers while exempting anti-immigrant, ultra-right nationalists who are not anti-Jewish. Although ethnic and racial animosity seems more prominent than fascist ideology in the discourses of ultra-nationalist and far right parties of Europe, the identity politics that they upheld has much in common with fascism.

With post WWII aversion for fascism alive among the European public, prospects are weak for explicitly fascist rule in the near future, as neo-fascist propensity for violence troubles bourgeois democratic parties. Yet the series of electoral gains by neo-fascists has forced many European governments to adopt, willingly or otherwise, neo-fascist racist positions on immigration and rights of immigrants, as seen in their attitude towards the influx of refugees from civil wars induced by imperialism.

Western media and political analysts avoid referring to European ultra-right political parties that participate in electoral politics as neo-fascist even when they espouse forms of fascism. Such approach is blind to the fact the Nazis have used electoral means to capture power in Europe.

Fascism reborn as neo-fascism retains its anti-left, narrow nationalist, racist ideology. It is unlikely to grow into a global threat for its narrow nationalism will hinder that. But its racism and anti-leftism will assure its place as a useful client of imperialism or at best a junior partner.

Fascism in Asia

MIM’s characterization of fascism captured the essence of fascism in Europe until the first half of the 20^th Century. The characterization will hold for present day neo-fascism in all its forms as well. We only need to identify the local and foreign players and their respective roles correctly.

Attraction to fascism in the colonies and neo-colonies involved other subjective factors. Several anti-colonialist forces in South and Southeast Asia that loathed Britain and France aligned with fascism in the run up to and during WWII. Criticism of such support often missed the depth of the anti-colonial fury and vexation with the loyalty shown by their rivals to the colonial oppressor.

Resentment of Anglo French domination made several Arab nationalists (although relatively more reactionary) side with the Nazis in WWII. Right wing Arabs and Zionists were reputed for their affinity for the Nazis. The attraction persisted even after WWII so that there were parties adopting the Nazi ideology in whole or in part in the Middle East, including Iran, as late as the 1950s. Fascination with European fascism faded after the monarchies of Egypt and Iraq were overthrown.

Fascism in Asia and Africa

In pre-WWII Asia, fascism held power only in Imperial Japan, but, unlike in Europe, it lacked a popular base. A militarist takeover and imposition of a fascist regime on the people occurred with the Emperor’s approval amid external and internal conditions akin to those in post WWI Germany and Italy. The influence of the armed forces in affairs of state was reinforced by the inability of the Diet (parliament) to address Japan’s economic problems that were inseparable from the global capitalist crisis that caused the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The fascist military takeover in 1932 thus had public support amid waning faith in bourgeois democracy and Japan’s facing an increasingly hostile West, the US chiefly. The ensuing upsurge in patriotism was amenable to Japan’s aggression in north-eastern China and later its westward expansion during WWII.

Affinity among independence movements in colonial Asia and North Africa for fascist Japan and Nazi Germany during WWII owed much to misguided anti-imperialism and elitist narrow nationalism. There were Arab nationalists guided by fascist ideology in West Asia and North Africa, mostly inspired by the rise of fascism in Europe. That generation of fascist organizations faded away with the fall of Germany and Japan.

India’s militant leader, Subash Chandra Bose (Nethaji) allied with the Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Although no fascist, his alliance with Japan harmed Asia’s anti-fascist effort during WWII. Similarly, it was not owing to fascist leanings that Burma’s liberation leader and fighter Aung San aligned with Japan. His faith that fascist Japan was the lesser evil did not last. Both leaders joined hands with fascist states as they prioritised nationalism over working class interests. But they were more progressive than loyalists of the British Empire. Indonesian nationalists Sukarno and Hatta, on the other hand, bartered concessions from Japan in return for their support, until the eve of Japanese surrender in August 1945.

Indian Hindutva fascists with affinity to Nazi ideology, however, held on as religious fundamentalists with sectarian ideas akin to fascism. (Marzia Casolari “Hindutva’s Foreign Tie-Up in the 1930s: Archival Evidence”, Economic and Political Weekly, 35 (4), Jan. 22-28, 2000, pp. 218-228)

Conditions were unfavourable for fascism to strike root in the colonies and semi-colonies striving for freedom from colonial rule. Unfolding of post-war fascism in Asia was contextual and within national boundaries. Let us return to it after a brief look at neo-fascism in the Americas.

