The seeds of fascism

[T]he deepening economic and systemic crisis of capitalism not only takes the form of increasing militarization and war. It also finds expression in the stepped-up state attack on the democratic rights of the people. Whether in the form of overt repression(police attacks on picket lines and street demonstrations), or through less crude or obvious legal-judicial means (use of court injunctions, wilful manipulation of the electoral process, etc.), or the promotion of ultra-right, racist and neo-fascist groupings or even paramilitary units, the class purpose remains the same: to stifle the democratic expressions and aspirations of the masses, to weaken the labour and democratic fightback, and to silence and, where necessary, crush anti-capitalist dissent. As we have pointed out in previous documents, genuine democracy is anathema to capitalist rule (and vice versa) and as the systemic crisis deepens and the class struggle correspondingly grows in intensity, the ruling class will use every means at its disposal to maintain its hegemony, stripping away even those democratic rights afforded under bourgeois democracy and, as a last resort, imposing fascist rule.While we have not arrived at fascism –the open, terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, the most chauvinistic, the most imperialistic elements of finance capitalism – the seeds of fascism have been laid by monopoly capital and its governments, and are beginning to sprout.The only antidote to the dangerous drift to state authoritarianism or fascism is the mobilization of all the pro-democratic forces, anchored by a strong, united, conscious and militant movement of labour and its closest allies, and with a strong and influential presence of the Communists...

Political Report of the Central Committee of the CPC, November 2010