The Danger of Fascism and the Promise of Socialism: Reflections on the Global Capitalist Crisis

The fundamental contradictions of capitalism—social commodity production for profit
maximization paired with private appropriation of profit and the means of production—put
capitalism in a state of perpetual crisis that intensifies over time in both severity and scope. Thus
it is axiomatic that the present historical juncture finds capitalism in yet another moment of its
perpetual crisis. In need of clarification are the unique features of the current stage of the crisis
as well as the question of whether humanity will continue to live under a degenerating capitalism
or make a progressive break with the old society and begin construction of a new socialist
system that avoids the mistakes of the past while remaining free of capitalism’s fundamental
contradictions. Degenerating capitalism and the social unrest that accompanies it raises the
threat that the capitalist ruling class will resort to fascism in order to save their system, but
it also creates opportunities for the working class to stage a resurgence of socialism in order
to save humanity from a catastrophic decline of human civilization. This article will present a
series of reflections on the current state of the crisis with the goal of determining how it affects
prospects for the advancement of socialism on the one hand and the danger of fascism on the
other. It will deal with the question of whether bourgeois democracy or people’s democracy
provides a way out of the morass of economic decline, environmental catastrophe, perpetual
war, and looming fascism.