Fernando Alcoforado*
The objective of this article is to present the causes of the advance of neofascism in the world and to point out what can be done to stop the conquest of power at all levels by neofascism in Brazil. The capitalist system, especially in periods of deep crisis, has produced in the past the phenomenon of fascism adopted in the 1920s in Italy, in the 1930s in Germany and in several countries during the first half of the 20th century, which 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 stood above ordinary men. Mussolini was known in fascist Italy as Il Duce, which derives from the Latin Dux (General) and Hitler in Nazi Germany as Fuehrer (Conductor, Guide, Leader, Chief). Both were messianic and authoritarian leaders, with power that was exercised unilaterally without consulting anyone. The rise of fascism in Italy in 1922, just like that of Adolf Hitler’s Nazism in Germany in 1933, was only possible with the collaboration and financial support of large capitalist corporations.
The capitalist system, especially in periods of deep crisis, is producing in the contemporary era the phenomenon of neo-fascism, which is a manifestation of so-called “right-wing extremism”, which is a collective term for fascist, neo-Nazi or ultra-nationalist ideologies and political activities adapted to the contemporary era. Neofascism generally includes ultranationalism, racial supremacy, populism, authoritarianism, nativism, xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment, as well as opposition to liberal democracy, parliamentarism, liberalism, Marxism, communism and socialism. In the 21st century, the economic crisis of the world capitalist system that erupted 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 far-right political parties in several countries in the region.
The rise of far-right parties is taking place in much of Europe. With Nazi-fascist or nationalist leanings, most of these parties advocate 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 bailout of countries in crisis, are against gay rights, abortion, liberalism and globalization, and combat what they call Islamization. The main reasons for the rise of far-right parties in Europe are the decline of the welfare state, which constituted a kind of common European identity after World War II, the current financial crisis of European governments, the existence of more than 13 million unemployed people in the European Union, the resentment and distrust of the population in politicians combined with the desire for political, economic and social change.
What is striking is the growing support of young Europeans for neo-fascist nationalist movements, mainly through the internet. Young people are increasingly critical of their governments and the European Union, concerned about the future (employment and education), cultural identity and Islamic influence in Europe. Paul Krugman states that worse things are already happening, such as the rise of the far right in Austria, Finland, Hungary and in 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 neo-fascism and dictatorships in Europe to contain the social revolts that are multiplying in the same way that happened after the Great Depression of 1929, which created the conditions for the advent of Nazism and exceptional 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 what 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].
According to Robert 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 facing an insurmountable economic crisis like the current one, with the threat of the end of the American way of life and the loss of its global hegemony to China. According to Paxton, fascism only grows in the troubled soil of a mature democracy in crisis, such as the United States. This fascist vision has been fully embraced by the Republican Party. At this stage, it is openly racist, sexist, repressive, exclusionary and permanently addicted to the politics of fear and hate, as happened during the George W. Bush administration and which was deepened under the Donald Trump administration. The rise of fascism under Donald Trump in the United States resulted, fundamentally, from its economic decline and the loss of its hegemony on the world stage to China in a very short period of time.
In his book Capitalism, Hegemony and Violence in the Age of Drones, published by Springer Nature in 2018, Norman Pollack argues that “fascism in the United States, at any stage of its gestation, is advancing 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 world wars. Fascism is a general social state. Pollack argues that fascism does not require concentration camps, persecution, or torture, although their threat and potential are always present. Instead, fascism can be understood through several indices, such as extreme concentration of wealth, the co-partnership between business and government, as a structural interpenetration of powerful institutions that promote monopoly capital, restrict union organizing and labor activism, and create a strong state based on military power and commercial supremacy, while also encouraging a complacent mass base, submissive to power and wealth, tied in ideological knots through false consciousness and intimidation, intellectually broken through media, propaganda and signals from above.
According to Michael Löwy, neo-fascism is not a repetition of the fascism of the 1930s. It is a new phenomenon, with characteristics of the 21st century. For example, it does not take the form of a police dictatorship, but respects some democratic forms such as elections, party pluralism, freedom of the press, the existence of a Parliament, etc. Naturally, it tries, as far as possible, to limit these democratic freedoms as much as possible, with authoritarian and repressive measures. Nor does it rely on armed shock troops, as were the German SA or the Italian Fascio. This is the case of the various paramilitary groups of a neo-fascist nature that support Donald Trump in the United States and the militia groups that gravitate around Bolsonaro and his sons in Brazil. The most important difference between the 1930s and today is in the economic sphere, because neofascist governments are developing a typically neoliberal economic policy, far from the nationalist-corporatist model of classical fascism [LÖWY, Michael. O avanço do fascismo no mundo e no Brasil (The Advance of Fascism in the World and in Brazil). Available on the website <https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/o-avanco-do-fascismo-no-mundo-e-no-brasil/72913>, 2021].
