Reflections on Fascism & Frameworks of Collective Resistance by Souad Souilem | تأملات في الفاشية وأ طر المقاومة الجماعية

This article is available in both English and العربية (Arabic) below.

Fascism takes up a significant space in global political discourse, particularly in light of the current rise of the far-right and the growing influence of neo-fascist rhetoric across multiple spheres. While these discussions tend to focus primarily on how this phenomenon affects the imperial core, both history and the present demonstrate that the greatest victims of fascist policies are the colonized and the oppressed in the Global South and across the diaspora.

The debate around fascism in our contexts revives discussions on its similarities and differences with colonialism, whether it is a transient phenomenon bound to a specific context or intrinsically tied to a broader history of colonial repression, attacks on liberation movements, and the systematic debilitation of their capacity for action and resistance.

Toward a Revolutionary Definition of Fascism

Amid academic and political debates over defining fascism, attention is drawn to contemporary manifestations such as racialized, systemic violence against workers and migrants, used as a repressive tool of domination. Additionally, the systematic rollback of legal and constitutional gains by marginalized groups, alongside the escalation of right-wing policies aimed at dismantling rights and freedoms, reveals a growing authoritarian trend. Fascism is not only a political ideology or system of governance; at its core, it is a product of capitalism’s structural crises, functioning as a mechanism to defuse social and economic tensions while advancing the objectives of the dominant global system. From this perspective, fascism is organically linked to settler colonialism, plunder capitalism, and genocidal practices used to subjugate peoples and reshape societies in the service of these systems.

The close connection between fascism and colonialism in national liberation literature has produced sharp and crucial insights for redefining this ideology, which remains subject to debates over its precise classification and definition. Given that we are currently witnessing rhetoric and policies derived from this ideology in various parts of the world, we must broaden our historical perspective beyond the Eurocentric focus and develop a more comprehensive understanding of fascism as a political and economic process rooted in centuries of history. This perspective allows us to assert that, even long before the emergence of German and Italian fascism, its practices were deeply embedded in the colonial system. This point is elaborated upon by Aimé Césaire in his book Discourse on Colonialism (Césaire, 1972),  where he explains that long before becoming a victim of Nazi and fascist brutality, Europe had sanctioned similar horrors when they were inflicted upon colonized non-European people. Only when this scourge threatened European existence itself was it acknowledged; yet the discourse around fascism continued to frame it as something alien to Western civilization. Césaire refutes this claim by arguing that the swamp from which fascism emerged was already being prepared with the blood of Africans and colonized peoples.

Clara Zetkin’s definition of fascism as “a symptom of a deep crisis in capitalism, an expression of the decay and disintegration of the capitalist economy” (Zetkin, 1923) is highly significant in understanding the crisis surrounding the imperialist capitalist system today. It is also vital in understanding how fascism reconfigures its trajectory by suppressing revolutionary socialist visions. As a result, fascism may succeed in mobilizing its ranks because it becomes a refuge for those who are politically homeless.

Building on this perspective, George Jackson offers a definition of fascism that provides a sharp understanding of its contemporary manifestations. He argues that fascism is, at its core, “an economic rearrangement of the capitalist system” (Jackson, 1972) and “a living, moving force” (Jackson, 1972) that emerges wherever and whenever there is conflict or a threat to the system’s sustainability. While fascism’s primary function, according to Jackson, is to intervene in these conflicts in support of capitalism, how it does so varies across time, place, and circumstances.

This means that our analysis of fascism remains incomplete if we focus solely on its retreat and resurgence within the imperialist core. Instead, we must examine how fascism lives and moves everywhere, at all times, and how it is intertwined with nationalist, patriarchal, and neo-colonial projects in the Global South.

Chauvinistic Nationalism and Neo-Colonial Projects

The former colonies in Africa, Asia, South America, and Central America are battlegrounds between the popular will for sovereignty and the political systems left behind by colonialism, which have undermined the gains achieved through national liberation struggles. These regimes, which either took power through colonial appointment or military coups backed by imperialist forces, have remained obstacles to any revolutionary attempts to build progressive political systems. However, they have also contributed to the growth of neo-colonial structures (Nkrumah, 1965) that operate under ideologies safeguarding imperialist interests.

