Fernando Alcoforado*
In the twentieth century, the crises of capitalism have always resulted in social revolutions aimed at overthrowing the capitalist system as occurred in Russia in 1917 with the implantation of the socialist system or in counter-revolution with the implantation of fascist dictatorships as occurred in Italy with Mussolini and Nazifascists as occurred in Germany with Hitler. The humiliation imposed on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles after the First World War also contributed to the advance of Nazi-fascism in Germany. Fascism and Nazism were based on strongly nationalist conceptions and on the totalitarian exercise of power, therefore against the democratic and liberal system, and repressive in the face of social democratic, socialist and communist ideas.
The fascism implanted in several countries during the 1920s and 1930s of the 20th century was based on a strong, totalitarian state that claimed to embody the spirit of the people, in the exercise of power by a single party whose authority was imposed through violence, repression and political propaganda. The fascist leader is a figure who was above ordinary men. Mussolini was called Il Duce, which derives from the Latin Dux (General) and Hitler de Fuehrer (Conductor, Guide, Leader, Chief). Both were messianic and authoritarian leaders, with a power that was exercised unilaterally without consultation with anyone.
Mussolini and his fascist government adopted economic policy based on laissez-faire, through the coordination of a liberal finance minister, Alberto De Stefani. His administration reduced taxes, regulations, trade restrictions and sought to promote greater competitiveness among companies. In addition, the rise of Fascism in 1922 like that of Nazism by Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933 was only possible with the collaboration and financial support of large corporations. In Germany, Hitler had the support of the still powerful today: BMW, Fiat, IG Farben (Bayer), Volkswagen, Siemens, IBM, Chase Manhattan Bank, Allianz, and other media groups, which financed these regimes with the aim of stopping the advance of Soviet socialism in Europe.
Neoclassical liberals, such as Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises, who gave rise to the ideological current that has become hegemonic today, neoliberalism, also defended fascism and its Nazi variant as political projects necessary to maintain the capitalist order. This is what can be seen in this statement by Friedrich Hayek about his impression of Nazism: “Hitler did not have to destroy democracy; he limited himself to taking advantage of his decay and at the critical moment he obtained the support of many who, although they detested him, considered him the only man strong enough to set things in motion” (HAYEK, Friedrich. O caminho da servidão (The path of serfdom). 5. ed. Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Liberal, 1990]. Contrary to what Hayek said, Hitler destroyed democracy in Germany. Ludwig von Mises said: “The actions of fascists and other parties that corresponded to him were emotional reactions, evoked by indignation at the actions perpetrated by the Bolsheviks and Communists. (…) Against the weapons of the Bolsheviks, the same weapons should be used in retaliation, and it would be a mistake to show weakness in the face of the murderers. Never a liberal did question this” [VON MISES, Ludwig. Liberalismo – Segundo a Tradição Clássica (Liberalism – According to Classical Tradition). São Paulo: Instituto Ludwig von Mises Brasil, 2010].
In the 21st century, the economic crisis of the world capitalist system that broke out in 2008 in the United States led the European Union to economic stagnation with serious political and social consequences. This crisis gave rise to the strengthening of extreme right political parties in several countries. The rise of far-right parties is taking place in much of Europe. With Nazifascist or nationalist inclinations, most of these parties defend the end of the European Union, the end of the Euro, the strengthening of the unity and identity of countries, more radical policies against immigrants, criticize the financial rescue of countries in crisis, are against rights of homosexuals, abortion, liberalism and globalization, and fight what they call Islamization [CUNHA, Carolina. Extrema direita: Eleições no Parlamento Europeu refletem avanço do conservadorismo (Far right: Elections in the European Parliament reflect advances in conservatism). Published on the website <http://vestibular.uol.com.br/resumo-das-disciplinas/atualidades/extrema-direita-na-europa-resultado-das-eleicoes-no-parlamento-europeu-reflete-avanco-do-conservadorismo.htm>, 2014].
The main reasons for the rise of the extreme right parties in Europe would be the decline in the welfare state, which constituted a kind of common European identity after the Second World War, the current financial crisis, the existence of more than 18.2 million of unemployed people on the continent, the resentment and disbelief of the population in politicians coupled with the desire for change. What draws attention is the growing adhesion of young Europeans to nationalist movements, mainly through the internet. Young people are increasingly critical of their leaders and the European Union, concerned about the future (employment and education), cultural identity and Islamic influence in Europe.
