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This page pertains to fascism after World War II. For a discussion of groups and movements that also include as core tenets racial nationalism, antisemitism, and praise for Hitler, see Neo-Nazism. For neofascist groups associated with a religious identity or theology, see Neofascism and religion. For analysis of where fascism fits on the left/right ideological spectrum, see Fascism and ideology. Some groups called neo-fascist are more accurately described as part of the dissident far right. For discussions concerning the United States, see this page for post-WWII, and Fascism and ideology for pre-WWII and the FDR Administration.

Neo-fascism is the term used to describe a range of groups emerging after the Second World War that display significant elements of Fascism, or Clerical Fascism. First adopted in Italy during the 1920s, Fascism spread across Europe between World War I and World War II. Neofascism is the term used to describe fascist movements active after World War II.

The definitional debates and arguments by academics over the nature of fascism fill entire bookshelves. Fascism is an authoritarian extreme rightpolitical movement. Its roots have been traced by some scholars, such as Zeev Sternhell, to the revolutionary extreme left movement, as it mixed, in its first stage, social policies with nationalist ideology.

Allegations that a group is neofascist are often hotly contested. Sometimes the term is used as a hyperbolic political attack that uses the term fascism as a politic epithet or slur.

In some cases the term Neo-Fascist (note uppercase 'F') is claimed by movements that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini, the insignia of Fascist Italy (e.g. the fasces, the Roman salute) and features specific to Fascist Italy. This usually includes ultranationalism, nativism, and various illiberal attitudes.

Neo-fascist (note lowercase 'f') movements can draw on an eclectic mix of attachment to Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and the fascisms of other nations.

Fascism is typified by:

  • Totalitarian attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic.
  • The fascist state regulates and controls (as opposed to nationalizing) the means of production.
  • Fascism exalts the nation, state, or race as superior to the individuals, institutions, or groups composing it.
  • Fascism uses explicit populist rhetoric; calls for a heroic mass effort to restore past greatness;
  • Demands loyalty to a single leader, often to the point of a cult of personality.

Fascism is associated by many scholars with one or more of the following characteristics:

Regimes often called fascist after World War Two

The Colonels' Junta in Greece (1967-1974) was often adjectived as "fascist", even if the regime's nature was not fascist but military-based, anti-communist, ultra-nationalist and authoritarian. Some claim it was backed by the CIA because of the Junta's leader George Papadopoulos' former militancy in the Greek Secret Intelligence service (KYP].

Argentina (1946-1955 and 1973-1974) - Juan Perón admired Mussolini and established his own pseudo-fascist regime, although it has been more often considered a right-wing populist. After he died, his third wife and vice-president Isabel Perón was deposed by a military junta, after a short interreign characterized by support to the neo-fascist Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (la Triple A). Similarities are best drawn, though, with the Vargas regime of Brazil (1930-1945; 1950-1954).

South Africa (1948-1994) - Many scholars have labelled the apartheid system built by Malan and Verwoerd as a type of fascism. Whether it was a fascist regime or an example of a socially conservative administration with excessive powers is hotly debated. The racial and nationalist ideas were implanted inside the South African regime, however the economic structure of the country was not as regulated as that of a typically fascist state.

Guatemala (1953-1980s) - Mario Sandoval Alarcón, a self-declared fascist, headed the National Liberation Movement after a coup d'état, supported by the US, overthrew the democratic government of Col. Jacobo Arbenz. Sandoval became known as the "godfather of the death squads" during the Guatemalan military's 30-year counter-insurgency campaign and at one point served as Guatemala's vice president.

Rhodesia (1965-1978) - The racial segregation system by Ian Smith is similarly considered by some to be a form of fascism. See the comments for South Africa.

