Neo-fascism

This article is about fascism after World War II. For Nazi movements after World War II, see Neo-Nazism.

Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. Neo-fascism usually includes ultranationalism, populism, anti-immigration policies or, where relevant, nativism, anti-communism, anti-socialism, anti-Marxism, anti-anarchism and opposition to the parliamentary system and liberal democracy. Allegations that a group is neo-fascist may be hotly contested, especially if the term is used as a political epithet. Some post–World War II regimes have been described as neo-fascist due to their authoritarian nature, and sometimes due to their fascination and sympathy towards fascist ideology and rituals.

Post-fascism is a label that has been applied to several European political parties that espouse a modified form of fascism and which partake in constitutional politics.[1][2]

Bolivia

The Bolivian Socialist Falange party founded in 1937 played a crucial role in mid-century Bolivian politics. Luis García Meza Tejada's regime took power during the 1980 Cocaine Coup in Bolivia with the help of Italian neo-fascist Stefano Delle Chiaie, Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie and the Buenos Aires junta. That regime has been accused of neo-fascist tendencies and of admiration for Nazi paraphernalia and rituals. Hugo Banzer Suárez, who preceded Tejada, also displayed admiration towards Nazism and fascism.

Indonesia

Adolf Hitler's propaganda for the hegemony of "Greater Germany" inspired similar ideas of "Indonesia Mulia" (esteemed Indonesia) and "Indonesia Raya" (great Indonesia) in the former Dutch colony. The first fascist party was the Partai Fasis Indonesia (PFI). Sukarno did admire Hitler's Third Reich and its vision of happiness for all: "It's in the Third Reich that the Germans will see Germany at the apex above other nations in this world," he said in 1963.[3] He stated that Hitler was 'extraordinarily clever' in 'depicting his ideals': he spoke about Hitler's rhetorical skills, but denied any association with Nazism as an ideology, saying that Indonesian nationalism was not as narrow as Nazi nationalism.[4]

Italy

Giorgio Almirante leader of the Italian Social Movement.

Italy was broadly divided into two political blocs following World War II, the Christian Democrats, who remained in power until the 1980s, and the Italian Communist Party (PCI), very strong immediately after the war.

With the beginning of Cold War it was feared by the British government that the requested extradition of Italian war criminals to Yugoslavia would benefit the PCI. Preventing anything like the Nuremberg trial for Italian war crimes, the collective memory of the crimes committed by Italians was excluded from public media, from textbooks in Italian schools, and from the academic discourse on the Western side of the Iron curtain throughout the Cold War.[5][6] The PCI was expelled from power in May 1947, a month before the Paris Conference on the Marshall Plan, along with the French Communist Party (PCF).

In 1946 a group of Fascist soldiers founded the Italian Social Movement to continue the idea of Benito Mussolini. The leader of the MSI was Giorgio Almirante, who remained at the head of the party until his death in 1988.

Despite attempts in the 1970s towards a "historic compromise" between the PCI and the DC, the PCI did not have a role in executive power until the 1980s. In December 1970, Junio Valerio Borghese attempted, along with Stefano Delle Chiaie, the Borghese Coup which was supposed to install a neo-fascist regime. Neo-fascist groups took part in various false flag terrorist attacks, starting with the December 1969 Piazza Fontana massacre, for which Vincenzo Vinciguerra was convicted, and usually considered to have stopped with the 1980 Bologna railway bombing. A 2000 parliamentary report from the center-left Olive Tree coalition concluded that "the strategy of tension had been supported by the United States in order to impede the PCI, and, in a lesser measure, the PSI from reaching executive power".

Since the 1990s, National Alliance, led by Gianfranco Fini, a former member of Italian Social Movement, has distanced itself from Mussolini and fascism and made efforts to improve relations with Jewish groups, with most die-hards leaving it; it now seeks to present itself as a respectable right-wing party. Fini joined Silvio Berlusconi's government. Neo-fascist parties in Italy are Tricolour Flame ("Fiamma Tricolore"), New Force ("Forza Nuova") and the National Social Front ("Fronte Sociale Nazionale").

