By: Davorin Kopše
Fascism developed from aspirations for power and denial of the right to think differently. The journey begins with spreading populist slogans. In them, we do not find ideas that would ensure a peaceful and creative coexistence of dissidents, but on the contrary. Fascism is looking for enemies who are supposed to be to blame for all the shortcomings in society. It is therefore partly perfidious (secretly hypocritical), but mostly violently intrusive. When this kind of approach rises to power, we are talking about totalitarianism. This is equally characteristic of communism, Nazism, and fascism, but it also occurs in some other forms that express an attitude toward religion, race, or other circumstances.
When fascism is in power, it exploits state power and enforces hard grips for the domination of the minority over the majority. The tactics are the same all the time, to first rise to power by force, and then to consolidate power by the same means. We have known totalitarianism for a long time, and fascism was invented by the Italian Benito Mussolini. He was a journalist, but politically he first worked in the Socialist Party, where he picked up many totalitarian levers for his fascist ideas and aspirations.
Fascism as a movement promotes the idea of a forcibly monolithically organised nation under the control of an autocratic ruler. The word fascism comes from the word “fascio” which means bundle, which illustrates a group of people. Mussolini first gathered his followers on March 23rd, 1919 in Piazza San Sepolcro in Milan. There, they made a commitment to sabotage the candidacies of members of other political parties in any way.
Outline of the development of fascism
Mussolini was convinced that democracy was a failed system. He considered freedom of expression and freedom of the parties to be false. He saw the solution in asserting the power of the state, through which fascism should maintain its influence. The means of fascism for domination is thus the state and its coercion, and class consciousness is their enemy. The nation exalts itself above the division of society into classes. It tells people that uncompromisingness is a condition for the freedom of the individual and the nation. In this way, fascism concentrates its power, which is very similar to communism with the characteristic of a one-party system that is supposed to lead to equality and happiness (a classless society).
Fascist regimes have a highly centralised state or national government that seeks complete control over all major parts of society. Individuals must give up their private needs and rights in order to serve the needs of the entire society represented by the fascist state.
When fascism opposes domination at all costs, it resorts to violence to ensure national unity. This is, of course, an oxymoron, which has been proven in the very process of their action. Exclusion cannot guarantee unity. The basis of action was one; violence should be used to get rid of anything that could hinder their model of government. In this way, fascism took away the freedom of the individual, and this divided people and strengthened hatred between them. The action gave birth to a reaction, and with it devastation and casualties.
Many understand fascism as a right wing political definition
Today, a considerable part of the public in Slovenia understands fascism as a right wing political definition due to media brass. This is how the school system of communist Yugoslavia taught. Communism, of course, had strong reasons for this, as it wanted to blur its kinship with fascism. This deception is also used by today’s proponents of fascist methods. In Slovenia, we meet them as individuals, some of them unite in groups that are currently verbally aggressive, while others demonstrate this in the form of meaningless demands at street protests. The latter have strong support for left wing politics in the KUL (fascio) bundle.
Mussolini in Milan, Jenull in Ljubljana
Mussolini’s fascism thus began on the streets of Milan, where they demanded the formalisation of their aspirations for power. To see the similarities between the original fascism and today’s left fascism we encounter on the streets and even in parliament, it is necessary to recall the fascists’ faith in taming capitalism by controlling workers and factory owners. Trade unions, strikes and other workers’ actions are illegal in the original fascism. Although private property remains, the state controls the economy.
Today, we have the political parties of the already mentioned KUL bundle, in which some are less and others to the extreme advocate of exactly the above. They only changed the role of the unions. In their fascist world, they have built their own unions, working hand in hand to find their way back to power, and the struggle for workers’ rights is only a disguise in the form of a declarative statement. In order to implement their policy, they have also incorporated their approach into state institutions through various mechanisms.
In this way, they also receive protection in the judiciary, including the top of the judicial hierarchy and various other ombudsmen for security, freedom and human rights. The result is the attitude of the authorities towards well-known activist actions at the Ministry of Culture. There, fascism was directly promoted by drawing swastikas, which they labelled an art. It is also known that death threats have been declared admissible by the prosecution. All means are therefore permitted, in accordance with the fascist policies of 1919 in Milan.
The political ancestors of today’s leftist bundles carried out street marches through Italian cities, intimidating the undecided and dissenting. For more than seventy weeks in Slovenia, we have been watching similar scenes with street occupations, blockades of public transport, lighting of torches, lighting of puppets, parliamentary chairs, and other symbolic objects. Beyond democratic standards, they establish a people’s assembly, provoke and attack the police in their legal work, etc. From these foundations, violent protests are occasionally organised, destroying property and endangering lives during a mass breach of public peace. Ljubljana is not Milan and does not have Mussolini, but it has a dedicated servant Jenull, who is recognised as the main organiser and leader in the events.
Left fascism
The described phenomena are already a well-visible phenomenon of events on the left political pole, which try to monopolise the political space through a combination of public pressure on the streets and partly state power. Because of all this, we can and even must say out loud today that we are dealing with left fascism. They want to sabotage the candidacies of members of other political parties in any way. They roughly express this by excluding other political options, which is based on their fundamental goal of disabling the leading political party in Slovenia and its president Janez Janša. The latest version also speaks of the exclusion of all those involved in the current government. Is that not fascism? Because it comes from left wing political parties and because of the time distance and partial transformation, it must be called left fascism today.
The periphery of events in the sign of fascism
On the fringes of events, individuals are boldly appearing, uniting in groups and trying to place a fascist mentality. In the world and in Slovenia, we are facing the problem of illegal migration. In addition to refugees, who do not exist in Slovenia due to the specifics of this category, illegal economic migrants are a very widespread problem. They try to migrate from poor underdeveloped countries to countries with developed economic and social systems. This is certainly a problem that needs to be addressed rapidly and much more decisively, and the path certainly does not lead through fascism.
Some activities on social networks in communicating with the public through so-called live streams express strong hatred towards legal immigrants to Slovenia, who give their contribution to the development of society. Currently, Albanian immigrants are most exposed to this. They are perhaps best suited for this because of their Illyrian origins, which differentiates them from other immigrants from the Balkans, who are the most common in our area. Abuses must, of course, be resolutely prevented, but there are other mechanisms for this, such as fascism.
In the part of society, I am writing about, they resolutely reject democracy as a form of order. They are for the strengthening of the state, which should solve problems by force, using the state apparatus of coercion, brutally using the army and police, and militant self-organisation. This is identical thinking, distinctly characteristic of fascism, where all means are allowed and even desirable.
We are in the middle of a global world that brings many embarrassments. Democracy, which fascism along with other totalitarianisms rejects, is still proven to be the best path, although it has shortcomings. Churchill stated that we have nothing better.
Davorin Kopše is a veteran of the war for Slovenia, a candidate for the European Parliament and an active citizen.