It is generally accepted that fascism is a radical, ultra right-wing ideology, but what is often forgotten is that Benito Mussolini, regarded as the founder of the creed, started his political career as a left-wing radical. And his father Alessandro was a dyed-in-the-wool socialist.
Mussolini was one of the leading lights of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) when he was expelled from the party for agitating for military intervention in World War 1. The party had decided to adopt a neutral stance. After the war, in which he was wounded, he led his fascists’ takeover of power in 1922, following a reign of terror by the Blackshirts. He stayed in power for over two decades, and became an inspiration to the likes of Adolf Hitler. Nazism was a form of fascism. And racism was a crucial feature of German fascism; for it was because of their race, not their religious beliefs, that Jews were sent to the gas chambers.
During WW2, Mussolini’s Italy was of course to become part of the Axis powers with Nazi Germany and imperial Japan — the nations that fought against the Allies.
As the Allies were closing in on victory, Mussolini was captured and executed by communist partisans on April 28 1945. Two days later, on April 30 1945, Hitler committed suicide. The game was up, and Nazi Germany surrendered. Fascism was at last defeated.
But of course fascism as an ideology cannot be wiped off the face of the earth. Only its manifestations can be curbed or conquered. But it continues to emerge in different guises and in different countries. Although fascism is identified as a right-wing ideology, there’s no doubt that the Left has contributed to its origin. Mussolini himself, however, was unconcerned about whether fascism was located on the right or left of the political spectrum. “We don’t give a damn about these empty terminologies and we despise those who are terrorised by these words”, he said. But just as Mussolini, who founded fascism, is a child of the Left, so is Nazism. The Nazi Party is short for the National Socialist German Workers’ Party; its precursor was the German Workers’ Party. The intention was to attract workers from left-wing parties. Nazism is short for National Socialism, which became opposed to — and hostile to — international socialism or any other creed of the Left.
Robert Paxton in The Anatomy of Fascism (2004) describes fascism as “a form of political behaviour marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants … abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion”. Quite a mouthful.
There are as many definitions of fascism as there are experts on the subject, but a few characteristics stand out: intolerance, racism (including anti-Semitism), chauvinism, misogyny, militarism, a predilection for violence, with a cult of charismatic leadership which often demands blind and unquestioned loyalty.
The EFF exhibits almost all these traits in its behaviour. The organisation is obviously not yet in power and it is therefore impossible to know how it would behave if it were to hold the levers of power. But on current evidence, the signs aren’t very good. It is aggressively intolerant towards those who disagree with it both within and outside the party. It has a fondness for military fatigues and titles (commander-in-chief, ground forces, etcetera) for people who’ve never seen any action. Even its language is full of violent rhetoric. There’s no attempt to reason or to persuade the other side through logic.
The abuse of women, especially women journalists who’ve written anything even slightly critical of the party, has been one of the standout features of their behaviour. It betrays their stated belief in gender equality. What is sad is that even the women in their midst seem to go along with such misogynistic tendencies.
The abuse of women, especially women journalists who’ve written anything even slightly critical of the party, has been one of the standout features of their behaviour.
— Barney Mthombothi
But what has been so vile has been the party’s resort to racism. Given this country’s history, that should not be the place we should be going back to. But we chuckle or look the other way when Julius Malema announces, almost gleefully, that he would “cut the throat of whiteness”. The EFF’s moronic pursuit of Pravin Gordhan is driven by the fact that he stemmed the millions that were flowing to them both in Limpopo and at Sars. But he’s being pursued because he’s of Indian extraction. The fact that he’s South African and has a stellar record in the struggle cuts no ice.
The EFF’s attempt to stop Gordhan from delivering his budget last week points to another characteristic of fascists — their total contempt for democratic or parliamentary protocol. To them parliament is just a means towards an end, which is totalitarianism. They’ve poisoned the political discourse in this country and the fact that they’ve increased their parliamentary representation will only encourage them to do more of the same.
It would be an exaggeration to equate the EFF with either Hitler or Mussolini. They’re not in that league at all. But the signs are worrying. There’s no telling what they could do were they to ultimately get hold of the levers of power.
Unfortunately, currently there seems to be a vacuum at the centre of political power. President Cyril Ramaphosa is slinking somewhere in the corner; and Malema and his bunch of snot-nosed fascists have noisily slotted into the void.
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