As we discuss in the Spotlight section of this issue, the urgency of antifascism has become increasingly urgent in recent weeks. But how can we conceive of a long-term antifascism capable of annihilating fascism once and for all, beyond immediate tactical considerations? ---- Contrary to the rhetoric, let's recall the facts: far-right hate speech infiltrates public spaces, incites violence, and claims dozens of victims each year. Since 1989, the far right has killed 59 times in France, according to historian Nicolas Lebourg's count. In this context, organizing popular self-defense for our public meetings and demonstrations is therefore an obligation.
However, it seems to us that this alone cannot suffice. Labeling street protests as "antifascism" is an admission of failure. Antifascism cannot be solely defined by the range of techniques that allow us to wage our political struggles in times of far-right radicalization. A genuinely antifascist struggle is one that seeks to curb, to annihilate, the very possibility of a resurgence of fascism. Fascisms of yesterday and today
Unlike historical fascism, the wave we are experiencing today does not arise from the collapse of the bourgeois state. Indeed, the emergence of the Blackshirts in Italy and the Nazi party in Germany occurred in states practically on life support: the Great Depression had paralyzed their economies, the consequences of the Great War were still being felt, workers' movements had challenged their institutions, and the legitimacy of their governments was plummeting. This vacuum offered fascist forces a space where they could present themselves as the only ones capable of "reviving" the nation-state, thereby restoring and strengthening the bourgeoisie's instrument of power.
Today, the situation is precisely the opposite. The contemporary state is not weakening; it has strengthened itself in unprecedented ways: it possesses widespread surveillance technology, an exceptional legal arsenal, "non-lethal" weapons which it no longer hesitates to use extensively, and effective international cooperation. It managed to strengthen itself throughout the preceding period (from the post-World War II era to the current neoliberal crisis). When the profit machine was running at full speed, the state, far from being a mere arbiter, played a role in the pseudo-democratic integration of the proletariat. The enormous economic surpluses it generated through the country's reconstruction and the exploitation of developing countries allowed it to distribute the gains: a share to capital, a share to labor. Social democracy could promote the welfare state model, and social dialogue was enjoying its golden age. In concrete terms, the state gradually absorbed social demands within an institutional framework that promised stability and protection. The creation of Social Security, for example, illustrated this ability to offer a safety net in exchange for the disarmament of workers-many of whom had joined the resistance. And while Social Security was initially conceived as independent of the state, the latter quickly managed to regain control of its management, further consolidating its central role as guarantor of economic and social order.
A new social pact
But today, the crisis has returned. The capitalist crisis we are experiencing overturns the logic that has long structured relations between the state and workers. To maintain margins and profits, capitalists have no choice but to wage war against our class. The compromise that was the tacit agreement of Keynesianism[1]can no longer hold. The state, in a pendulum swing, is reverting to its repressive reflexes: how could it be otherwise? The bourgeoisie has always been its sole master. When the interests of capital are threatened, the state apparatus transforms into a shield designed to protect those interests. Thus, our time is not simply witnessing an economic contraction; we are observing the return of a state that, instead of cushioning the shocks, acts as an instrument of repression in the service of a dominant class whose hegemony is being challenged.
In this context, the fascism we see emerging appears as nothing more than a simple attempt to re-establish a class compromise by sacrificing the most vulnerable groups. Under the guise of a promise of "renewal" or "security," factions of the bourgeoisie, the petty bourgeoisie, and even elements of the proletariat seek to forge a new social pact. A racist, patriarchal, ableist, ecocidal pact, and so on. In other words, contemporary fascism presents itself as the solution, but it only consolidates the interests of the ruling classes by shifting the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of already marginalized populations.
Socialism or barbarism? An antifascism of our time must therefore necessarily be a revolutionary political movement, in the strongest sense of the term. We cannot tie our fate to the State: an electoral anti-fascist front might, perhaps (but nothing is less certain!), temporarily prevent fascists from coming to power, but this would (certainly!) be nothing definitive. The "left" in power could lead us back to a phase of pseudo-democratic integration, but as long as capital remains in control, a repressive return is already inevitable. A backlash that would then very likely be more brutal than the current one, since it would then seize an even stronger State apparatus.
The only true anti-fascism is that which seeks to eliminate the material conditions for the existence and emergence of fascist tendencies. Thus, it is self-evident: anti-fascism can only be found in revolutionary rupture. It can only be found in the quest to remind our class, the working class, of its own interests, in the work to be done to reassure our comrades of our own strength. The only possible antifascism is that which succeeds in constituting a libertarian communist collective subject that will sweep away all temptations of class compromise, a collective subject that will recognize its only mortal enemy: capitalism.
Wendelin (UCL Alsace)
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[1]Keynesianism is a school of economic thought founded by John Maynard Keynes, which theorizes state intervention in economic markets to stabilize and regulate them.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Theorie-politique-L-antifascisme-l-Etat-la-rupture-revolutionnaire-et-nous
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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