What do you find when you apply Dimitrov’s definition of fascism as being “the power of finance capital itself” to the conditions of today’s United States? When you look for which forces in our society truly embody that description of the highest levels of capital waging war to maintain the existing social system? You find that the main fascist threat doesn’t come from the insurgent political forces within the elements that are most to the “right.” It comes from the forces that are vastly more wealthy and powerful than those ones, as they represent the biggest industries fused with the power of finance.
These are the types of capitalists who are so high up, their best interests are in sabotaging the industrial capacities of farming, restaurant chains, and the other parts of the lower levels of capital. As their livelihood isn’t dependent on production, it’s dependent on finance; on speculation and monetary manipulation of such a huge scale, they’re operating within an entirely different realm than most other capitalists. And with the shift towards most Americans sharing socially progressive views, this part of the ruling class has come to be more invested than ever in utilizing the left wing. In carrying out a color revolution from within our society which is designed to sabotage revolutionary struggle, replacing the authentic communist movement with “communist” forces that the elites manage.
This continues to be true amid the political reorientation that “Israel” has brought. Now that Zionism has come under unprecedented narrative threat, the elites are working on a controlled anti-woke backlash, where rightists who work for the highest-level capitalists are advancing a “dissident” politics that’s compatible with Zionism. It’s two different color revolutions being made to battle against each other, so that the people can stay divided and any genuine threats keep being forced to the margins. It’s become crucial for the elites to divert potentially dissident libertarians away from coming to prioritize anti-imperialism, and it’s become even more important for them to keep the left captured by liberalism. The risk of revolutionary developments get higher as our class conflict escalates, so the efforts behind these color revolutions get more intense as time goes on.
The backlash to big pharma that the pandemic has provoked, along with the resistance towards NATO that the Ukraine proxy war has provoked, have both shown how much of an overlap there is between the interests of many on the “left” and the “right.” We’ve seen people from across the ideological spectrum resist the pharma monopolists, with MAGA supporters and libertarians ironically taking the same stance on vaccines that the Communist Party of China has advanced: vaccines shouldn’t be mandated, as the people can be trusted with their own bodies. We’ve also seen libertarians and communists enter into an antiwar coalition in response to Ukraine, to the collective fury of liberals and radical liberals.
These counter-hegemonic efforts can’t be defeated simply through media smears, as most people aren’t obstinate liberals who uncritically trust in our ruling institutions. So the narrative managers are working to turn potential members of the emerging anti-monopoly coalition into enemies of it. To manipulate the libertarians, they’re having Milei and Musk make anti-communist statements that get boosted by the algorithms. To manipulate the Marxists, they’re having the established left orgs repeat the liberal media’s smears against the communists who are building a diverse anti-monopoly coalition.
How can Marxists resist these psyops? By recognizing fascism for what it truly is: a practice wherein monopoly finance capital fights for the survival of production-for-profit. Which means that in today’s USA, the primary fascist forces aren’t to be found on the “right,” but on the “left.” It’s in the radical liberal counter-gangs where we now see the most serious physical threats towards communists and anti-imperialists, because radlibs are culturally palatable in a way that the far right isn’t. If the state were to use the right as its ideological tool for terrorizing communists, the state would be discredited. Instead, it seeks to use violent proxy forces which operate under the guise of “anti-fascism.”
Through realizing this, we can also see that many of the people who the synthetic left has recently been calling fascists actually have potential for being allies of anti-fascism. They’ve been acting antagonistic towards big pharma, the war machine, the intelligence agencies, and monopoly finance capital’s other wings. Which ironically places them closer towards an anti-fascist orientation than the “anti-fascists” who demonize them.
The only reason why the organized left hasn’t already gotten many of these dissident-minded individuals on its side is because the organized left has refused to do so. An authentic socialist movement would be seeking out revolutionary potential wherever it can be found, and working to nurture the people’s growing anti-imperialist impulses. The eagerness of these elements to resist big pharma could be given a deeper revolutionary character; we could further the class consciousness behind their efforts, and rally the same people protesting for medical liberty towards also protesting against U.S. wars. That’s what would truly endanger fascism: an anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly coalition which is a true coalition, and isn’t confined to exclusionary “leftist” circles.
I advocate for this practice not because I believe the MAGA or libertarian bases are the only elements with revolutionary potential, but because overcoming the divisions among monopoly capital’s enemies is how we can render the internal color revolutions ineffectual. If we model our Marxism off of the “left” wing of the ruling class ideology, and join with the liberal elites in acting like the lower levels of capital are where the fascist threat comes from, we’ll fail to win the masses or gain sufficient momentum. The narratives about a looming fascist takeover by the conservative insurgents, or about a coming civil war which will be initiated by that element, are distractions designed to hinder the class struggle. If you’re a Marxist, the elites want you to believe that the main thing you need to focus on is fighting MAGA, like how if you’re a libertarian the main thing they want you to focus on is fighting communism.
The reality is that what we call “MAGA” has at this point been fully transformed into another tool for advancing liberal Atlanticism. When Trump recently abandoned his posturing against the Ukraine conflict, and said he’ll make the European countries match the USA’s funding for Ukraine, it confirmed that his 2024 campaign is going to be a pivot from his previous populist way of operating. He’s not going to lead a fascist revolution, both because he’s not a genuine threat to the establishment and because the establishment is itself fascist. There’s no need to insert fascism into our system of government from the outside, as fascism is already embraced by our most powerful institutions. The pro-Ukraine position, which finance capital had to pressure Trump into taking, is itself one of the major pro-fascist positions of our time.
Trump’s outwardly embracing the agenda of the monopolist institutions, after building a movement based off of anger towards them, means there’s come to be a vacuum in counter-hegemonic politics. MAGA is no longer focused on rallying the conservative side of the anti-establishment elements, meaning MAGA is now effectively dead. Communists, and those allied with communists in their goal of defeating the ultra-monopolists, have an opportunity to fill the hole which MAGA has left. Let’s build upon the gains that this cause has seen throughout these last several years.
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