Fighting Fascism and the Far-Right

To distract from the deep inequality and class exploitation innate under Capitalism, our system frequently relies on a stranger of divide-and-conquer. At its most desperate, the ruling classes will go beyond their usual racist scapegoating and resort to assistance from militarised fascists.

A specific definition of fascism as a movement distinct from typical Capitalistic oppression was first agreed upon at the Second Enlarged Plenum of the Third International; that of Clara Zetkin’s interpretation appearing in her book Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win. As the crisis of 20th Century capitalism deepened and fascism further cemented itself as a counter-revolutionary force, Marxist interpretations of it were hugely developed by Leon Trotsky, specifically in The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany and his various writings in Fascism: What it is and How to Fight it.

More contemporary writings on anti-fascist struggle include Geoff Brown’s A People’s History of the Anti Nazi League, Lewis Nielsen and Samira Ali’s A Radical Guide to Anti-Fascism, and Robert Paxton’s Anatomy of Fascism.