Hey everyone, we're going to be doing a new thing we call #Fascism101Wednesday
This campaign will provide weekly information on historical fascism and its direct link to the U.S. settler colonial state in 2020
Today, we're going to start with, what is fascism? 1/
This campaign will provide weekly information on historical fascism and its direct link to the U.S. settler colonial state in 2020
Today, we're going to start with, what is fascism? 1/
Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, as well as strong regimentation of society and of the economy which came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.
In the late 1800 Georges Valois founded the first Fasiceau Party predicting a totalitarian nature deriving from the revolutionary Jacobin Movement
After being expelled from the Italian Socialist Party in 1914, in 1915, then soldier Benito Mussolini joined the interventionist “Fasces of Revolutionary Action Party” in which the term “Fascism” was first coined.
Following the conclusion of WW1 and dissolution of the party in 1919, the ideology was synthesized into an ultranationalistic and AntiMarxist movement with Mussolini consolidating power and favoring the preservation of the ruling-class elites by any means
In the early 1920s, the Fascist Movement took power in the Italian politics by attacking workers and peasants through the guise of “law and order” and escalated in 1922 from the attacking of socialist offices and leaders to violent occupation of cities by Fascist paramilitaries.
On October 30th, 1922, Mussolini led a blood-less coup through a “March on Rome” successfully consolidating full economic and political power to the National Fascist Party and cementing himself as the unilateral dictator of Fascist Italy.
In Germany, at the same time, Adolph Hitler would draw inspiration from this Fascist seizure of power, ultimately leading to his development of a fascist party with the misleading title “National Socialist German Worker’s Party”
The party would employ the same methodology as Mussolini with even more stringent political repression of opponents that were crafted as scapegoats to explain the burgeoning economic depression.
Both countries’ influence and policies spread resulting in imperialist interventions and reclaiming of “ethnic territories”
These military occupations and the brokering of treaties between Italy and Germany would ultimately create the first “Axis Powers” alignment and thrust the world into the Second World War to combat the imperial takeover of fascism.
What are some of the warning signs of burgeoning Fascism?
With the threat of Fascism ever-present with the systematic dissolution of our democracy by 45 on a daily basis we must remain vigilant for all of the signs that signal the arrival an authoritarian right-wing, ultranationalist government consolidating power
Stay tuned for next week’s #Fascism101Wednesday where we will dive deeper into how the warning signs of Fascism have already been implemented into American society.
