Blackshirts and Reds

How Fascism Serves the Wealthy

Fascism is often remembered through the lens of historical curiosity or the irrational symbols of its leaders, yet its rise was driven by a very deliberate and rational set of economic goals. While many historical accounts focus on the personalities of figures like Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, they frequently overlook the class-based policies these regimes enacted. In both Italy and Germany, fascism emerged not as a spontaneous movement of the masses, but as a tool used by wealthy industrialists and landowners to dismantle the growing power of organized labor and protect their profits during times of economic crisis.

The story of Benito Mussolini illustrates this transition from radicalism to reaction. As Michael Parenti notes, Mussolini began his career as a militant socialist and journalist, but he quickly abandoned these convictions when the Italian upper class offered him financial backing and a path to power. By the end of World War I, he had transformed from a leader of strikes into a breaker of strikes. Supported by massive subsidies from financiers, his Blackshirts spent their time attacking trade unions and peasant cooperatives. This violence served a specific purpose: the Italian economy was in recession, and to maintain profit levels, the ruling class needed to slash wages, raise prices, and secure state subsidies. Because the democratic system allowed workers to resist these measures through unions and voting, the industrialists concluded that democracy itself had to be abolished.

A similar alliance between big business and fascism occurred in Germany. During the 1920s, German workers had secured significant rights, including the eight-hour workday and unemployment insurance. However, as the Great Depression hit, the country’s industrial tycoons decided the Weimar Republic was too accommodating to the working class. They funneled enormous sums of money into the Nazi Party, providing Hitler with the resources to saturate the country with propaganda and maintain a paramilitary force, the SA, to terrorize labor organizers. Despite their efforts, the Nazis never won a majority in a free election; their primary support came from the affluent and the desperate, while the organized working class remained largely loyal to the Left until the regime used state power to crush all opposition.

Once in power, these regimes acted swiftly to benefit their wealthy patrons. In both nations, unions were outlawed, collective bargaining was abolished, and strikes became illegal. The state confiscated union property and handed it over to private owners. While the general public faced drastic wage cuts—up to 50 percent in Italy—and the reintroduction of child labor, the corporate elite saw their profits soar. Mussolini and Hitler both initiated massive privatization programs, selling off state-owned banks, steel mills, and power plants to private interests. They also used the public treasury to subsidize heavy industry and guaranteed returns on corporate investments while the state assumed all the risks. This was not government control of business, but rather government service to business.

To mask this upward redistribution of wealth, fascist ideology employed the rational manipulation of irrational symbols. The cult of the leader and the glorification of the state were used to demand total subordination from the individual. Concepts like the national community were promoted to suggest that class conflict no longer existed and that the rich and poor were united in a single, harmonious body. This rhetoric served to hide the fact that the poor were making all the sacrifices while the rich reaped the rewards. Fascism also utilized racism, sexism, and traditional family values to create scapegoats and maintain social hierarchies. By keeping women subservient and dependent, the state ensured a steady supply of future soldiers and workers, while anti-Semitism in Germany redirected the frustrations of the middle class away from the capitalist system and toward marginalized groups.

The rise of these regimes was not met with universal condemnation from the Western world. In fact, many leaders in the United States and Great Britain initially viewed Mussolini and Hitler as bulwarks against communism. Major American publications and business leaders praised the fascist "order" for ending labor unrest and making the trains run on time. Even after the war, the collaboration continued in quieter ways. Many Nazi and fascist officials were integrated into Western intelligence agencies or allowed to return to positions of power in the police and judiciary. Furthermore, several large American corporations that operated factories in Axis territory during the war were later compensated by the U.S. government for damages caused by Allied bombings. Ultimately, fascism represents a final, violent solution to class struggle. It is a system that preserves the existing social order by destroying the democratic tools the public uses to defend its living standards. By cultivating a revolutionary aura while serving the same moneyed interests, fascist leaders successfully deceived the public to benefit the few.