Augusto Pinochet's Chile (1973-1988) is considered by some a fascist dictatorship because it wiped out opposition, left-wing intellectuals and activists, and any kind of criticism, often kidnapping and murdering people considered "enemies", even abroad. In September 1976 Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in former President Salvador Allende's cabinet, was killed by a car bomb in Washington, D.C. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor as army commander -who had resigned rather than support the moves against President Allende- had died in similar circumstances in Buenos Aires, Argentina, two years earlier. Pinochet set up a wide intelligence operation throughout Latin America, coordinating efforts with neighboring dictatorships as to get rid of all possible enemy, usually killing them. As it was considered by some right-wing American politicians like Henry Kissinger a barrier against communism, he got wide favour from American government first, and later by the British, who saw him as an ally when recovering the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) from the Argentine invaders. He was therefore widely supported with weapons, logistics, and media silence until 1988. However, the eventual, voluntary liberalization of the government and the free-market economy of Chile at this time presents a strong argument against his dictatorship being fasicst.

Lebanon (1982-1988) - The right wing Christian Phalangist Party, backed by its own private army and inspired by the Spanish Falangists, was nominally in power in the country during the 1980s but had limited authority over the highly factionalised state, two-thirds of which was occupied by Israeli and Syrian troops. Phalangists, trained and supported by Israel carried out the Sabra and Shatila Massacre in 1982.

Iran (1950-1953) - Under the Iranian National Front, during the regime of Mohammad Mossadegh, attacks on the political left were led by right-wing groups with fascistic elements including the Iranian Nation Party, led by Dariush Forouhar; the Sumka (The National Socialist Iranian Workers Party) led by Dr. Davud Monshizadeh; and Kabud (Iranian Nazi Party) founded by Habibollah Nobakht.

Neo-Fascism and Italy

Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-Fascist' include;

Since the 1990s, Alleanza Nazionale has distanced itself from Mussolini and fascism and made efforts to improve relations with Jewish groups, with most die-hards leaving it; it now seeks to present itself as a respectable rightwing party. Lega Nord is primarily a secessionist movement, but has often been accused of xenophobia and racism; however, it has also lately presented its goals as a more moderate quest for local autonomy.

Neo-Fascism in Greece

Organizations that have been described as 'Neo-Fascist' include;

Neo-fascism in Greece has been present in Greek politics since the quasi-fascist regime of Ioannis Metaxas. During the 50's and 60's, the Greek neo-fascists were disguised part of conservative political parties. In 1967, the Greek military Junta of George Papadopoulos was inspired in the Metaxas period (Greek fascism) of 1936-1941 and gathered most Greek neo-fascists in power.

After the fall of the Colonels' regime in 1974, Greek neo-fascists were for their greatest part alienated, but yet existed in fringe minority parties, sometimes scoring parliament seats. In the early 80's Nikolaos Michaloliakos, a former Greek Army parachutist and youth leader of the Greek neo-fascist party EPEN founded Hrisi Avgi, an extreme Neo-Nazi party. Members of Hrisi Avgi even participated as volunteers in the Yugoslav wars in Bosnia, effectively aiding the Serbian Army to take the town of Srebrenica and committing the worst war atrocity in European soil since the Second World War. Until its dissolution in late 2005, Hrisi Avgi was considered among the most influential and best National Socialist movements in the world. It held over 10 offices across Greece and its monthly youth magazine was pretty popular among Greek teens. Hrisi Avgi became part of Patriotiki Symmachia in 2005.

Another important neo-fascit party was the 4th of August Party, later named Proti Grammi (First Line), headed by Kostas Plevris. Plevris is a former Greek secret intelligence agent and a die-hard admiror of Metaxas and Hitler, a reknown Hellenic supremacist, revisionist and Holocaust denier with close ties with other European revisionists.

After the restoration of democracy in 1974, former Junta leader George Papadopoulos founded and leaded EPEN, a party supporting, if not neo-fascism, at least authoritarian views and the ideal of "Ellas ton Ellinon Christianon" (Greece of Greek-Orthodox Greeks).

L.A.O.S., the Popular Orthodox Rally, has been adjectived as "neo-fascist", even if its leader Georgios Karatzaferis has distanced himself from holding such political views. LAOS was third in the Athens prefacture in November 2004, which gained him the epythet of "Greek Le Pen". Karatzaferis, however, is known for his ultra-nationalism, his flagrant anti-semitism and his populist convictions.

Neo-Fascism and religion (Islam, Christianity, Judaism etc)

See main article, Neofascism and religion.