The advance of neofascism in Brazil was driven by the strong idea of creating an enemy responsible for all of the country’s problems. In Brazil, left-wing political forces and the PT (Party of Workers) were blamed for the country’s corruption problems, which were fundamental to Bolsonaro’s victory in the 2018 presidential elections. Bolsonaro’s great appeal to the general public was related to his hatred of traditional politicians and corruption. Bolsonaro’s speech in the 2018 and 2022 elections not only gave voice to the population’s political dissatisfaction, but, above all, to internalized hatreds. There is a great deal of class hatred in Brazil, hatred against communists and the PT, gender hatred as well, as hatred against LGBT people. Bolsonaro managed to bring together several of these hatreds in the 2018 and 2022 elections. The political objective of neo-fascists in Brazil continues to be the conquest of total power by controlling the Legislative and Judiciary branches, as well as the Presidency of the Republic and, if necessary, closing the first two to implement their neo-fascist government project.
In the contemporary era of neoliberal economic and financial globalization, however, the most nefarious of all fascisms emerges, neofascism, which encompasses the entire planet and aims to defend the interests of the dominant neoliberal world capitalist system, which is defined by the omnipresence of its mercantile ideology that simultaneously occupies all space and all sectors of life. This ideology has 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 it worships is money. The omnipresence of the neoliberal neofascist ideology is manifested in the cult of money, in the single party disguised as parliamentary pluralism, in the absence of a visible opposition, and in the repression of all forms against the will to transform man and the world. This is the true face of modern fascism, which must be called by its true name: the neo-fascist totalitarian world capitalist system. The totalitarian world capitalist system has achieved what no totalitarianism has managed to do before: to unify the world in its image. Today, exile is no longer possible.
The realization that neo-fascist groups and dissatisfied sectors of Brazilian society may once again threaten Brazilian democracy currently requires all democrats in Brazil to join forces to prevent new coup d’état attempts by strengthening democracy. To achieve this goal, it is necessary that, first of all, the PGR – Attorney General’s Office of the Republic initiate criminal proceedings by presenting the accusation against the mentors and financiers of the neo-fascist coup d’état attempt of January 8, 2023, and that the Supreme Federal Court deliberate as quickly as possible on the sentences to be served by them. To prevent the end of the democratic system in Brazil with the rise to power of neo-fascism at all levels of government, it is also necessary to form a broad democratic and anti-fascist front in Parliament and in Civil Society to defend the 1988 Constitution and fight against the acts of political forces opposing the democratic system that are contrary to the interests of the vast majority of the population and democracy in Brazil.
This broad democratic and anti-fascist front must be used to block the advance of neo-fascism in Brazil by promoting an alliance with political forces from the democratic center and mobilizing organized civil society to elect in 2024 future mayors, governors and members of parliament at all levels who are committed to the political, economic, social and environmental progress of Brazil, paving the way for electing a progressive president of the Republic in 2026, electing the majority of state governors and obtaining a parliamentary majority in the National Congress who are committed to political, economic and social advances in Brazil. These are the conditions to prevent neo-fascist right-wing extremists from regaining the Presidency of the Republic in 2026, expanding their participation in state governments and the National Congress and putting into practice their nefarious neo-fascist, anti-social and anti-national project, to the detriment of the Brazilian population.
* Fernando Alcoforado, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science, IPB- Polytechnic Institute of Bahia and of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer from the UFBA Polytechnic School and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, college professor (Engineering, Economy and Administration) and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center, Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is the 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), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019), A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021), A escalada da ciência e da tecnologia e sua contribuição ao progresso e à sobrevivência da humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2022), a chapter in the book Flood Handbook (CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida United States, 2022), How to protect human beings from threats to their existence and avoid the extinction of humanity (Generis Publishing, Europe, Republic of Moldova, Chișinău, 2023), A revolução da educação necessária ao Brasil na era contemporânea (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2023), Como construir um mundo de paz, progresso e felicidade para toda a humanidade (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2024) and How to build a world of peace, progress and happiness for all humanity (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2024).
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