We can combat fascism only if we grasp that it rouses and sweeps along broad social masses who have lost the earlier security of their existence and with it, often, their belief in social order. Fascism is rooted, indeed, in the dissolution of the capitalist economy and the bourgeois state. There were already symptoms of the proletarianization of bourgeois layers in prewar capitalism. The war shattered the capitalist economy down to its foundations. This is evident not only in the appalling impoverishment of the proletariat, but also in the proletarianization of very broad petty-bourgeois and middle-bourgeois masses, the calamitous conditions among small peasants, and the bleak distress of the โintelligentsia.โ [...] At present all these layers are experiencing the collapse of the hopes they had placed in the war. Their conditions have become significantly worse. What weighs on them above all is the lack of security for their basic existence, which they still had before the war.
This is not too dissimilar from what we have experienced first with the 2008 global economic crisis and then the 2020 Covid pandemic. The effects which these two events had were obviously not on the same scale as those caused by the war, but essentially of the same nature.
The rise of multipolarity and the collapse of the West's unipolar hegemony - of which we are already seeing the first shockwaves in Europe with the impact of the Ukraine war - will again cause similar effects on the imperial core, further escalating the crisis of capitalism.
7
deathtoreddit - 3mon
Always remember, class collaboration under Capital and its terms is an obfuscation / cover for the fact of increasing bourgeois dictatorship repression, especially under fascists
Another thing - the counterrevolutionary lethargy of socdem leads to the power vacuum's substitution of fascism in socdem's place
(fascism thrives where socdem fails to deliver but rather paves away for bourgeois policies and anti-prole repression)
7
deathtoreddit - 3mon
Among the - of course - reactionary and pro-bourgeois policies that fascists implemented, after co-opting the progressive face
This first one - is just -
Mussolini promised women the right to vote and to be elected. Recently an international bourgeois conference for womenโs suffrage met in Rome.[7] Mussolini graciously honored the women by his presence and explained to them with a sweet smile that women would obtain the right to voteโbut only for the municipal councils. Political rights would thus still be denied them. Moreover, not all women would gain rights in municipal elections; only those who could give evidence of a certain level of education, plus women with โwar medals,โ and women whose husbands possessed a sufficiently large bag of money to pay a certain level of taxes. Thatโs how he keeps his promise with regard to equal rights for women.
Kamala-esque slop a la "Student loan debt forgiveness programs for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in economically disadvantaged communities"
5
AngeryProle - 3mon
Banger read. I'll point out that this is one of those that is more current now than when it was written. It's not exactly "prescient", it's the contradictions having sharpened (and the DotB having learned from their previous trysts with fascism and improved their fascist formula) makes this more pervasively true now than before. Or something.
Here's a question to my fellows here: how do we get ahead of the fascists, on the ground level, at leveraging the contradictions? How do we, as agitators, at an individual level, bring the people in our lives who are pissed at the system into our tent before they do?
6
-6-6-6- - 3mon
how do we get ahead of the fascists, on the ground level, at leveraging the contradictions? How do we, as agitators, at an individual level, bring the people in our lives who are pissed at the system into our tent before they do?
Their friends and family, typically. It's...disturbing or interesting depending on how you put it the amount of people in the circle of a reactionary that have an appeal or openness to another view that they keep entirely separate from their family, friend, etc. I think it's more so about encouraging people to make divisive choices based on those beliefs...like not having friends with human pieces of shit but a lot of the times this isn't easy as atomization and desperation in the core render a lot of us impotent against those things.
Being a rock to lean on, a mirror to look into and a good friend goes a longer way than you may think from personal experience. It's hard how to put or quantify that into masses, though. I apologize if I don't contribute much, I ponder the same thing myself as well.
4
TappingOnScreen @lemmy.ml - 2mon
Zetkin was the first Marxist theorist that I read after Marx, Engels and Lenin and I still massively appreciate all her works.
This text really helped me understand what Fascism was/is when I was a baby leftist.
2
rainpizza - 2mon
Finally, I was able to finish this text! It was great! Now, I have to finish the others so I can be up to date with you all!
GrainEater in theory
Zetkin's "Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win" | Theory Discussion Group, Week 39 of 2025
https://en.prolewiki.org/wiki/Library:Fighting_Fascism:_How_to_Struggle_and_How_to_WinYou can read the text here.
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Can I be added to this list please?
done
Please add me to the list as well, pretty please with cheese on top?
done
This is not too dissimilar from what we have experienced first with the 2008 global economic crisis and then the 2020 Covid pandemic. The effects which these two events had were obviously not on the same scale as those caused by the war, but essentially of the same nature.
The rise of multipolarity and the collapse of the West's unipolar hegemony - of which we are already seeing the first shockwaves in Europe with the impact of the Ukraine war - will again cause similar effects on the imperial core, further escalating the crisis of capitalism.
Always remember, class collaboration under Capital and its terms is an obfuscation / cover for the fact of increasing bourgeois dictatorship repression, especially under fascists
Another thing - the counterrevolutionary lethargy of socdem leads to the power vacuum's substitution of fascism in socdem's place
(fascism thrives where socdem fails to deliver but rather paves away for bourgeois policies and anti-prole repression)
Among the - of course - reactionary and pro-bourgeois policies that fascists implemented, after co-opting the progressive face
This first one - is just -
Kamala-esque slop a la "Student loan debt forgiveness programs for Pell Grant recipients who start a business that operates for three years in economically disadvantaged communities"
Banger read. I'll point out that this is one of those that is more current now than when it was written. It's not exactly "prescient", it's the contradictions having sharpened (and the DotB having learned from their previous trysts with fascism and improved their fascist formula) makes this more pervasively true now than before. Or something.
Here's a question to my fellows here: how do we get ahead of the fascists, on the ground level, at leveraging the contradictions? How do we, as agitators, at an individual level, bring the people in our lives who are pissed at the system into our tent before they do?
Their friends and family, typically. It's...disturbing or interesting depending on how you put it the amount of people in the circle of a reactionary that have an appeal or openness to another view that they keep entirely separate from their family, friend, etc. I think it's more so about encouraging people to make divisive choices based on those beliefs...like not having friends with human pieces of shit but a lot of the times this isn't easy as atomization and desperation in the core render a lot of us impotent against those things.
Being a rock to lean on, a mirror to look into and a good friend goes a longer way than you may think from personal experience. It's hard how to put or quantify that into masses, though. I apologize if I don't contribute much, I ponder the same thing myself as well.
Zetkin was the first Marxist theorist that I read after Marx, Engels and Lenin and I still massively appreciate all her works.
This text really helped me understand what Fascism was/is when I was a baby leftist.
Finally, I was able to finish this text! It was great! Now, I have to finish the others so I can be up to date with you all!