In his book Imperialism and Fascism in Uganda (Mamdani, 1983), Mahmood Mamdani argues that for the working-class masses of the Third World, neo-colonialism is equivalent to fascism. He asserts that fascism is neither a product of underdevelopment nor of advanced industrialization; rather, it is the result of an imperialist crisis. This crisis can manifest in either of the two poles that form the foundation of this system.

Within this framework, Mamdani explains that neo-colonial regimes tend to morph into fascist dictatorships, relying on economic and political structures established by colonialism, such as autocratic systems, economies dependent on resource plundering, and military rule designed to suppress internal dissent. These structures keep Global South nations in a state of dependency, making them easier for imperial powers to exploit.

Mamdani also analyzes how these regimes wield fascist ideology as a tool of demagoguery, framing exploitation as an ethnic or national struggle rather than acknowledging it as a class struggle, thereby keeping the masses under control. We see this strategy clearly in the way many regimes in the SWANA region employ nationalism to justify repression and legitimize their rule. These regimes are often backed by colonial powers that reinforce their nationalist rhetoric and promote chauvinistic nationalism to divert attention from the true adversary in the struggle.

Some models of these systems have been thoroughly examined in the mapping research published by Noor on fascisms and fundamentalisms in the SWANA region. (Wahba, 2024) The report highlights how fascisms and fundamentalisms manifest in the globalization of anti-immigrant sentiment and the rise of nationalist rhetoric. These regimes invest in fascist narratives that portray migrants as “invaders” threatening national identity and economic stability to justify campaigns of repression and violence.

The mapping reveals that regimes in the region exploit fear of the ‘other’ to legitimize their oppression, maintain dominance, and entrench “border imperialism” policies, now enforced through unmistakably fascist means. In countries like Morocco, Tunisia, and Libya, migrants are detained in secret prisons and subjected to enslavement, violence, and massacres, with funding support from the European Union’s migration policies.

Globalized Patriarchy and the Macho Right

The crisis of the imperialist capitalist system, which resorts to fascism to prevent its collapse, is also a crisis in which it bares its fangs, directly targeting liberation, feminist, and social justice movements. The aim is to shape collective consciousness and obstruct any genuine political action by dismantling and containing resistance movements.

In times of crisis, the system begins to shed its masks, creating space for fascist rhetoric and policies that target marginalized groups and strip away hard-won gains. It retreats from the treaties, agreements, and legal commitments it once championed in moments of stability. In the imperial core, right-wing and fascist actors weave these attacks into their political agendas, ensuring their effects fall most heavily on colonized populations, whether through violent immigration policies, support for Zionist genocidal war in Palestine, the suppression of resistance movements in the Global South, or economic sanctions and coercion against states that challenge U.S. hegemony.

The crisis that the imperialist capitalist system has been experiencing for the past two decades, paving the way for the rise of neo-fascism, has marked a break from capitalism’s deceptive rhetoric about gender equality, minority representation, environmental issues, and peace. We are now witnessing the gradual return of its true discourse on these matters, exposing its role in sustaining the very sources of oppression it claims to address.

What stands out, however, is the resurgence of fascism as both a trend and a policy within the global system, with explicit backing from capitalist elites dominating the tech sphere. Figures like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech moguls have emerged as key players, either as direct supporters of colonial fascism and its interests or as gatekeepers controlling its political liquidity through discourse, policies, and internet surveillance.

The concern here is understanding the role of tech corporations in globalizing fascist policies and narratives across the Global South. This happens through the construction of a right-wing, macho ideological roadmap, reinforcing dominance over bodies, sexualities, and gender expressions to serve the system’s interests and help it escape its crisis.

This is evident in the adoption of a unified discourse hostile to feminism(s), trans identities, and gender and racial minorities. This discourse brings together misogynists from different, often conflicting religious backgrounds, aligning them through ideological foundations that mirror fascist conceptions of society, relationships, gender, sexuality, race, and class.

