Thread by @Timotero2

Thread based on the result of the Survey.

Universal Fascism

As bizarre as this may be, Fascism once had its own "Internationale". You heard right, the Ultranationalistic hateful ideology once had/organized International meetings for Fascists belonging to different Nations.

First of all, we must distinguish between two concepts, that is, the Universal Character of Fascism, and what Universal Fascism represented.

The first one is the one that is used by your day to day Fascist, that is, we hold a Philosophy that is organically...

adapted to each Nation in a way that although it holds the Spirit, it is institutionally and culturally, adapted to the nation itself. This is a conception Mussolini would hold, and would repeat time and time again...

going to the extent of writing letters to foreign politicians, warning them to not try and mimic the Italian ideology due to the fact it is essentially italian.

Then we move onto what Universal Fascism was. This line of thinking did not represent a huge amount of members of the party, but it did eventually get the blessing of Mussolini. The concept of Universal Fascism goes...

like this; Fascism must bring civilization to other continents, completely apply the Italian version with little to no difference. The ideologues of this theory claimed that Fascism was so trascendental, its duty was to carry an universally imperial goal.

Berto Ricci would be one of the main theorists of this belief, having his own newspaper associated to the Party and having the protection of Mussolini against possible aggressors, he would criticize Nationalism, reject racism...

and push for the creation of an Internationale, which, would (sorta) happen eventually...

The Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalità di Roma (CAUR) would be established in 1933, and it would carry out its first congress in 1934 in Montreux, Switzerland. The purpose of this...

new organization as a whole, would be to spread Fascism and try to establish a Fascist Internationale. The ideal of the Committee would support the universality of Fascism, and the pursuit of establishing contact with Fascist parties across the world.

It must be noted however, that this new congress was a way to battle against the influence of the Austrian Painter and its National Socialist regime, due to the fact that Mussolini felt that Italy's influence on the continent was challenged.

The CAUR never got official support from the party, nor it did have any official representative on it. Nevertheless, its first congress would count with the presence of several leaders and figures of Fascist figures across Europe...

Ion Mota (Iron Guard), Eoin O'Duffy (Irish Blueshirts), Gimenez Caballero (Spanish Fascist Thinker), among figures of Austria, Netherlands, Greece, France, Portugal, etc. As a display of the fact that the Italians were trying to fight the influence of the NSDAP...

no members of said party would be invited. Racism, their goals, anti-semitism and other topics were discussed, to which, conflict would arise and there would never be a definitive answer to certain core issues.

In 1935 another conference would be held (the last one) in which...

nordic and mediterranean figures would engage in heated arguments. One main tendency in the few meetings of the CAUR was the criticism of racism and the rejection of the ideals of the NSDAP. Eugenio Coselschi, president of the committees, would need to...

intervene, and this would end in a rant in which he criticized the works of Alfred Rosenberg's Myth of the 20th Century. As a whole the CAUR would end up being dismantled and enabling a transition from the support of Universalism to the cult of Romanity...

a reinforcement of Latin and Roman values that reinforced Italian Nationalism in Mussolini's Regime. This can be seen in the Pro-Mussolini propaganda that the CAUR engaged in, the "Duce" was in battle with the "Fuhrer". Thus allowing for the transition to happen.

Once the Italian Regime and the German Regime got close, that was the moment that the battle for influence was lost, the Austrian Painter had influenced its main competitor, and we could see this in figures such as José Antonio Primo de Rivera...

that by late 1936, he was calling his system more similar to the German one, and wrote "Germans against Berbes", text in which he displays a more racialist view of Spain itself. Not to mention that by 1935 he was expressing that Mussolini...

did not carry a revolution of any sort, and that the Italian movement was nothing else but a myth from which Spaniard movements could profit.

During this transition, we would notice mere calls for Europeism in the Duce's speeches, and mostly a stan for Romanhood.

The ideal of Fascist Universalism died on its early stage because it proved not to be enough, nor something desireable, especially for nationally organic movements that will clearly disagree with each other.

In this way, we go back to the main distinction between the Universal Character of Fascism and Universal Fascism. Clearly it is the first one that had more of a chance to move forward than the latter, differences among Fascists are clear even today...

and we must understand this in order to actually go forward as Fascists. It is not up to a Brazilian to fight nor theorize for Fascism in Ukraine, nor is it up for a Russian to copy and paste Italian Fascism. Mussolini would say it best...

universally Fascist, nationally Italian. The CAUR and the beliefs of all the supporters of Universal Fascism would remain to be a small thing inside the Italian movement, but that are still an interesting subject of research when it comes to the history of Fascism.

The End

Fascist parties****