Today marks the 89th anniversary of the Cable Street riots, when the British Union of Fascists was defeated by a coalition of anti-fascists; Communists, anarchists, and left-leaning liberals. I am honored to be representing the Atlantic Regional Communists as we look toward building the relationships necessary to win the fight against fascism. We are a Marxist–Leninist group united by a shared understanding of the world and a steadfast opposition to capitalism, fascism, imperialism, and colonialism. Communists fully oppose expressions of bigotry including anti-Indigeneity, transphobia, and chauvinism—particularly settler-chauvinism.
We live in a time where once again we see fascist activist cells popping up crying over the “soul of the nation”, directing their attacks toward the most oppressed in society. But most fascists today don’t call themselves “fascists”. Many don’t even call themselves “nationalists”. So what makes a fascist?
There are many (sometimes competing) definitions, but everyone agrees about Germany and Italy. Studying what they stood for shows us the real core of fascism. When not in power, fascists create a false revolutionary movement full of bombastic phrases, calls to unite behind a vague notion of nation, fearmongering against enemies both within and without, and a return to a more “righteous” past. Sometimes they even depict themselves as against capitalism, claiming this or that demographic are at the controls and must be wiped out to return to some semblance of order in the form of a “new” society. However, when they are in power, they simply reinforce capitalism.
This is the essence of fascism: a rearrangement and restructuring of capitalism, and fascists will create and exploit social conflicts to meet that goal. The “new” order is the same as the old order. German and Italian fascists understood this quite well as they worked closely with large capitalists and leftover aristocrats to maintain control! Their goal was to ensure capitalist society endured the stress of its own problems by building collaboration across classes; workers, peasants, small and large capitalists all working toward one goal: profit. This is the reality behind all fascist slogans of “national unity”.
But workers generally don’t like being exploited. In order for fascism to win them to its side, it bribed them. Lebensraum was the Nazi’s colonial push for German “living space” and was directly inspired by the genocide, land theft, and building of settler societies on this continent. European fascists used a form of settler-nationalism, to rally people to this cause. It was not just by words and catchy slogans, but by real material benefits like more jobs, shelter, and opportunities for wealth (for some and only so long as workers kept their heads down). The Nazis and Italian Fascists embarked on their own settler-colonial projects sharing some of the spoils with obedient workers who belonged to the fascist national identity.
And just like those fascists, the fascists of today scapegoat their targets. People with disabilities that capitalism deems non-productive, LGBTQ people whose existence challenges the gendered division of labour reinforced by capitalism, Indigenous peoples whose land capitalism wants for itself, immigrants and migrant workers—hyper-exploited by capitalism. These groups are targeted, subjugated, or exterminated for the benefit of the fascist “nation”.
We can see this happening in two ways in Canada. The first are the small but growing fascist activist groups looking to build their strength online and in the streets. This we call movement fascism, an insurgent group that will build towards a coup—or potentially rolled into the fold of the current settler-colonial government.
The second way is in the entrenched fascist state itself. Carney ran on the promise of dealing with the current trade war, rallying voters under the slogan “Elbows Up”, a siren’s cry for workers to treat a trade war between capitalists as a war workers must be fighting. But the solution the Canadian state has rolled out is this: further theft of land to extract resources, part of which turns into jobs and wealth for those “old stock Canadians” the fascist goon squads obsess over. A plan and process we’ve seen occur over and over again throughout the history of the Canadian settler-colonial project.
Fascism has not come to Canada via the United States or Europe, and it is not a strange outlier in this supposed democratic and progressive society. From the earliest days of European colonization, the seeds of fascism were planted here. Settler-colonialism and white supremacy were a part of this society well before the Canadian state existed. Even many so-called “progressive” and “socialist” political projects have at best sought to put a friendly face on the same system of genocide and land theft that has defined Canada for its entire existence. It should be no surprise that the Canadian government, regardless of party, has supported the Zionist oppression and genocide of Palestinians for decades—even after the UN confirmation of genocide.
With fascist activists in the streets responding to the mounting contradictions of the fascist settler-colonial state of Canada, it is as important as ever for anti-fascists to publicly band together with the shared interest of preventing the broadened mass oppression demanded by these emboldened fascist groups. The situation we are facing today is certainly a dangerous one, but we must never give in to despair or cynicism. Fascism is indeed powerful, but it can, and must, be defeated.
The greatest weapon we have to defeat fascism once and for all is the same solidarity that brought us all here today. Now is the time for anti-fascists to come together, work to settle our differences, and build the solidarity and infrastructure necessary to be effective in our communities to overcome and progress past the entrenched fascist mass oppression of the settler-colonial state. If we want to build an egalitarian society, it cannot be built on the structures of Canadian colonialism and imperialism!
If you’re in an organization, union, or action group—whether liberal, anarchist, or Communist—fully supporting complete self-determination for Indigenous nations is critical! This means up to and including the right for them to form an independent state on the totality of their land.
The fight against fascism will not be won in a short time, and it will require us to move beyond short-term mobilization and “whack-a-mole” reactions to the latest provocation by fascist goons. It will also require careful study of the success and failures of past anti-fascist movements. Fascism is, at its core, an outgrowth of capitalism. Therefore it is impossible to finally defeat fascism without overthrowing capitalism in a socialist revolution.
The task before us is great, and it will require humility, discipline, and patience, as well as an unwavering commitment to anti-fascist principles. But victory against fascism is both possible and necessary!