The Anti-Capitalism of Fascists and Their Socialism

The anti-capitalistic ideology has also risen in modern society, especially among the young, because of the increasing disillusionment with consumerism, cronyism, and expensive educational systems that offer fewer and fewer opportunities for upward mobility in society. This has led to the increasing popularity of support for government assistance programs, which people believe is socialism, even though it is not.

In 2018, the survey conducted by the polling organization Gallup found that 51% of Americans aged 18-29, including young Millennials and members of Gen Z, had a favourable opinion of socialism, compared with just 45% who felt favorably towards capitalism. According to the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer survey, which surveyed people globally, 57% of people between 18 and 34 years of age felt that modern capitalism does more harm than good.

Socialism is now considered the morally correct alternative to capitalism, especially among the young, and anti-capitalistic opinions are considered morally superior even though it has also been associated with authoritarianism, systemic racism, genocides, and political violence throughout history. Fascism has also become meaningless and has been used as a general term for political invective, unrelated to its original meaning and historical context.

Despite its long history of aggression towards both capitalism and liberalism, fascism is today commonly confused with both terms in modern political discourse. Like socialism, fascism was created in response to economic instability in the preceding world wars and is fundamentally opposed to the Enlightenment values of liberalism, such as individual freedom and civil liberties. Yet today, people such as Javier Milei, who is a vocal supporter of both anarcho-capitalism and paleolibertarianism, are commonly wrongly accused as fascist in modern political discourse. This misclassification is particularly comical since Milei actively promotes the smaller state, which is in direct opposition to the statolatry, or love of the state, which is fundamentally inherent in fascism.

Ideological currents are what drive these tendencies, which are not arbitrary in any respect. There are numerous frameworks for interpretation that seek to hide the historical context and actuality of fascism, and they have emerged in left-wing discourse. Stalin’s Communist International, for instance, charged social democracy proponents with being connected with capitalism and described it as the moderate wing of fascism. However, modern Marxist theory, such as that advocated by Richard D. Wolff, argues that fascism is created in response to reactionary movements meant to stop anti-capitalism movements and transform capitalism into a fascist system in its own right. Besides, Leon Trotsky concluded fascism as the decay of capitalism. However, rather than examining the actual historical context of fascist movements, such frameworks seek ideologically driven results and might even be seen as promoting historical revisionism regarding the actual development of fascism as an ideology by imposing narrow narratives retrospectively.

Classical Fascism & National Syndicalism

Classical fascist development throughout history has been traced back to the form of socialism called revolutionary syndicalism. Marxism, in its glorification of the role played by social democrats, saw syndicalism emerge as a natural movement led by the workers against capitalism and the bosses. In spite of the theoretical differences between the two, the common class interests between the syndicalists and Marxists led them into a dialogue. The most prominent link between the two schools of thought was the Marxist theorist Georges Sorel, who was admired by all. However, by 1909, Sorel had become disillusioned with the compromising stance taken by socialist parliamentarians, the rise of democratic socialism, and the apparent retreat of the proletariats into a life of comfort, abandoning the revolutionary ideals of Marxism. In a way, he followed Benedetto Croce’s assertion that “Socialism is dead.” Sorel’s aim was to find a solution to the crisis facing Marxism, a problem that had been recognized by Marxist thinkers such as Antonio Labriola, by charting a new course in Marxist theory that combined the revolutionary zeal of Marxism with the populist and nationalist ideals, thus leading to the creation of “Sorelian Marxism” or “national syndicalism.” This synthesis attracted many syndicalists, and influenced by Sorel’s admiration for Charles Maurras and integral nationalism, they increasingly moved towards radical nationalist ideologies. Later, Cercle Proudhon, a platform for the fusion of revolutionary syndicalism and integral nationalist thought was established.

Benito Mussolini, in his “Doctrine of Fascism,” acknowledged the ideological sources of fascism, referring to the influence of Lagardelle’s Socialist Party, Marxist theoretician Georges Sorel, and the syndicalist publications such as “La Lupa,” “Pagine Libere,” and “Il Divenire Sociale.” This acknowledgement underscores the fact that the early fascist ideology was significantly influenced by, and actively reinterpreted, the intellectual heritage of revolutionary syndicalism and radical left-wing socialist thought.

Fascism and its Anti-Imperialism

The provocative analogy that Enrico Corradini, a nationalist writer within the syndicalist publication La Lupa, made within the nationalist wing of that publication read:

Similarly, during a meeting of the Italian Nationalist Association in 1910, he also stated:

These statements can be seen as the conceptual beginnings of the formation of “Proletarian Nation” that would come about in 1919. What is interesting is that the proto-fascist anti-imperialist geopolitics of Enrico Corradini uses Marxist concepts such as “proletariat” and “bourgeoisie” with regard to the working class and the capitalist ruling class, respectively, within the nation, whereas Enrico Corradini uses the concepts “proletariat” and “imperialist” with regard to nations such as Italy and Britain, respectively.

Ikki Kita, the ideological founder of Japanese fascism, also called “Pure Socialism,” advocated for an ideology in which Japan would become a proletarian nation with the responsibility of liberating colonized countries such as India and Myanmar from the imperial powers of the West. His imperial ambitions, therefore, included the annexation of other countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Manchuria, and Australia, but this would be done in the name of the “international proletarian nations” and for the purpose of the “anti-imperialist liberation” of the aforementioned countries. His political ideology advocated for a radical transformation of Japan through a coup d’état, in which the emperor would assume direct control, address economic inequalities, and protect the rights of citizens such as education, labor, and male suffrage, while eliminating the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy. His ideology was therefore advocating for a type of state socialism, but this would be implemented from above, empowering the military and the industries for the purpose of Japanese leadership in Asia. Given the fact that Ikki Kita was a socialist and a nationalist, and his ideology was named “Pure Socialism”, the fusion of the two ideologies, namely socialism and nationalism, therefore, was part of the ideological convergence associated with the early fascist movements.

Summing Up

All of these historical perspectives provide a critical reassessment of the underlying ideology of fascism, as a means of challenging contemporary leftist perspectives that view fascism as a decay of capitalism enabled by liberalism. The fact of the matter is that fascism as an ideology was heavily influenced by socialism, particularly with regard to revolutionary syndicalism and national syndicalism which were influenced by former Marxist thinkers such as Georges Sorel, Mussolini, and Ikki Kita.

This historical understanding matches the description of what Hayek once commented: “fascism is the stage reached after communism has proved an illusion”.