Lebanon

Lebanon (1982–1988) – The far-right wing Christian Phalangist Party "Kataeb" and Lebanese Forces, backed by its own private army and inspired by the Spanish Falangists. As it evolved it gained nominal in power in the country during the 1980s but had limited authority over the highly factionalised state, two-thirds of which was controlled by Israeli and Syrian troops.

Its core political beliefs are not neo-fascist and include the following

It is only on this list because of its early symbolism. The military activity was common and broadly used across all pre-colonial states, through to today. All the political parties today in Lebanon have private armies, from Hezbollah to the Christian militias.

Slovakia

Kotleba – People's Party Our Slovakia is a far-right political party with views considered extremist and fascist. The Party's leader, Marian Kotleba, was formerly a neo-Nazi,[7] and until recently, dressed in a uniform modelled on the Hlinka Guard, the militia of the 1939-45 Nazi-sponsored Slovak State. He opposes Roma people,[8] immigrants,[9] the Slovak National Uprising,[10] NATO, the United States, and the European Union.[11]

In 2003, Kotleba founded the far-right political party Slovak Togetherness (Slovak: Slovenská Pospolitosť). In 2007, the Slovak interior ministry banned the party from running and campaigning in elections. In spite of this ban, Kotleba's party got 8.04%[12] of votes in the Slovak 2016 parliamentary elections, and voter opinion towards the party continues to increase.

Taiwan

The National Socialism Association (NSA) is a neo-fascist political organization founded in Taiwan in September 2006 by Hsu Na-chi (許娜琦), a 22-year-old female political science graduate of Soochow University. The NSA views Adolf Hitler as its leader and often uses the slogan "Long live Hitler". This has brought them condemnation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights center.[13]

Mongolia

With Mongolia located between the larger nations Russia and China, ethnic insecurities have driven many Mongolians to neo-fascism,[14] expressing nationalism centered around Genghis Khan and Adolf Hitler. Groups advocating these ideologies include Blue Mongolia, Dayar Mongol, and Mongolian National Union.[15]

Turkey

Grey Wolves is a Turkish ultra-nationalist[16][17][18] and neo-fascist[19][20][21][22][23][24][25] youth organization. It is the "unofficial militant arm" of the Nationalist Movement Party.[26] The Grey Wolves have been accused of terrorism.[19][21][22] According to Turkish authorities, the organization carried out 694 murders during the late-1970s political violence in Turkey, between 1974 and 1980.[27]

United Kingdom

The British National Party (BNP) is a nationalist party in the United Kingdom which espouses the ideology of fascism[28][29][30][31] and anti-immigration.[32] In the 2009 European elections, it gained two members of the European Parliament (MEPs), including former party leader Nick Griffin.[33]

The UK Independence Party has been accused by political opponents of holding to elements of Fascism e.g. populist nationalist and anti-immigration policies. However, UKIP has denied this, stating that its policies are not anti-immigration but pro-controlled immigration, patriotic not nationalist, in support of British democracy, and for all British citizens without regard to ethnicity or country of birth.[34] Furthermore, it supports a small state and economic freedom, which are not typically found within Fascism.[35] A London School of Economics blog examined both UKIP and the BNP and, while it did find similarities in demographic support and a few policies, it failed to conclude any strong ideological links between them. However, it did remark on a coinciding increase in support of UKIP and a decrease in support for the BNP, speculating a possible relationship between them.[36] Other left-wing literature, critical of UKIP, also denies that they are Fascist.[37][38][39]

United States

Groups identified as neo-fascist in the United States generally include neo-Nazi organizations such as the National Alliance and the American Nazi Party. The Institute for Historical Review publishes negationist historical papers often of an anti-semitic nature.

