Fascism is a petit-bourgeois mass movement bankrolled by big capital, not mere elite politics

Evidence

With respect to fascism, Zinoviev in his opening address tended to dismiss it as a transitory phenomenon. He concentrated his fire on the social-democrats—whom he now defined as the “left wing of the bourgeoisie”. Radek’s report on the capitalist offensive, however, was in marked contrast—and may very well have been influenced by Gramsci. It stressed the petit-bourgeois components of fascism, the sectarianism shown by the proletarian organisations towards the ex-combatants, and the aid of the big bourgeoisie in fascism’s rise to power—while reiterating that the fundamental class contradiction remained that between bourgeoisie and proletariat. This complex analysis was in sharp contrast to that of Bordiga, who in the main report to the Congress on fascism refused any distinction between the general capitalist counter-offensive and fascism, and spoke of the latter’s convergence with social-democracy, describing fascism as a great unity movement of the dominant class. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 126

Categorization

• XREF: Gramsci’s account of fascism as petit-bourgeois base plus big-bourgeois sponsorship prefigures the class composition analysis Islamophobia readings will apply to reactionary mass movements.