Neo-Fascism and the United States

The presence or absence of fascism in the United States has been a matter of long-dispute from a variety of political viewpoints. This idea was brought up in the cautionary novel It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. George Orwell once remarked that "fascism" no longer seemed to mean much of anything, other than "objectionable."

The claim that the United States is fascistic remains dubious and fiercely debated, with few scholars supporting the claim.

Noam Chomsky has warned that people in the U.S. need to remain vigilant to keep America from drifting towards fascism.. Some link growing corporate power to fascism..

In several essays, David Neiwert has explored the rise of what he calls "pseudo-fascism." A pseudo fascist is anyone who prefers law and order to the enjoyment of violence and morality (norms) to revolution. He concedes that "American democracy has not yet reached the genuine stage of crisis required for full-blown fascism to take root" and thus "the current phenomenon cannot properly be labeled 'fascism.'" But he warns:

But what is so deeply disturbing about the current state of the conservative movement is that it has otherwise plainly adopted not only many of the cosmetic traits of fascism, its larger architecture -- derived from its core impulses -- now almost exactly replicates that by which fascists came to power in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s.
It is in this sense that I call it Pseudo Fascism. Unlike the genuine article, it presents itself under a normative, rather than a revolutionary, guise; and rather than openly exulting in violence, it pays lip service to law and order. Moreover, even in the areas where it resembles real fascism, the similarities are often more familial than exact. It is, in essence, less virulent and less violent, and thus more likely to gain broad acceptance within a longtime stable democratic system like that of the United States.
And even in the key areas of difference, it is not difficult to discern that those dissimilarities are gradually shrinking, and in danger of disappearing.
That this is happening should not be a great surprise. After all, as I've already explored in great detail, the mainstream conservative movement has increasingly had contact with the genuine American proto-fascists of the extremist right over the past decade or more, particularly in the trafficking of ideas, agendas and the memes that propel them.

Particular allegations against the Bush Administration

Cases made to support the contention that the US is currently Fascist or moving towards fascism, or sometimes merely that it is moving towards a police state, include:

  • Use of "administrative warrants" and other tools such as those in the Patriot Act which allow the administration to exercise police powers without judicial oversight.
  • The designation of "enemy combatants" by the administration and the use of courts like the Combatant Status Review Tribunal to bypass the normal rule of law.
  • The use of torture.
  • Claims by the administration that it needs more and more powers.
  • George W. Bush has recently admitted that he ordered domestic surveillance of US citizens without the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Courts as required by law. His Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice has stated that the President's authority to take this action is derived from his status as Commander in Chief. This argument is considered outlandish by many constitutional scholars. Several members of Congress are considering investigations into this matter, citing that FISA only gives the President authority to use these powers with court approval. (Such approval can be gained within hours from the FISA court, and can also be gained retroactively within 72 hours, which runs counter claims that the process is too slow.) (Domestic Spying Incident)
  • Connected to the FISA matter is the admission by The New York Times that they delayed reporting the information regarding domestic spying from the American public at the request of the Bush Administration. In the ninth paragraph of NYT article written by Risen and Lichtblau they state:

The White House asked The New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny. After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting. Some information that administration officials argued could be useful to terrorists has been omitted. (Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts}

