As the fall of 2022 wraps up, the fascist winter begins to blow in. A New Year brings in a new Europe, a rise in political victories of the conservative-neo fascists movements across the continent, self-proclaimed ‘popular leaders’ are winning local and national elections in nations like Germany, France, Poland, Portugal, and Italy. The Italian Social Movement (MSI), a direct shoot off party from the National Fascist Party, now are gaining ground among the disenfranchised, poor working-class families in Italy, and supporting civil militancy and institutional violence against immigrants and leftists.

This sharp revival of fascists ghouls in the imperial core shouldn't be a shocker, the times of western hegemony and global economic transformation are reaching an abrasive climax, resolution cannot be further achieved by the opportunistic casting of commands and ‘magical’ resolutions to the problems of history, the grimoire of capital is running out of spells. Today the counts of the state and princes of the enterprises conjure up the ghouls of reaction, taking off their mussels yet again to reassert their historical hegemony.

It is as Alvaro Linera, ex-vice president of Bolivia and leader in COMUNA (MAS), prophetically wrote in his recent publication, “Yesterday’s representatives of free trade are today protectionists; the globalists have become nationalists and with this, the celebratory world discourse dominant since 1989 has exploded in a thousand pieces nowadays, causing a vacuum in the meaning of history, planetary turmoil and uncertainty.” (Álvaro García Linera, COMMUNISM AS PROBABILITY AND CONTINGENCY)

Although as always, the Spector of Communism lingers, its spirit is channeled Europe by several organizations fighting against reaction and competing against the state, one of these exists in Italy, the Potere al Popolo (Power to the People!) party. Although the trials they face are immense, solidarity has guided to them a supporting hand, in the form of João Pedro Stedile, a leader in the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement of Brazil (MST).

Late last month reps from MST attended Pope Francis’ International Peace Conference, here they came across leader in Potere, Giuliano Granato. In this moment of coincidence, Italy’s people’s force was able to commune with an active social transformation org, coming from a nation with continental influence, especially now with the recent victory of Lula.  Today’s epoch has generated new realities aside from the fascists taking over the west, in mainland South America many nations have now been consumed by the flames of socialism and communitarian will, a glimmer contrast to the rising shadow of hate and suffering welcomed by the nations of Europe; so in almost in a moment of grace, the Brazilian comrades came to offer necessary words of advice for the Italian comrades. The Brazilians have not only the will of socialism in them, but they also have the fresh memory of fascism to speak about, since only a month ago they were just living under the conditions of reaction, oppressed by Bolsonaro and his US-friendly ‘republicanism’, compared to the Italian comrades today, many of these Brazilian comrades grew up in the midst of fascists rule.

In a compelling interview captured by People’s Dispatch, these two mentioned leaders discussed exchange insight on the question of fascism today. While we recommend you read it yourself, the emphasis on the article is around the power of hegemony in civil society, how the social and material gains political actors make for and with the the popular and subaltern communities, they solidify future political victories, hence why Lula wins in Brazil and Giorgia Meloni in Italy. In otherward, victory and the right to transform society goes to those who are ‘attentive to the popular classes’ and can effectively integrate the social movements they lead into political projects.

So, at this very moment the Italian organization has its struggle ahead of them, same as many western leftists' organizations right now, the ‘populists' leaders of the west are saying and doing all the right things, asserting dualistic plans through their double speech, though the cognitive dissonance runs hard particularly In Italy. The fascists are speaking “of the need to fight for a minimum wage for instruments for the poorest, similar to the family in Brazil, for example, and at the same time to allow companies to do what they want to do with complete freedom.”