Neo-Fascism in the Americas

While neo-Nazi groups exist in the US, the biggest fascist force is the state, controlled by monopoly capital and implementing a fascist agenda in the name of democracy and freedom within and without the US. The rise of fascist right-wing Christianity bonds with defending the so-called American way of life. Barry Goldwater, who lost badly at the Presidential Election in 1964, and Donald Trump, former President and aspirant for Republican nomination in 2024, are not racist freaks but represent the white supremacist ideology pervading American society.

The US, feigned interest in democracy and freedom, only to impose fascist dictatorships in Latin America in the 1960’s and 70’s. Latin American fascism was thus most unlike Europe’s, where fascists seized power using populist politics. Since the 1970s, there are instances, as in Chile in 1974, where manufactured dissent provided the pretext for a military coup and a dictatorial regime to follow. Chile suffered the murderous fascist regime of General Pinochet from 1974 to 1990. Despite political defeat, fascism still has its footprints in Chilean politics.

Latin American neo-fascism was not home grown. South America had echoes of European fascism that from Spain followed by Nazi ideology brought in by German settlers in Argentina between WWI and WWII. Since people have experienced brutal US-backed fascistic regimes and the impact of globalization, popular resistance to right wing regimes is robust in Latin America, although the threat of a right wing coup is real.

Latin America has been home to oppression of indigenous people who are also victims of racism and discrimination. However, democratic and anti-US imperialist struggles enabled the indigenous people to have a say in the affairs of the state in several countries, especially Bolivia. But full restoration of the rights of the indigenous people has far to go.

US obsession to replace any government with a hint of social justice or anti-imperialism with a right-wing dictatorship is reminiscent of imperialist driven regime-changes in Latin America in the 1960s. In this century, the US backed right wing in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and later Brazil link with covert fascists against progressive governments.

Post-WWII Fascism and Neo-Fascism in Asia and Africa

The biggest post-WWII fascist success in Asia was the US-backed military coup by General Suharto’s in Indonesia in 1965. The US saw the Communist Party of Indonesia (the strongest communist party outside socialist countries) as a grave threat to imperialism in the region. Suharto, raised the spectre of a takeover by atheists and invoked religion to stoke anti-communist violence by the Muslims majority. The army, aided by anti-communist militias and guided by US intelligence, killed between 500,000 and 1,000,000 communists and sympathizers between October 1965 and early 1966. Ethnic Chinese too were targeted but not killed in large numbers. Although resentment of ethnic Chinese, mainly owners of small businesses, existed in Indonesia, systematic violence, including anti-Chinese riots, began only after the fascist coup of 1965. Inequitable legislation against ethnic Chinese followed.

Annexation of West Papua in 1969 and East Timor in 1976, backed by the US, cruel repression in East Timor (1975-99) and Aceh (1976-2005) and pursuit of violence in East Timor even after its liberation are important aspects of Indonesian fascism.

Although Suharto was brought down by anti-government riots in 1998 precipitated by the global economic crisis of 1997, the riots also saw some of the worst attacks on ethnic Chinese. Ousting of Suharto did not wipe out the legacy of 32 years of fascist rule. Anti-communist prejudice runs deep in society, and the religious sectarianism of the fascist regime has its successors in a few but influential hard-line Sunni fundamentalist groups that target Shiite, Ahmadiya and Christian minorities.

The next major fascist event was in the Philippines amid the prospect of a strong revolutionary movement led by the reorganized Communist Party of Philippines (CPP) in 1968. As anticipated by the CPP in 1969, the comprador and landlord classes could not abide by bourgeois democratic norms to rule the country, and Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972 and extended his rule beyond the constitutional two-term limit in 1973 on pretext of threats posed by Communists and Moro nationalists. Public anger and protests ousted Marcos in 1986. But US support and protection for him continued the way it did during his fascist dictatorial rule. The damage to democracy endures, and changes in government did not end subservience to the US or the reluctance to negotiate with the National Democratic Front (of which the CPP is a key member or the deceptive approach to the Moro national question.

In Africa, politics with European fascist features existed only in White-dominated independent South Africa, where Nazism had an early audience. Institutionalised racism in the form of Apartheid made racism in South Africa and in Europe have much in common. South Africa was from 1932 home to groups claiming identity with European fascism. Far right white-supremacist groups emerged in the post-WWII era to defend Apartheid. The Afrikaner Volksfront, a coalition of White-supremacist organizations was formed in May 1993 to disrupt transfer of power to the native majority by sabotaging the elections scheduled for 1994.

White racism is still alive in South Africa, but less explicitly, since Black leaders of the ruling ANC have assured that imperialist domination and privileges of White capitalists will last as long as it is in power. Prospects for the rise of neo-fascism are, however, weak.