  • Decreasing openness in government: significant increases in the amount of information deemed classified, the introduction of "unclassified but sensitive" information, "sneak and peek" searches and gag orders on search targets (allowed by the Patriot Act), etc.
  • Reports such as the Bush Administration paying journalists to promote the policies of the Administration. Also, self-censorship such as the sort practiced in open forums to prevent the spread of viewpoints that oppose the current administration may be considered evidence that the administration need not openly censor, but can rely on supporters to carry out the necessary censorship. (The Armstrong Williams incident) (The Balkans Website incident)
  • The widespread use of religious motivations as a justification for many laws and policies (such as Faith Based Initiatives), and opposition to certain legislation on religious grounds (such as gay marriage and stem cell research). However, some argue that these are simply moral views informed by religion, rather than actual legislation of religious doctrine.
  • Also the well-proven widespread use of religious rhetoric and symbolism in many speeches and appearances lend credibility to the allegation of religion being intertwined with Government. However, the use of religious rhetoric and symbolism has been present under many other governments; so the argument is one of degree rather than kind.
  • Allegations of fraudulent elections in both of the last presidential elections. See, for example, the sworn testimony of Mr. Clint Curtis, and other allegations of deceptive election processes in Ohio and other locations. Also the appearance of conflicts of interest: Mr. Ken Blackwell, Secretary of State of Ohio was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign in Ohio; and the president of Diebold, Inc., supplier of voting machines to Ohio, promised to "deliver Ohio for George W. Bush".
  • The "Bush v. Gore" ruling is often cited as further evidence of subversion of democratic processes. In this case five members of the Supreme Court voted to prevent a ballot recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court in the 2000 Presidential election. Two of those members (Thomas and Scalia) had the appearance of conflicts of interest due to close relatives working on the Bush campaign. The ruling itself has been widely attacked by legal scholars (including the dissenting four members of the Court) as containing very weak legal arguments. The recount was delayed by disruptive actions performed by Bush campaign workers, as discovered by the Wall Street Journal (referenced at ).
  • The "no-fly" list, under which a list of people are prohibited from flying on commercial airplanes. No reasons are ever given to these people for being put on this list, and there is no standard way to challenge your placement on it; furthermore, the contents of the list are kept secret. The list is currently controlled entirely by the executive branch with no Congressional or judicial oversight. Anecdote: James Moore, The co-author of a book critical of Bush ("Bush's Brain") found himself on the list. Senator Edward Kennedy found himself on the list, but managed to get himself removed fairly quickly.
  • Demonizing the political opposition, by baselessly accusing the political opposition of being traitors or supporting terrorism. A recent example is the claim by Senator Wayne Allard (R) that Senator Russ Feingold (D) "has time and time again taken on the side of the terrorists that we're dealing with in this conflict". Of course, he provided no evidence of this claim.
Rebuttal

Critics of these claims about the Bush Administration argue that they do not add up to fascism, and that repression, election fraud, secrecy, deception, torture, overblown attacks on political opponents, internment camps, and other such acts have all happened in both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past, and did not result in fascism. The rhetoric of the administration is still supportive of individual rights and the cultural climate is not receptive to proposals that argue that duty to the collective nation-state supercede them. Both Kerry and Bush found it necessary to oppose the draft during the 2004 campaign, and Kerry removed his proposals for mandatory public service for graduation from high school from his campaign. There has been near universal opposition on both the left and right to the taking of private property through eminent domain for private corporate use.

References

  1. AHD Editorial Board (1983). American Heritage Dictionary. Houghton Mifflin.
  2. Arendt, Hannah (1973). The Origins of Totalitarianism. Harvest Books. ISBN 0156701537.

External links for this section

Neofascism

List of organizations and movements

Organizations that also have been described as 'Neo-Fascist,' with varying degrees of justification, include the following.

See also

Academic surveys

  • The Beast Reawakens by Martin A. Lee, (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1997, ISBN 0316519596)
  • Fascism (Oxford Readers) by Roger Griffin (1995, ISBN 0192892495
  • Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918-1985 by Richard C. Thurlow (Olympic Marketing Corp, 1987, ISBN 0631136185)
  • Fascism Today: A World Survey by Angelo Del Boca (Pantheon Books, 1st American edition, 1969)
  • Free to Hate: The Rise of the Right in Post-Communist Eastern Europe by Paul Hockenos (Routledge; Reprint edition, 1994, ISBN 0415910587)
  • The Dark Side of Europe: The Extreme Right Today by Geoff Harris, (Edinburgh University Press; New edition, 1994, ISBN 0748604669)
  • The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe by Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (Longman Publishing Group; 2nd edition, 1995, ISBN 0582238811)
  • The Radical Right in Western Europe: A Comparative Analysis by Herbert Kitschelt (University of Michigan Press; Reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0472084410)
  • Shadows Over Europe: The Development and Impact of the Extreme Right in Western Europe edited by Martin Schain, Aristide Zolberg, and Patrick Hossay (Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition, 2002, ISBN 0312295936)

External links

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