Fascism was not born out of the evil will of a political group or even the greed and folly of a single character, Mussolini. Fascism was born in Italy with the support of the bosses, to counteract the proletarian reaction to misery and exploitation.

In the early twenties workers were bringing into being a growing class movement with protests and factory occupations. Faced with the heat of struggle the owners needed a highly repressive state. The persecution of Communists and all political opponents, suppression of the proletarian movements, maintaining an inhuman level of exploitation; these were the results obtained by fascism.

What was the result of the Resistance? We have to answer this question by evaluating the actual results, without getting bogged down in the myth. In 1943, the war was already lost and the fascist regime entered a phase of crisis. At the same time, part of the Italian proletariat was raising its head: many soldiers deserting the front, strikes and workers' demonstrations against the war and against the conditions of extreme poverty. A proletarian ferment that was politically up against the foundations of the system, against the bosses and not simply against fascism. The Committee of National Liberation and then the Italian Communist Party directed the partisan movement without ever giving a revolutionary perspective, they did not have even that intention ... Many partisans fought valiantly as proletarians believing they were permanently getting rid of the masters of their exploitation, but it was not so, these comrades were deceived by the CNL and in particular the Stalinist Italian Communist Party . The real result of the "liberation" was bourgeois democracy and - at the same time - the cancellation of any revolutionary potential, good news for the bosses.

In recent years it has been this much-vaunted democracy which has passed repressive and reactionary laws, it is this democracy which - in times of crisis - makes us insecure, unemployed, laid off ... poor. With the fall of fascism the bourgeoisie has simply changed its clothes, put on a good dress, the "democratic" one. Nothing has changed for the bosses, exploiters they were and exploiters they remain, but especially little has changed for us proletarians who were exploited before and we are still exploited.

It is therefore wrong for us to distinguish between the established "democratic" parties and the neo-fascist formations: it is misleading to label the neo-fascist organisations as " number one danger." Fascism (old or new) is a product of capitalism; it is a tool in the hands of the masters as are "democracy," the servile labour unions, the various parliamentary parties. We must fight against capitalism and therefore, without distinction, against all manifestations (political, bureaucratic, ideological and repressive) of this system. Our anti-fascism is the result of our anti-capitalism, and is represented by our continued communist activity. Historically, the political and ideological category that labels itself simply by '"anti-fascism" has been a deception, a dead end, for the proletariat and do not we fall into this error.

The question is therefore not democracy or fascism, the question to ask is: capitalism or communism. The extent of the economic crisis with all its consequences for the working class, the environment, the whole of humanity, clearly shows the need for a completely different society, which produces to meet the needs of human life and not for the profits of a small minority. We need a society in which the means of production and distribution systems are socialised and not managed privately (or nationalised ...) by a bourgeois minority, a society where production does not respond to the logic of profit, but is aimed at meeting our real needs. This requires a revolutionary historical change which cannot be confined only to a single country but which must necessarily assume an international character.

Humanity needs to leave capitalism behind, it needs a communist society. But make no mistake, this revolutionary change of society will not be achieved by reforming the current bourgeois institutions, but can only be done through the seizure of political power by those who live from their own work and produce the wealth of all; the proletariat.

Translated from the original Italian

leftcom.org