Krugman says worse things are already happening like the rise of the far right in Austria, Finland, Hungary and the poor countries of Central and Eastern Europe where democratic institutions are being undermined. All this means, in practice, the possibility of the rise of fascism and dictatorships in Europe to contain the social uprisings that are multiplying in the same way that happened after the great depression of 1929 that created the conditions for the advent of Nazism and exception regimes in various parts of the world [KRUGMAN, Paul. É hora de começar a chamar a atual situação de crises como ela é: uma depressão (It is time to start calling the current crisis situation as it is: a depression). Published on the website <http://noticias.uol.com.br/blogs-colunas/colunas-do-new-york-times/paul-krugman/2011/12/13/e-hora-de-comecar-a-chamar-a-atual-situacao-de-crises-como-ela-e-uma-depressao.jhtm>, 2011].
In the United States, the Tea Party, a faction of the Republican Party, operates on an “anti-Semitic, racist and reactionary” platform. The Tea Party’s real banner is related to nationalism and race. The Tea Party is already running a multimillion-dollar network made up of large companies, non-party organizations and political committees. In September 2009, Viomundo published a post by Sara Robinson, in which she warned of the rise of fascism in the United States. Robinson identified, based on the work of the historian Robert Paxton (The anatomy of fascism. New York: Vintage Books, 2005), at what stage American fascism was in, and reached the disturbing conclusion that, once the alliance between a capitalist elite and a far-right “shock troop” consolidated, nothing could stop a fascist rise and its coming to power [PEGINO, Paulo Ferraresi. Tea Party – ascensão do fascismo nos EUA (e o Brasil?) (Tea Party – rise of fascism in the USA (and Brazil?)). Published on the website <http://www.advivo.com.br/blog/paulo-ferraresi-pegino/tea-party-ascensao-do-fascismo-nos-eua-e-o-brasil>, 2010].
According to Paxton, fascism emerges in search of some kind of nationalist renewal (PAXTON, Robert. The anatomy of fascism. New York: Vintage Books, 2005). This is the case of the United States in the face of an insurmountable economic crisis such as the current one, the compromise of the American way of life and the loss of its global hegemony to China. According to Paxton, fascism only grows on the shaky ground of a mature democracy in crisis, as is the case in the United States. This view was fully embraced by the Republican Party, which now defines itself in this line. At this stage, he is openly racist, sexist, repressive, exclusionary and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and hatred, as he did during the George W. Bush administration and which is being deepened in the Donald Trump administration. The rise of fascism under the command of Donald Trump in the United States resulted, fundamentally, from his economic decline and the loss of his hegemony on the world stage in a very short time.
In the book Capitalism, Hegemony and Violence in the Age of Drones, published by Springer Nature in 2018, Norman Pollack, who was professor emeritus of history at Michigan State University, states that “fascism in the United States, at any gestational stage, it advances against the people. ”In Pollack’s view, fascism is more than a historically temporary political arrangement, as in Germany, Italy, Japan and other countries between the two great world wars. Fascism is a general social state. Pollack says that fascism does not require concentration camp, persecution or torture, although its threat and potential will always remain present. Instead, fascism can be apprehended through various indices such as, for example, extreme concentration of wealth, co-partnership between business and governments, as a structural interpenetration of powerful institutions that promote the monopolist capital, restricts union organization and labor militancy and creates a strong state, based on military power and commercial supremacy; also encouraging a complacent mass base, submissive to power and wealth, tied to ideological knots through false conscience and intimidation, intellectually broken through media, propaganda and signs from above.
Fascism was leveraged in the United States with the Bush administration and maintained by the Obama administration when the violation of communication secrecy and intrusive surveillance in people’s lives became widespread; each library was obliged to inform the FBI of the list of books requested, a rule that applies even to universities; and a list of internal enemies was created, which, for example, cannot travel by air, and which today brings together tens of thousands of names (around 100,000 are spoken), a good number of university dissidents, pacifists, etc. Lists like these are typical of totalitarian regimes. Gradually the siege is closed to journalists, teachers, pastors, activists and dozens of others. In practice, the universal right of habeas corpus was extinguished.
The attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon carried out by Saudi fighters commanded by Osama bin Laden on 9/11/2001, was the necessary event (equivalent to the fire of the German Reichstag in Hitler’s Germany to leverage Nazism) for the devices to fascists took action in the United States during the George W. Bush administration. For internal use, a law with hundreds of articles had already been drafted, the Patriot Act, with almost unanimous approval from Congress, which abolished the country’s main democratic achievements. Among other measures, an internal security structure, the Department of Homeland Security, was created in addition to the already abundant repression apparatus, for the repression of terrorists and internal threats to order, with a 2008 budget of 52 billion dollars.
