Any discussion about modern day western Fascism begins with 'Europe's Faultlines' by Liz Fekete (Verso 2018). The book is a study of the growth and characteristics of the far-right in Europe. It places modern Fascism at the centre of the refugee crisis and fascism's growing osmosis with parts of the European state machines, as well as describing the evolution of a group of political leaders, now in the mainstream, that are promoting so-called nationalist 'solutions'.
In the early 20th century, following the devastation of WW1, the Russian Revolution and the economic and political weakness of many European states, the rise of Fascism was primarily supported by big Capital in Germany, Spain and Italy as a necessary means of destroying indigenous 'Bolshevism'. Yet there is no such a general threat imminent in any western country today. It therefore follows that there is a need to analyse the function of the modern far right - not simply to study its new ideology or its emotional structure - but in its relation to the main classes of society and their dynamics.
The root and growth of today's western fascism lies in the decades of increasing globalisation with its particular point of crisis in the international financial collapse of 2008. Globalisation of capitalism is not new. The Dutch East India company of 1637, with an (adjusted) wealth of $7 trillion, had the same wealth as the combined 20 top companies have today. Capitalism has not broken new frontiers in that regard. But it is modern Imperialism that has changed from its 19th and early 20th century economic structure. (Its military interventions still count for most of the world's wars.) Imperialism was previously based economically on the extraction of raw materials, and first the slavery and then the bonded labour needed to export it to the West. But paradoxically, because of traditional Imperialism's weakness and failure following the Russian revolution, the failures of war after war and the effects of WW2, indigenous development of infrastructure and access to labour, primarily in China and also, by echo, in India - has now provided the new giants of capitalism with vast new markets and much cheaper labour than had been available to them in the West. In the 19th and early 20th century traditional imperialism provided several western countries a significant margin of wealth that could be conceded in the case of the most threatening, even revolutionary, demands of their own working classes. Today's globalisation has increasingly destroyed that margin in most western countries.
This provides the context for the new right in Europe and the USA. (It also suggests the origin of the new band of nationalist 'heroes' who now rule in Russia, Indonesia, Turkey and Brazil.)
What is new about today's great corporations is not their size, nor their wealth, nor their new technology but rather that they have managed to fight their way out of the post WW2 stalemate the western states and their working classes reluctantly accepted, post-1945. Indeed some of the most recent companies have made a merit out of their decision not to pay taxes to nation states (so the greatest carriers of the world's wealth are not allowing these states any concession to popular welfare, education or health - even if those states think they face revolt if they don't.) Instead, the great corporations denounce the power of 'states' as the proper means of human governance. Initially such ideas were presented as an almost theological version of human existence by Steve Jobs et al. The brutal reality became the virtual stop of any financial redistribution in society from the most wealthy. What started as a 'super-democratic' ideology for the world has turned into a day-to-day economic war against the majority.
Today western Fascism and racism are not expanding, nor are they backed by any large corporations, as a result of any generally understood anti-capitalist threat.
The collapse of the previous, limited, agreement between corporations and (the larger, western) states in respect of social welfare has created austerity for the millions. Inevitably, especially in the absence of any powerful, mainstream political alternatives, this fact has begun to engineer a struggle between those millions. There we have it. Modern, western fascism's goal is to energise and enhance the battle between modern working class people, especially among the vast layers of small businesses, the self employed etc etc., as they scrabble for diminishing income, health, pensions and homes. The huge units of production out of which the old labour movement was born, are few and far between. They will remain critical given the collective answers they create when it comes to the battle to win basic resources. But a majority of working class people in the modern private sector in the West are more vulnerable than ever, at least initially, to a competitive version of work and life.
Fascists and racists offer their own explanation, not of the means to end capitalist globalisation, but of the potential day to day race to win security. In their 'theory' human beings are sorted into greater and lesser 'persons' whose claims for basic rights are more or less valid accordingly. So the answer to the state reducing services, diminishing income, increasing want is not collective endeavour to overturn it - but rationing. Rationing on the basis of those who 'deserve' and those who don't. Practically, the fascists and racists help open up the cracks, the alarms, the insecurity in society in order to create their version of top class citizens - as opposed to the rest. And the fascists in particular then go on to organise the state's 'police-of-want.' As the state is constantly shorn of its resources, so its direct domination becomes more physical and so begins the Fascist led para-police and their 'citizen' armies.
These are the current ideas and forces building the new Fascism and racism in the West.
But the transformation of the western working class condition is not, as a whole host of western academics and analysts have been shocked to discover, the same as its dissolution. On the contrary, the working class movement in the West is developing rapidly (most particularly at this moment in the UK and the US) where mass political trends are emerging that challenge an alternative to the effects of globalisation, among women workers across nations against Google's management; against UBER - again across nations. Women also lead in the fight for equal pay, supported by men, in Glasgow through to Hollywood. At the same time and in core industries like Rail in France and Britain, bitter battles continue to be fought, not just for income but against the toll of privatisation.
Under these and other assaults, the fragility of the international corporations begins to show. Their apparent 'detachment' from specific nation states (and the cross-globe Nirvana that they have created for their top executives) can't deal with a social class that challenges its behaviour in particular countries or across them. Indeed, the new capitalist giants have reduced in the West the social power of the very states that were built to maintain their dominance. Meanwhile, as the new, class battles begin, it is more and more clear that the current state machines are unable to parley the finance needed from capitalism's new avant-guard, even to prevent the radicalisation caused by wholesale poverty. On the contrary, strong state 'solutions' are required. It follows that the majority will need to clear out these failing states and organise their own state powers to deal directly and fruitfully with the world's great, poisonous, monopolies and their epic wealth.