Neo-Fascism in Asia

Neo-fascism in Asia took two routes: (1) transformation of ethno-religious chauvinism into neo-fascism; (2) outgrowth of religious fundamentalism induced or encouraged by imperialism.

Religious intolerance in South and South East Asia was vitalized together with anti-colonial resistance. Ethno-religious nationalism, resentful of colonial rule, also harboured grudges against ethno-religious minorities, based more on business rivalry and contest for favoured positions under colonial rule, or even plain bigotry rather than on theological issues.

In Sri Lanka, Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism first struck Roman Catholics, and then Muslims, Hill Country Tamils and Tamils in that order. Now the Muslims are the main target. Sections of the media and political analysts identify groups like the Bodhu Bala Sena, Sinhala Ravaya etc. as extremist or even fascist. But few will dare call the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) or Sihala Urumaya, its forerunner, fascist, although BBS, SR and other fanatics only translate JHU ideology into violent deeds. Notably, Sinhala Buddhist fundamentalism is anti-left and pro imperialist. An important feature of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is its wilful distortion of history to lay claim to lads in which minority had been resident for centuries. The government and its biased archaeologists willingly oblige.

Myanmar (then Burma), besides a long record of oppression of minority nationalities, was a scene of anti-Indian violence since WWI. Hostility soared during the Great Depression and over 200 Hindus and Muslims were killed in 1930 in riots in Yangon (then Rangoon). Half a million Indians fled Myanmar in 1942 during Japanese occupation. Following the military coup of 1962, persecution forced 300,000 Indians to leave by 1964. Burmese Chinese too suffered state-sponsored violence and bias from 1967 through the 1970’s, forcing large scale emigration.

The political transition of 2011 was followed by Buddhist fundamentalist pogroms targeting Rohingya Muslims in the western state of Rakhine. In 2012, hundreds of Rohingya were killed and over 140,000 were displaced; and their persecution continues at home and in refugee camps abroad. Meantime the Arakan National Party (ethnic Rakhine Buddhist party) formed by merging of two neo-Nazi parties (Rakhine Nationalities Development Party and Arakan League for Democracy) in 2014 won 22 of the 35 contested seats to the Rakhine State Parliament in 2015, with vote denied to several hundred thousand Rohingya, whose citizenship is rejected by all major players in Myanmar.

The Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion (Ma Ba Tha), was founded in 2013 as successor to the 969 Movement, the driving force of the anti-Muslim violence of 2012-2013. Ma Ba Tha, craves a solely Buddhist Myanmar. Ma Ba Tha is unlikely to capture state power. But the undercurrent of Buddhist nationalism with roots in the anti-colonial struggle of the 1930s and 1940s and revival under military rule since 1962 ensure Ma Ba Tha considerable sway in the government— be it military or ‘democratic’. Ma Ba Tha‘s hold on Myanmar’s politics and ideology was clear when it could persuade Parliament to write into law in August 2015 (much ahead of elections in November) four bills drafted by it (Religious Conversion Bill, Buddhist Women’s Special Marriage Bill, Population Control Healthcare Bill and Monogamy Bill) legalizing discrimination against women and Muslims. Ma Ba Tha.

Militant Buddhism in Burma and in Sri Lanka, have many similarities despite differences in detail. Notably, Ma Ba Tha and JHU developed as independent religious fundamentalist entities by manipulating Buddhist sensitivities. But, unlike the JHU, which underwent several splits, Ma Ba Tha holds monopoly over Buddhist extremism in Myanmar.

India’s ultra-nationalist anti-left Hindu fundamentalism had roots in the part Indian freedom movement that wanted a Hindu identity rather than the secular identity, also urged in the constitution. It plays on Hindu-Muslim contradictions and is hostile to Muslims and Christians.

The Sangh Parivar, with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) at its head, serves as the Hindutva umbrella. Member organizations, despite diversity in views and methods (ranging from social work to outright thuggery) concur on the ideas of a Hindu state and Hindutva ideology to the rejection of secular values and left ideology.

The RSS, the oldest and strongest Hindutva body, was founded in 1925 ‘to provide character training through Hindu discipline and to unite the Hindu community’ claims to be apolitical. But it is the social arm of right wing Hindu nationalist parties, and wields control over the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and dominated its predecessor the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Notably, the present and the previous BJP prime ministers apprenticed in the RSS, which once had direct links with European fascists. (See “Soldiers of the Swastika” by AG Noorani in Frontline, 23 January 2015.) Besides, ideologically there is much in common between European fascism and Hindutva.