The globalization of right-wing masculinity is deeply tied to the broader contemporary process of globalization itself, an extension of imperialism through the circulation of capital, values, products, policies, and technology. However, this phenomenon does not imply that the societies adopting or importing these narratives, especially in the Global South, were previously devoid of patriarchy or masculinity-driven hierarchies.

Instead, what this reveals is the emergence of new forms of patriarchal domination, blending traditional patriarchal values embedded in local cultures with modern, globalized expressions of male supremacy, misogyny, and hostility toward those who do not conform to heteronormative structures. These new forms not only rely on conventional masculine dominance but are reinforced by a global logic of hegemony and exploitation, reproducing patriarchy in more intricate and dangerous ways, fusing local and global hierarchies to construct a renewed patriarchal system.

This patriarchal model not only endangers women and gender-diverse people but also dismantles the potential for political resistance against colonial and capitalist projects in our societies. It fuels masculinity, individualism, and submission to colonial powers while promoting loyalty to their client regimes through nationalist chauvinism and hostility toward oppressed peoples.

And as imperialism bares its teeth, wielding nuclear bombs, drones, and deadly weapons, our peoples face an even greater threat through the unchecked flow of fascist ideology.

Imperialist Crises as an Opportunity for Resistance

The emergence of a new global fascist order does not signify the end of the world order but rather its evolution into a new phase. This is undoubtedly alarming, particularly as we see that this emergence is not confined to isolated rhetoric or a phenomenon affecting only the imperial core. Instead, it is a crisis that has manifested in blood and flesh, evident in the settler-colonial genocide perpetrated in Gaza; the investment in war and capitalist plunder in African nations such as the Congo and Sudan; and the support for client regimes that entrench colonial rule in Africa, such as Morocco’s role, on behalf of Europe and the U.S., in occupying Western Sahara.

As George Jackson taught us, fascism is the product of a deep crisis in the imperialist capitalist system. The colonized peoples and oppressed groups everywhere must refuse to be the fuel that sustains this crisis. Jackson left us with a vital revolutionary lesson: to put aside divisions, unite, understand the realities of our conditions, and recognize that fascism is already here, that people are dying now and must be saved, and that future generations will endure shattered and miserable lives if we fail to act.

In the spirit of George Jackson, we say that regardless of the context in which fascism grows, our understanding of it as colonized people stems from the reality that it is a colonial product threatening our existence and deployed against us. We have a revolutionary responsibility: to educate ourselves about our enemy, to establish a shared political understanding of what it takes to achieve victory, and to organize ourselves to make that victory a reality.

List of resources

Césaire, A., 1972. Discourse on colonialism. Translated from French by J. Pinkham. New York and London: Monthly Review Press. Originally published in 1955 as Discours sur le colonialisme by Éditions Présence Africaine. Available at: https://www.criticalsecret.net/IMG/pdf/_discourse_on_colonialism.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].

Jackson, G., 1972. Blood in my eye. [online] Available at: https://redyouthnwa.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/george_l-_jackson_blood_in_my_eyebook4you-org.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].

Mamdani, M., 1983. Imperialism and fascism in Uganda. London: Heinemann Educational Books. Available at: https://files.libcom.org/files/ZZ_Mahmood%20Mamdani-Imperialism%20and%20Fascism%20in%20Uganda-Heinemann%20Educational%20Books%20(1983).pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].

Nkrumah, K., 1965. Neo-colonialism: The last stage of imperialism. [online] Available at: https://www.marxists.org/ebooks/nkrumah/nkrumah-neocolonialism.pdf [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].

Wahba, N., 2024. Roots of hate: Fascist and fundamentalist narratives & actors in South-West Asia and North Africa. [online] Noor. Available at: https://wearenoor.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Roots-of-Hate-SWANA-EN-4.pdf [Accessed 16 Apr. 2025].

Zetkin, C., 1923. The struggle against fascism. [online] Marxists Internet Archive. Available at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/zetkin/1923/06/struggle-against-fascism.html [Accessed 15 Apr. 2025].