In the perspective of the Patriot Act, a march for peace is terrorist, since the country is at war with terror and even a demonstration that disrupts traffic can be classified as a serious disturbance of the order. Government forces are authorized to arrest anyone, anywhere in the world (CIA and military) and also in the country, without any justification, to keep them imprisoned without communication with family members or lawyers and without charge for an indefinite period, and to move them it to any of its prisons, known or secret, in various countries, or even some prison ships, all of these places where torture and murder with absolute impunity, as has been documented in the prisons of the Baghram base in Afghanistan , Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and the infamous maximum security prison at Guantánamo, on the eastern tip of Cuba. It is a set of fascist dispositions that make Hitler’s terror apparatus envious.
This whole situation of espionage of the population and the government of several countries by the American government shows one of the facets of the advance of fascism in the United States. George W. Bush’s rise to power made it possible for a cluster of high-ranking politicians and military personnel, professional analysts and strategists, representatives of big finance and the “military-industrial complex” to get involved in big government decisions after the World Trade Center attack. The circle of right-wing intellectuals gathered under the label neoconservatives or “neocons”, always present in the country’s history, quickly consolidated and began to dictate the policies of the American government with the rise to power of George W. Bush.
One of the characteristics of the “neocons” is the disregard for laws and practices already consolidated and consecrated among countries and organizations. In foreign policy, a new doctrine has replaced the old concepts of peoples’ self-determination, non-aggression, respect for international law and UN authority, etc. with the creation of pseudo-legal monsters such as the “preventive wars” proposal, aggression against countries against the decisions of the UN Security Council and against powers that threatened or even remotely threatened the hegemony of the United States in the world, whose dominant circles they are in charge of framing like friends and enemies according to their interests. Another characteristic of the discourse and practice of the “neocons” members of the United States government is the fabrication of the false truth based on lessons, omissions and lies. This was the way found to base the decision to invade Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
Fascism is reinforced in the United States with Donald Trump who said he is the voice “of those who work hard while no one speaks for them” victims of a “manipulated system” that benefit only “elites”. Trump introduced himself as the “people’s champion”, the only one capable of changing everything. The rise of fascism under the command of Donald Trump in the United States resulted, fundamentally, from his economic decline and the loss of his hegemony on the world stage in a very short time. All world relations in the United States have changed profoundly in recent times, being obliged to share power on a global scale with other countries. The era when the United States sought to impose its will on the international scene in the economic and military spheres is over. This is what happened after the Barack Obama administration. The general crisis of the world capitalist system is accelerating long-term geopolitical change, heralding the decline of American power. Donald Trump represents a reaction to reverse this trend. Its performance is leading, in practice, to the consolidation of fascism in the United States.
In the contemporary era of economic and financial globalization, the most ominous of all fascisms arises, which encompasses the entire planet. The new fascism aims to defend the interests of the dominant neoliberal world capitalist system, which is defined by the omnipresence of its mercantile ideology that occupies all the space and all sectors of life at the same time. This ideology reduced all human relations to mercantile relations and considers our planet as a simple commodity. The only right that the neoliberal world capitalist system recognizes is the right to private property. The only god he worships is money. The omnipresence of neo-fascist neoliberal ideology is manifested in the cult of money, in the single party disguised as parliamentary pluralism, in the absence of visible opposition and in repression in all forms against the will to transform man and the world. This is the true face of modern fascism that needs to be called by its true name: totalitarian world capitalist system. The totalitarian capitalist system has accomplished what no totalitarianism has managed to do before: to unify the world in its image. Today there is no longer possible exile.
In today’s Brazil, the totalitarian world capitalist system is represented by the neo-fascist government of Jair Bolsonaro, which manifests itself with its neoliberal economic policies and the repression against social movements. In the escalation of fascism in Brazil, an alliance was made between the conservative elite and the fascists which was consummated with the support of the conservative elite to the candidate Jair Bolsonaro for the Presidency of the Republic who has a typically fascist government proposal because his speech is based on the cult explicit order, state violence, authoritarian government practices, social contempt for vulnerable and fragile groups and anti-communism. The conservative elite and fascists took control of the country with the victory of Jair Bolsonaro in the October 2018 elections.
In this context of bleak perspectives, it is urgent to attack the evil of barbarism at the root with the construction of a new world order to replace the dominant capitalist order that generates the attacks on Civilization in all quarters of the Earth. The barbarism represented by neo-fascism needs to be faced by humanity. The living forces defending of Civilization need to come together across the planet to oppose the forces of Barbarism. Humanity’s future depends on the outcome of this confrontation.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 80, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).
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