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Fascism isn't an immediate possibility in the US or Europe. But bourgeois governments are increasingly taking on features of fascism as the economic equilibrium has been shattered, the threat from the Left has increased, and the prospects of democratic stability have dwindled.
In this process, Marxists need to be alert both to the real and present danger of reaction, and to the substantial problem of misdiagnosis, overstatement, and exaggeration.
In the US, antiracist demonstrators are being killed in the streets by fascists and the President is encouraging right-wing vigilantism. The whole Republican convention was themed on the existential threat of socialism. These are all features of fascism that cannot be ignored.
But to mistake Trump's sympathy with fascists and the unpunished violence of the far-right with a period of fascist reaction is dangerous. Much of what Trump has done is substantially consistent with US capitalism's normalcy: it always relied on racial violence and anticommunism.
Trump is also at odds with much of the bourgeois state and is seen as an unreliable element by much of the ruling class. He is a self-serving demagogue with no sense of duty to his class, and his manner is offensive to liberal sensibilities.
In order Trumpism to mark a period of fascist reaction, however, big business would have to rally behind him. What we are seeing now is very far from that. Big business is mostly rallying to kick Trump out - just as in 2016 they mostly opposed his election.
In other words, the bourgeois are divided and not in Trump's favour. And the tide has only turned more strongly against him.
It will take a much more protracted and concerted class struggle to convince a decisive proportion of the capitalist class that fascism is necessary.
It will take a much more protracted and concerted class struggle to convince a decisive proportion of the capitalist class that fascism is necessary.
If that point is reached, the present level of violence will be very quickly outstripped.
There is still time and opportunity to stop fascist ascendancy in the US and elsewhere. But in order to do so there must be a ruthless abandonment of the false safety of Left-liberal alliances, and a determined turn to class-struggle tactics and revolutionary politics.