The Hindu nationalist Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), founded in 1964, is the most prominent public face of Hindu fascism. It is noted for its part (alongside the BJP and Shiv Sena) in tearing down the Babri Masjid (claiming it to be the birth place of the Hindu god Ram with scant historical evidence) in December 1992 and provoking the communal violence that ensued. Bajrang Dal, the militant youth arm of the VHP, founded in 1984, has been a key actor in anti-Christian violence and attacks on Muslims, including the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 in which Prime Minister Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, was implicated.

The Shiv Sena, a Marathi sectarian front founded in 1966, was founded on a hate campaign against South Indian ‘immigrants’ in Bombay. When the founding cause faltered in the 1970’s, the Sena joined the Hindutva bandwagon. From 1989 it partnered the BJP in elections to parliament and to the Maharashtra State Assembly. It planned and implemented with police complicity anti-Muslim Riots in Bombay in December 1992. The Sena and BJP split over power sharing in State Assembly elections in 2014. But the alliance revived, but with signs of persistent disharmony.

Instances of acts of violence and terror by Muslim individuals and groups in public places were mostly in response to Hindutva violence and State terror, as in Kashmir. Notably, there is no Indian Islamist body that targets other religious communities.

Muslim militancy in South Asia, including terrorism with and without Pakistani state involvement, is a result of long standing issues between India and Pakistan and has little to do with Islamist fundamentalism. The Zia ul Haq dictatorship raised Islamisation of the Pakistani state to new heights by repressing religious minorities including non-Sunni Muslims, banning party political activity and harshly suppressing the media under martial law. President Zia had army loyalty but no popular base and he made Pakistan the first fascist state in South Asia, which loyally served the US by nurturing resistance to the pro-Soviet Afghan government.

The terror machine that Zia built in the 1980’s spun out of control of the Pakistani state. Zia’s assassination in August 1988 ended his rule. But the damage he did to the democratic process in Pakistan has endured.

Fascism and Political Islam

Modern political Islam, born of economic stagnation in several Muslim countries in the 1970’s, was in essence anti-imperialist as well as anti-Marxist. The US, aided by reactionary Arab allies, harnessed Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism to serve its aim of global domination. Saudi Arabia funded Islamist forces like the Afghan Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba, al-Qaida and then the Islamic State (also known as ISIL, ISIS, Daesh etc.) whose reach crept outside Syria and Iraq, after it failed to topple the two non-Sunni governments. Islamic militants were also funded by Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudi-backed Wahabis and Salafis and the al-Qaida which act to subvert secular Arab states and African nations with large Muslim populations cannot be called fascist as they are neither nationalistic nor serving big capital where they function, But, their fascist potential is real.

The Western media designed the term “Islamofascism” to humiliate political parties like Muslim Brotherhood (Egypt), Hizbullah (Lebanon) and Hamas (Palestine), which they list alongside the likes of al-Qaida to justify systematic harassment of European Muslim immigrants.

The Islamic State is unlike its Arabian Peninsular patrons and other Islamists in its objectives and operations. Stephen Sheehi in his article “ISIS as a fascist movement” [http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/isis-fascist-movement/] agrees that the IS “may share some pedigree with the most pernicious of Wahabi, Salafi social and political practices, which arose in a reaction against Arab and Ottoman generated modernity in the 19^th and 20^th century” but rejects that Salafi and Wahabi sects are fascist as they mainly concern juridical and theological issues of Sunni Islam. He notes that state building by IS is “clearly based on corporatist, capitalist mechanisms, where the ‘state’ and its war machine monopolize revenue via the oil infrastructure, extorted taxes, and tariffs. This corporatism is enforced by a security apparatus and ‘Islamic’ courts that administer a severe penal (not legal) system in order to coerce compliance”.

Jeff Mankoff writing on al-Qaeda in History News Network  correctly remarks that it is a “small, conspiratorial organization whose influence flows more from its ability to inspire small numbers of fanatical followers with its mastery of modern communication technology than from its ability to become a mass movement or a force in electoral politics” [http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/29239#sthash.OH3zK6il.dpuf].

Thus what matters is the direction that an Islamist militant organization would take in its passage to power. Islamic governments can be severely repressive. But dubbing repressive states as fascist risks missing the real fascists. It is well known that Christian fundamentalism is an ally of imperialism. Thus it has greater fascist potential and global reach than Islamist fundamentalism, a mere tool that at times spins out of control. 

