"Fascism is Corporatism, the Merger of Corporate and State Power, Cuz Mussolini Said!"

What Not to Say #53:

Dear readers: I wrote this essay (below) and realized that I am addressing #53 in my continuing PSR series on “Things NOT to Say During the Trumpist Campaign for Amerikan Fascist Consolidation.” ((Previous entries: 1-13 here; 14-17 here; 18-24 here; 25-30 here; 31-38 here; 39-46 here.; #s 47-52 here,)

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Some quick reflections and quotations to shoot down an argument I’ve been hearing for years from middle-aged to senior white Trumnpenlefties (this odd cohort is about 94% older, white, and male).

The bad argument, still around, goes like this: “stop calling Trump and the Republicans fascist. Mussolini defined fascism as corporatism, meaning the merger of corporations and the state. We have corporatism, the merger of the corporations and the state under Democrats as well as under Republicans, so the Democrats are fascist too. Stop your Trump Derangement Syndrome!”

I can’t tell folks how many times I have been sent this narrative from old white dudes who are often quite nasty about it. I got it just the other day right here on the PSR.

Nope! This is a dumb thing to say.

As Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates wrote two decades ago:

“A Google(tm) search on January 12, 2005 turned up some 5,000 hits on the following quote: ‘Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power’ — Benito Mussolini.

It is generally attributed to an article written by Mussolini in the 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana with the assistance of Giovanni Gentile, the editor.

The quote, however, does not appear in the Enciclopedia Italiana in the original Italian.

It does not appear in the official English translation of that article: Benito Mussolini, 1935, ‘The Doctrine of Fascism,’ Firenze: Vallecchi Editore.

And it does not appear in the longer treatment of the subject by Mussolini in: Benito Mussolini, 1935, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, Rome: ‘Ardita’ Publishers.

Where the quote comes from remains a mystery, and while it is possible Mussolini said it someplace at some time, a number of researchers have been unable to find it after months of research.”

So: it appears that Mussolini never wrote or said what a bunch of Trumpenlefty sorts have him saying about fascism.

But the problem is deeper than that. “When Mussolini wrote about corporatism,” Berlet added, “he was not writing about modern commercial corporations. He was writing about a form of vertical syndicalist corporatism based on early guilds.”

So even if he said or wrote the line that is problematically attributed to him, Mussolini wasn’t talking about modern capitalist corporations like Fiat or Ford.

What was this corporatism that Mussolini identified with fascism? Wikipedia breaks it down very well:

‘Corporatism is a political system of interest representation and policymaking whereby corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, come together and negotiate contracts or policy (collective bargaining) on the basis of their common interests.^[1][2][3] The term is derived from the Latin corpus, or "body".

Corporatism does not refer to a political system dominated by large business interests, even though the latter are commonly referred to as "corporations" in modern American vernacular and legal parlance. Instead, the correct term for that theoretical system would be corporatocracy. The terms "corporatocracy" and "corporatism" are often confused due to their similar names and to the use of corporations as organs of the state.

Corporatism developed during the 1850s in response to the rise of classical liberalism and Marxism, and advocated cooperation between the classes instead of class conflict. Adherents of diverse ideologies, including economic liberalism, fascism, and social democracy have advocated for corporatist models.^[1] Corporatism became one of the main tenets of Italian fascism, and Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy advocated the total integration of divergent interests into the state for the common good.^[4]’

Fascism is not the merger of modern capitalist-corporate and state power. If that is the definition of fascism, then every single core capitalist nation in the world became fascist with the transition from proprietary to corporate-managerial, financial, and “monopoly” capitalism during the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, with the United States (which became a “corporate liberal” state during the Progressive Age and World War I) in the lead.

So what is fascism? I have literally signed off on the following definition on the Refuse Fascism (RF) website:

‘Fascism is not just a gross combination of horrific reactionary policies. It is a qualitative change in how society is governed. Fascism foments and relies on xenophobic nationalism, racism, misogyny, and the aggressive re-institution of oppressive “traditional values.” Fascist mobs and threats of violence are unleashed to build the movement and consolidate power. What is crucial to understand is that once in power fascism essentially eliminates traditional democratic rights.

Fascism has direction and momentum. Dissent is piece by piece criminalized. The truth is bludgeoned. Group after group is demonized and targeted along a trajectory that leads to real horrors. All of this [took] dramatic leaps under the Trump Regime. History has shown that fascism must be stopped before it becomes too late.’

Please note the centrality of racism, sexism, nationalism, “traditional” oppression, and political violence to the definition. Think it’s just accident or coincidence that the people who write me advancing a purely political-economic (and false), race- and gender-blind definition of fascism (the “merger of corporate and state power”) — misquoting and misunderstanding Mussolini — are almost always older white males? While I refuse to reduce political and world views to demographic/sociological/ ”intersectional” “identity,” I guarantee this is no accident. Older white males have reason to think they are more immune from fascist assault than any other group by age, race, and gender.

People who think fascism is just a political-economic regime in which modern commercial corporate and state power are merged might want to read Adolph Hitler’s virulently racist and genocidal, anti-Semitic autobiography Mein Kampf, examine Hitler and other Nazis’ speeches, and generally study the rise of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich. It’s a shame more Germans didn’t develop Hitler Derangement Syndrome in the 1930s!

Terribly enough, Trump and Trumpism also check off all the boxes in RF’s definition and are currently in the middle of a furious and many-sided political, policy, and propaganda Blitzkrieg meant to consolidate fascist rule atop and across US government and society. As the revolutionary communist leader Bob Avakian noted two weeks after last year’s presidential election, which Trump barely won only (as Greg Palast has shown) through mass racist voter suppression: “Fascism, as represented by Donald Trump, is a white supremacist, male supremacist, anti-LGBT, immigrant-hating, aggressively environment-destroying, anti-scientific, religious fundamentalist fanaticism, determined to use the power of the government to forcibly compel obedience to its dangerous and destructive lunacy, and to viciously persecute those who oppose or resist.”

And the Amerikaner fascist project is now much further along the path to full implementation now than it was in 2017. As RF observed in horror earlier this year:

‘After his first term and a failed coup to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump has amassed an even more vicious, organized, and determined force of fascist strategists. The Republi-fascist Party has purged all dissenting voices within its own ranks and vows retribution against anyone who has opposed it. It is moving quickly to remake all of society and government based on violent, revenge-fueled white supremacy, male supremacy and patriarchal oppression of LGBTQ people, and “America First” xenophobia…Once in power, fascism’s defining feature is the essential elimination of the rule of law and democratic and civil rights. Mass deportations and terror against immigrants; even broader and more restrictive abortion bans; science-denying lunatics appointed to lead health and environmental agencies – this is only the beginning of what the Republi-fascists hope to accomplish. They are serious about carrying out their threats and pose a danger to all of humanity and the planet.”

Serious indeed. I’ve been trying to keep up with the Trumpian Republifascists’ “flood-the zone” campaign of fascist “shock and awe” here on the PSR. It’s no easy task.

My next essay (tomorrow) will dig into where the Democrats stand in relation to this fascist offensive (not a pretty story!) and then — something very different — how we the people can and must respond to the Trump fascist war on humanity.