Blackshirts and Reds

How Fascism Protects Wealth

Fascism is often described as madness, spectacle, or the result of one leader's personality. Here, it appears as something more practical and more dangerous. In Italy and Germany, fascism served the interests of wealthy industrialists and landowners who wanted to crush labor movements, cut wages, and stop working people from using democracy to defend themselves.

Mussolini's career shows how this shift happened. He began as a socialist, but moved toward the ruling class once money and political support became available. His Blackshirts attacked unions, peasant groups, and socialist organizations with open violence. These attacks were not random acts of chaos. They were meant to break resistance at a time when business elites wanted lower wages, fewer worker protections, and tighter control over society.

Germany followed a similar path. During the economic crisis of the 1930s, large business interests backed Hitler because they saw the Nazi movement as a weapon against the Left. The Nazis used propaganda, street violence, and fear to weaken labor and democratic opposition. Once in power, they destroyed unions, outlawed strikes, and handed more power to private owners. The state did not replace capitalism. It disciplined society in order to protect capitalism.

Fascist rule also used nationalism, racism, and sexism to hide class conflict. People were told that rich and poor belonged to one national family, even while the rich gained and workers lost. Jews, political radicals, and other targeted groups were turned into scapegoats. Women were pushed into subordinate roles that supported hierarchy and obedience. These ideas helped redirect public anger away from those who held economic power.

Western elites often treated fascism with sympathy, especially when it appeared useful against communism. Business leaders and politicians in the United States and Britain often praised the order and anti-labor discipline of fascist governments. Even after World War II, some former fascists and Nazis were folded into Western institutions. The pattern suggests that fascism was never just a wild political accident. It was a violent method for defending concentrated wealth when ordinary democratic rule became inconvenient.