Afternoon Comrades.
It is save to say that the time arguing, exploring and redefining the definitions for Fascism are over. It’s here. It is also absolutely fair to disregard those that are yelling ‘told ya so’, we are absolutely past the need for those non-contributing voices. Over the last week that I took off I went through the archive on here and realised that well over 60% of the essays written over the last 5 years dealt with both trying to clarify the fact that Fascism was never a question of “if” but just “when” and equally trying to offer help in working against that.
For as long as it is possible, and I’ll get into that later, the important questions will continue to be along the lines of what are now now going to do about this rather than reactively yapping about what politician/content creator - same shit really - has said when and how. I mean this with as little fear mongering as possible, but it is what it is. The merging of corporate with political power in the West is nigh on complete and the ruling class, in abject fear of the economic realities they themselves have created, are once again utilising the fascist playbook of maintaining control to protect their wealth and increase their profits.
Traditional definitions of fascism, as theorised by figures like Clara Zetkin, Georgi Dimitrov, and Antonio Gramsci, emphasise it as the “open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital.” In this understanding, fascism is not merely an ideology but a class-based political strategy by the capitalist ruling class to suppress revolutionary movements and resolve the contradictions of capitalism through violence and authoritarianism.
Post-9/11 developments in the West exhibit these core features, albeit in a modernised form. Rather than mass fascist parties, Western societies now rely on technocratic governance, private surveillance infrastructure, militarised police forces, and media-driven mass psychology to maintain control. The capitalist state’s function has evolved into a seamless merger with corporate and financial elites, with sovereignty, democratic processes, and civil liberties hollowed out in the name of national security and market efficiency.
The United States: Homeland Fascism and Capitalist Authoritarianism
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in 2001 provided the ruling class with a pivotal moment to reconfigure the American state. The USA PATRIOT Act (2001) legalised mass surveillance, indefinite detention, and warrantless wiretapping. The Department of Homeland Security, established in 2002, fused domestic policing with counterterrorism and border enforcement, creating a permanent state of exception.
The militarisation of domestic police, with surplus Pentagon equipment and training, has created a de facto gendarmerie in poor and working-class neighbourhoods, disproportionately targeting Black and Brown communities. The Ferguson uprising (2014) and subsequent protests highlighted the carceral-fascist nature of American governance: a system where dissent is criminalised and racialised policing is both punitive and profitable.
The 2008 financial crisis further exposed the fusion of state and capital. Instead of prosecuting financial criminals, the U.S. government bailed out banks while millions lost homes and jobs. This is textbook fascist corporatism: public power used to serve private capital. Meanwhile, austerity, privatisation of public goods, and the expansion of debt peonage through student loans and healthcare have deepened class oppression.
Furthermore, the rise of Trumpism was not a deviation but a symptom of the deeper fascist currents in U.S. society. With explicit nationalism, attacks on the press, scapegoating of immigrants, and the use of state apparatus to criminalise opposition (e.g., violent repression of BLM and Antifa protests), Trump’s administration revealed the fascist potential embedded in American liberal democracy itself.
Europe: Fortress Continental Fascism
Europe, too, has undergone a transformation in the post-9/11 era, aligning with the same trajectory of militarisation, xenophobia, and technocratic authoritarianism. The European Union’s anti-democratic character became increasingly clear during the Eurozone crisis (2010–2015), when countries like Greece were subjected to brutal austerity imposed by unelected financial institutions like the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. National sovereignty was overridden in the name of neoliberal “discipline,” revealing that democracy is tolerated only when it serves capital.
Meanwhile, the “war on terror” was used as justification for surveillance expansion and criminalisation of dissent. The UK, for example, passed the Investigatory Powers Act (2016), legalising unprecedented surveillance powers for the state. France has remained under prolonged states of emergency since the 2015 Paris attacks, granting police extraordinary powers to raid homes, detain individuals, and ban demonstrations without judicial oversight.
More tellingly, Europe's migration policy has become a central pillar of its fascist infrastructure. The Mediterranean has been transformed into a militarised borderland, where Frontex—the EU’s border agency—actively participates in pushbacks and detentions, letting thousands of refugees drown or suffer in Libyan detention camps. This “Fortress Europe” strategy is driven by racial capitalism and Islamophobia, scapegoating migrants to distract from capitalist crises and mobilize nationalist sentiment.
The rise of far-right parties—such as Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany, the National Rally in France, and Brothers of Italy—represents not a rupture but a reinforcement of Europe’s existing fascist tendencies. These parties often recycle rhetoric already mainstreamed by centrist leaders, who themselves have implemented anti-immigrant laws and neoliberal shock doctrines under the guise of liberal democracy.
Surveillance Capitalism and the Technological Apparatus of Control
What makes contemporary Western fascism distinct is its digital sophistication. The post-9/11 world has seen the rise of surveillance capitalism, as theorised by Shoshana Zuboff, where corporations like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Palantir collect vast amounts of behavioural data, which is then sold to governments and advertisers. This private data-mining apparatus forms a new layer of social control: predicting, influencing, and even preemptively policing dissent.
State and corporate surveillance work hand-in-hand, from NSA spying revealed by Edward Snowden to predictive policing technologies used in U.S. cities. In both Europe and the U.S., digital repression has become normalised, as biometric IDs, facial recognition, and algorithmic sorting target workers, migrants, and political activists.
Cultural Hegemony and Mass Consent
Unlike interwar fascism, which relied heavily on brute force, modern Western fascism secures consent through a cultural industry that promotes individualism, consumerism, and fear. Corporate media demonises protest movements, equates leftist critique with extremism, and frames capitalist democracy as the only viable order. Anti-communism remains a central ideological weapon, used to discredit any alternative to neoliberal capitalism.
Education systems have been gutted or privatised, reducing critical thought, while media monopolies saturate the population with distractions, nationalist myths, and war propaganda. Hollywood films, video games, and social media normalise militarism and police heroism, while anti-war voices and whistleblowers like Julian Assange are criminalised.
Again, I believe that most of us know and feel this but it is important to say it out loud, Fascism is here and it is not going to leave voluntarily.
The most important questions then become:
What are we going to do about this?
Secondly, what are we going to do in its space, once we have won?
Again, the archive for this substack should and can serve as a library of sorts of what we can do. I will obviously continue with that, for as long as it’s possible. On that note: We all ( hopefully ) remember the infamous Holocaust poem by Martin Niemöller, that starts off with: “First they came for the Communists” - We are there. I make no secret of my party affiliations and political beliefs and at this rate an increasing majority of Western Countries are explicitly no longer safe for me. I have cancelled a private trip to the US for all the obvious reasons, but to be clear, Germany is no longer a place I am safe in, if I continue doing what I do. I will, for as long as I can, obviously, but we all need to be brutally clear about what it is happening. All I can say about that is: Make Plans. And then make more plans. Your imaginary rights don’t and will not protect from shit, especially not their shit and when the Home of the Brave and Land of the Free randomly kidnaps its citizens and disappears them, again, not news, just realities that we all have to act accordingly to.
In regards to the second question. Yes, we do have to win first and that means fighting. Nevertheless, approaching this question is equally as important and I firmly believe in the positive communist adage that we have a world to win. There is absolutely no point in fighting for a return of a non-existing past. The only point in fighting is to win and make anew. Feel free to take a moment with that one. It implies and will define strategy much more so than most ideas will.
Shit is hitting the fan, comrades and we need to act accordingly and now.
Welcome back,
Yours, warmly,
V.
Agreed. We have nothing to lose but our chains . . . Something like that. Unite.