International networks

In 1951, the New European Order (NEO) neo-fascist Europe-wide alliance was set up to promote Pan-European nationalism. It was a more radical splinter group of the European Social Movement. The NEO had its origins in the 1951 Malmö conference when a group of rebels led by René Binet and Maurice Bardèche refused to join the European Social Movement as they felt that it did not go far enough in terms of racialism and anti-communism. As a result, Binet joined with Gaston-Armand Amaudruz in a second meeting that same year in Zurich to set up a second group pledged to wage war on communists and non-white people.[40]

Francoist and Nazi memorabilia in a shop in Toledo, Spain

Several Cold War regimes and international neo-fascist movements collaborated in operations such as assassinations and false flag bombings. Stefano Delle Chiaie, involved in Italy's strategy of tension, took part in Operation Condor; organizing the 1976 assassination attempt of Chilean Christian Democrat Bernardo Leighton.[41] Vincenzo Vinciguerra escaped to Franquist Spain with the help of the SISMI, following the 1972 Peteano attack, for which he was sentenced to life.[42][43] Along with Delle Chiaie, Vinciguerra testified in Rome in December 1995 before judge Maria Servini de Cubria, stating that Enrique Arancibia Clavel (a former Chilean secret police agent prosecuted for crimes against humanity in 2004) and US expatriate DINA agent Michael Townley were directly involved in General Carlos Prats' assassination. Michael Townley was sentenced in Italy to 15 years of prison for having served as intermediary between the DINA and the Italian neo-fascists.[44]

