Anti-Fascism
An antifascist movement perspective from the right.
Antifascism contends that the Left, which claims to be opposed to fascism, shares little with any prior Left, with the exception of minor commonality with Frankfurt School critical thinkers, and that modern antifascists are not fighting against a resurgence of interwar fascism. Paul Gottfried examines antifascism from its early 20th-century European origins through its contemporary American form. He contends that the transformation of the Marxist Left into an intersectional one has been a key milestone in defining the current political spectrum. This new Left, which has emerged as the dominant force throughout the Western world, has become the focal point of political and ideological conflicts.
Gottfried discusses nationalism versus globalism, the antifascism of the American conservative establishment, and Antifa in the United States. He also touches on the significant changes that antifascist ideology has undergone since the 1960s as well as fascist and antifascist models of the state and assumptions about human nature. An introduction to Thomas Hobbes' notion of knowledge from Leviathan is also offered.
Gottfried reaches the conclusion in Antifascism that fostering a fear of fascism now serves the interests of the powerful, particularly those in positions of political, journalistic, and educational power who aim to intimidate and isolate their opponents. He highlights how multinational capitalists have generously supported the intersectional Left and looks at how the white working class in Europe, including former members of Communist parties, is moving toward the populist Right, arguing that this demonstrates a political dynamic that is distinct from the more traditional dialectic between Marxists and anti-Marxists.