Confronting Fascism

The global left ― revolutionary and parliamentary ― debates if the government of Türkiye is fascist. Türkiye is nominally a democracy for it has elected government. Its constitution as amended in 2017 concentrates power in the hands of the President. The post of Prime Minister was also abolished, to make the President the head of both state and government. Some call Türkiye an imperialist state based on its hegemonic attitude towards the Kurds and its domination over Northern Cyprus. There is case to call the government fascistic although the ruling party has no declared allegiance to fascism. Türkiye’s government is authoritarian, majoritarian, and repressive mainly towards the left and the minorities, especially the Kurds. It should be noted however that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has besides a religious-conservative base, support from neo-fascist groups in the country, as in the case of several centre-right governments of Europe.

Unlike the classical fascist regimes of inter-war Italy and Germany, the AKP government got awkwardly placed in relation to its (Islamist) civic roots. Erdogan, in his first few years, had to publicly disown Islamism, but AKP’s reliance on Islamism endured. Erdogan’s drift towards authoritarianism seemed inevitable, and he took advantage of the failed coup attempt against him in 2016. In order to consolidate his power he openly accused that the US was complicit. His appeal to the masses to thwart the coup led to what seemed a democratic defence of the regime by the people. But there was also a cynical use of the protest to target his political enemies including the pro-Kurdish HDP.

Using the characteristics of European fascism between WWI and WWII as a standard, one may identify state and political organizations with seemingly fascist features. But that need not make an organization fascist. Also, modern fascist methods to seize power are unlike the populist methods of ‘classical European Fascism’. European neo-fascism has implanted its genes into bourgeois democratic parties, centre-right and even “centre-left” alliances, making them amenable to key aspects of the fascist agenda on immigrants, the working class and the left. Authoritarian Türkiye and Singapore, will be projected as ‘democracies’ by imperialist media as long as they hold periodic elections,.

Following post-WWII freeing of European colonies, fascism found fertile soil in nationalism, once a progressive anti-colonial force that debased into chauvinism and narrow nationalism. Religion was often imposed on national identity. And identity-based politics, bereft of anti-imperialism, sought and found imperialist patronage, acquired fascist features or even turned fascist and repressive. Such trends militated against anti-imperialism and anti-fascism joining hands.

Some decades ago US imperialist backing facilitated imposing of fascist regimes on Latin American countries by military coup, as conditions were unfavourable for fascism to use populist tactics to seize power. Once in power by fair or foul means, right wing nationalists would transform the state into a fascist force.

Many who consider militant ultranationalists and fundamentalists to be neo-fascists exempt their electoral political partners. Myanmar’s Arakan National Party is no less fascist than Ma Ba Tha or the 969 Movement; Sri Lanka’s JHU of is no less fascist than the BBS or the Sinhala Ravaya; and India’s BJP is no less fascist than the RSS or the Bajrang Dhal.

Populist fascism is deadly and left and democratic forces need to deal with it with a firm fist. Fascism today, unlike its earlier form, implements its agenda as the party in power or as a partner in coalition government or as a powerful pressure group in and outside parliament.

It is folly to await identification of an organization as fascist to counter its fascist acts. Identification is important, but action needs to be as firm against tendencies like ultra-nationalism, anti-left rhetoric and servility to imperialism as against forces of fascism, neo-fascism or proto-fascism.

Imperialism will encourage and sustain any swerve of a country to the political right. Global capital and bourgeois democracy will oblige ultra-nationalist, anti-immigration and anti-Muslim politics. Third World anti-fascists should hence be alert to active and passive imperialist support for fascist tendencies, especially in the context of mass struggles for social justice. And the left should act pre-emptively against fascism hijacking the fury of the alienated working class and other oppressed sections.

Left and democratic forces need to be especially cautious of the tendency to lump together all acts of violence in the name of Islam, regardless of context or the forces behind the violence. Even though Islamic terrorism had on occasion a nuisance value against imperialism, its overall impact was to help imperialism curb democratic rights and liberties, make the state more authoritarian, justify discrimination against immigrants and thus divide the oppressed masses.

An act of terror in the name of Islam is as despicable as an anti-Islamic act. However, revulsion of an act of terror should not blind us to the core issues. The US and its Arab clients armed and financed the IS to destroy secular Syria. Paradoxically, the IS turned on its makers. Besides, the Arab World is changing and, thanks to Chinese diplomacy, Saudi Arabia patched up with Iran and softened its anti-Shia Muslim stand in Yemen and elsewhere. But that does not mean the end of IS and its clones, as imperialism is adept at manipulating genuine grievances to its benefit.

