Recent years have seen the persistent rise of fascist, semi-fascist, and other extreme right movements and figures on a world scale, from the National Front in France to Forza Nuova in Italy and the RSS in India. In many countries, far right forces have taken executive power, weakening the parliamentary political form of the bourgeois state. The proper names associated with the extreme right capture of government include Modi, Duterte, Erdoğan, Trump, Putin, Assad, and Orbán.
This panel aims to address a series of questions concerning this phenomenon: How does one distinguish fascism from other forms of extreme-right populism? In what ways does the ‘classical fascism’ of the 1930s relate to the fascism and right populism of the current political conjuncture? Can a country with a parliament, elections, and a relatively free press be characterized as ‘fascist’? What is the mass base of the extreme right? What social conditions have led to the political and ideological crisis of the bourgeoisie today? How does extreme right forces relate to the weakness of the worker movement and proletarian forces worldwide? What are we to make of the parallel rise of welfarism (Sanders) and social-democracy (Corbyn, Podemos, Syriza)?
The panel will examine these and related questions with particular reference to concrete examinations of Modi in India and Trump in the US.