The regimes of Franquist Spain, Augusto Pinochet's Chile and Alfredo Stroessner's Paraguay participated together in Operation Condor, which targeted political opponents worldwide. During the Cold War, these international operations gave rise to some cooperation between various neo-fascist elements engaged in a "Crusade against Communism".[45] Anti-Fidel Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was condemned for the Cubana Flight 455 bombing on 6 October 1976. According to the Miami Herald, this bombing was decided on at the same meeting during which it was decided to target Chilean former minister Orlando Letelier, who was assassinated on 21 September 1976. Carriles wrote in his autobiography: "... we the Cubans didn't oppose ourselves to an isolated tyranny, nor to a particular system of our fatherland, but that we had in front of us a colossal enemy, whose main head was in Moscow, with its tentacles dangerously extended on all the planet."[46]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Post-fascist - definition of post-fascist by The Free Dictionary". TheFreeDictionary.com.
  2. ↑ Griffin, R. (2007) The 'post‐Fascism' of the Alleanza Nazionale: A case study in ideological morphology, Journal of Political Ideologies, 1/2: 123-145
  3. ↑ "Fascism in Indonesia, no big deal?".
  4. ↑ http://sydney.edu.au/arts/indonesian/docs/thesis_mirela_suciu.pdf
  5. ↑ Alessandra Kersevan2008: (Editor) Foibe - Revisionismo di stato e amnesie della repubblica. Kappa Vu. Udine.
  6. ↑ Pedaliu, Effie G. H. (2004). "Britain and the 'Hand-over' of Italian War Criminals to Yugoslavia, 1945-48". Journal of Contemporary History. Sage Publications. 39 (4, Collective Memory): 503–29. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 4141408 – via JSTOR. (registration required (help)).
  7. ↑ "Marian Kotleba and the rise of Slovakia's extreme right - BBC News". BBC News. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Azet.sk. "Marián Kotleba: Štát chráni cigánskych parazitov". aktuality.sk. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Spustili sme petíciu proti príchodu imigrantov na Slovensko!". Kotleba - Ľudová strana Naše Slovensko. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  10. ↑ s., P E R E X , a. "Šéfovia krajov sa u prezidenta nezhodli s Kotlebom na téme SNP - Pravda.sk". Pravda.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  11. ↑ "Neustupujte teroristom, hrozí vám diktát Bruselu, píše Kotleba Janukovyčovi | Svet | Hospodárske noviny - Denník o ekonomike a financiách". hn.hnonline.sk. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  12. ↑ s., P E R E X , a. "Parlamentné voľby 2016 - Voľby - Pravda.sk". Pravda.sk (in Slovak). Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Taiwan political activists admiring Hitler draw Jewish protests - Haaretz - Israel News". Haaretz.com. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  14. ↑ "Postcard: Ulan Bator - TIME". TIME.com. 27 July 2009.
  15. ↑ "Mongolia's leading English language news". The UB Post.
  16. ↑ Harry Anastasiou, The Broken Olive Branch: Nationalism, Ethnic Conflict, and the Quest for Peace in Cyprus, Vol. 2, (Syracuse University Press, 2008), 152.
  17. ↑ Martin van Bruinessen, Transnational aspects of the Kurdish question, (European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre, 2000), 27.
  18. ↑ Alexander, edited by Yonah; Brenner, Edgar H.; Krause, Serhat Tutuncuoglu (2008). Turkey : terrorism, civil rights, and the European Union (1. publ. ed.). London: Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 9780415441636.
  19. 1 2 Political Terrorism, by Alex Peter Schmid, A. J. Jongman, Michael Stohl, Transaction Publishers, 2005p. 674
  20. ↑ Annual of Power and Conflict, by Institute for the Study of Conflict, National Strategy Information Center, 1982, p. 148
  21. 1 2 The Nature of Fascism, by Roger Griffin, Routledge, 1993, p. 171
  22. 1 2 Political Parties and Terrorist Groups, by Leonard Weinberg, Ami Pedahzur, Arie Perliger, Routledge, 2003, p. 45
  23. ↑ The Inner Sea: The Mediterranean and Its People, by Robert Fox, 1991, p. 260
  24. ↑ "The Consortium".
  25. ↑ "Crime of the Century". Weekly Standard.
  26. ↑ Combs, Cindy C.; Slann, Martin (2007). Encyclopedia of terrorism. New York: Facts On File. p. 110. ISBN 9781438110196. In 1992, when it emerged again as the MHO, it supported the government's military approach regarding the insurgency by the Kurdistan Worker's Parry (PPK) in southeast Turkey and opposed any concessions to Kurdish separatists. .... The Grey Wolves, the unofficial militant arm of the MHP, has been involved in street killings and gunbattles.
  27. ↑ Albert J. Jongman, Alex Peter Schmid, Political Terrorism: A New Guide to Actors, Authors, Concepts, Data Bases, Theories, & Literature, pp. 674
  28. ↑ Renton, David (1 March 2005). "'A day to make history'? The 2004 elections and the British National Party". Patterns of Prejudice. 1 (39). Retrieved 15 January 2009.
  29. ↑ Thurlow, Richard C. (2000). Fascism in Modern Britain. Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-1747-4.
  30. ↑ Copsey, Nigel (September 2009). Contemporary British Fascism: The British National Party and the Quest for Legitimacy (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-57437-8.
  31. ↑ Wood, C; Finlay, W. M. L. (December 2008). "British National Party representations of Muslims in the month after the London bombings: Homogeneity, threat, and the conspiracy tradition". British Journal of Social Psychology. 47 (4): 707–26. doi:10.1348/014466607X264103. PMID 18070375.
  32. ↑ "BNP Policies – Immigration". British National Party. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  33. ↑ "BNP secures two European seats". BBC News. 8 June 2009. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
  34. ↑ "UKIP Election Manifesto 2015". UKIP.
  35. ↑ Michael White (17 May 2013). "Nigel Farage's fascist barrage". The Guardian. London.
  36. ↑ "While there are differences, there are also important similarities between the profiles of UKIP and BNP's respective support bases". British Politics and Policy at LSE.
  37. ↑ "UKIP and the crisis of conservatism". Socialist Review.
  38. ↑ "What kind of a party is Ukip?". Socialist Worker (Britain).
  39. ↑ "Yes they're right wing, but UKIP is not fascist". Labour Uncut.
  40. ↑ Tauber, Kurt P. (1959). "German Nationalists and European Union". Political Science Quarterly. Academy of Political Science. 74 (4): 564–89. doi:10.2307/2146424. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 2146424 – via JSTOR. (registration required (help)).
  41. ↑ Documents concerning attempted assassination of Bernardo Leighton, on the National Security Archives website.
  42. ↑ Terrorism Western Europe (PDF) Archived 7 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  43. ↑ Gladio Archived 9 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine.
  44. ↑ "mun6". Jornada.unam.mx. 22 May 2000. Retrieved 22 October 2008.
  45. ↑ "During this period we have systematically established close contacts with like-minded groups emerging in Italy, Belgium, Germany, Spain or Portugal, for the purpose of forming the kernel of a truly Western League of Struggle against Marxism." (Yves Guérin-Sérac, quoted by Stuart Christie, in Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist, London: Anarchy Magazine/Refract Publications, 1984. ISBN 0-946222-09-6, p. 27)
  46. ↑ Preface to Los Caminos del Guerrero, 1994.

Further reading

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