The foregoing tells us two things about neo-fascism in Asia. It is in essence pro-imperialist and as always anti-left. Its class interests coincide with those of the comprador bourgeoisie and the section of the national bourgeoisie that has compromised with imperialism.

Prabhat Patnaik writing in Frontier Weekly under the heading “Fascism and Big Business” (https://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-56/56-8/56-8-Fascism%20and%20Big%20Business.html) draws attention to the bond between fascism and big business and to the proximity of the “new monopoly bourgeoisie” to the rising fascistic groups.  What should be noted is the sense of loyalty of Third World fascists to imperialism.

Concluding Remarks

While fascism is a growing menace in Europe and parts of the Third World, the fascists even where in government alone or in partnership have not yet transformed any important country into a fascist state.

The phenomenon that the term neo-fascism refers to does not differ in substance from the fascism of the inter-war years. But the fascism of Europe and of Asia in the late colonial period differ in both character and content, owing to the manner in which Europe and Asian stood in relation to each other. Likewise, differences exist between neo-fascism in Europe and that in Asia in the neo-colonial context.

White racist prejudice was at the bottom of European neo-fascism as in the case of fascism. White racism underlies the neo-fascist attitude towards immigrants and the anti-Muslim stand since the US declared its Global War on Terror in 2001. The political establishment and dominant media mask neo-fascism by calling it anything but what it is. Linking ‘neo-fascism’ to anti-Semitism protects fascists with little interest in attacking Jews. The fanatical few claiming Nazi lineage adhere to anti-Semitism despite its irrelevance to the neo-fascist agenda.

Asia’s fascism of the colonial era is markedly differs from its neo-fascism in the neo-colonial era, unlike with European fascism and neo-fascism. Asian fascism of the colonial era with its regional variants was inspired by European fascism, either to imitate it or to vent anti-colonial fury, while European neo-fascism has substituted anti-Semitism with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim stands while keeping the old fascist outlook.

As identity-based ethno-religious chauvinism drives Asian fascism, cross border collaboration among neo-fascists is harder in Asia than in Europe. However, narrow nationalism anywhere is an obstacle to a transnational fascist union unless facilitated by imperialism. Yet any form of fascism is welcome to imperialism as it helps to keep the left at bay and hold to ransom any state that may resist imperialist interests.

The home grown phenomenon of Hindutva in India bonded with Nazi ideology as its caste-based hierarchy went well with the Nazi notion of Master Race. Hindutva, much stronger now than in the colonial era, targets ethnic and religious minorities with religion playing a central role in identity. Unlike in the West, fear of Islamic fundamentalism and the notion of Islam as a terrorist faith are lesser issues.

Neo-fascists distort history to present fascism in a favourable light, but rewriting history to obliterate the contribution of minority nationalities is now an obsession with the Hindu fascists of India and Sinhala Buddhist fascists of Sri Lanka in their bid for the whole country.

Narrow nationalism compels European neo-fascists to seem hostile to the EU, whose liberal ethics are anathema to neo-fascist racism and they resent EU interference in national matters. Siding with US imperialism is common among neo-fascists, despite nominal US hostility to fascism. But with neo-fascism masked by a non-fascist name-tag, junior partnership or clientship of US imperialism is trouble free.

US justifies meddling in Third World affairs on pretext of democracy, human rights and war crimes. The US, while feigning rejection of neo-fascism, has always sided with Third World fascists from Suharto in Indonesia to Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Although relationship with fascistic leaders of Türkiye and India, is susceptible to friction when the latter assert their interests to the annoyance of the US, but not to antagonism.

US imperialism holds the Third World in neo-colonial contempt, and partnership with Asian neo-fascists is not one of equals. Meanwhile, the neo-fascists’ anti-leftism and alignment with comprador bourgeoisie overcome their nationalist inhibitions to become junior partners of US imperialism. Thus, Third World’s anti-fascist struggles need closer ties with anti-imperialist struggles than Europe’s.

The left and its allies cannot wait for a dictatorial reactionary regime to be confirmed as fascist. Any rightist dictatorship with affinity to imperialism should be challenged at sight of the first fascistic symptom. Struggle for democracy and social justice is the bridge that links anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggles.

[This study updates “Understanding Fascism in Context” (MLND 58, March 2016) and “Imperialism, National and Identity Politics and Third World Fascism: a Marxist Leninist Approach” (MLND 62, May 2017)]