The new Naomi Klein rests upon this argument:
This is nothing less than a revival of fascism, the authors argue – but only if we understand “fascism” as something broader and more persistent than the uniformed mass movements that once brought Europe to the brink of destruction. In their definition, it is a recurring tendency among elites that manifests when capitalism no longer works the way they would like it to, and they feel their positions are threatened. “Fascism,” write the authors, who draw on a range of theorists including Walter Benjamin and WEB Du Bois, “is capitalism with bared teeth.”
Fascism was - and to the extent that it still exists today, still is - decidedly anti-capitalist. As with the other 20th century monstrosity, communism, it demands, insists upon, political and state control of the economy. Who may do what, in which volume and at what price is determined by those with political power. The difference between the two - note we are talking here in the purely economic sense - is only that in fascism the capitalists are not formally dispossessed while in communism they are. The power has definitely slipped away all the same.
We are aware that Klein and Taylor are using fascism here in a wholly different meaning. Essentially, all the stuff they don’t like is fascist. But to not note that fascism is a form of political control of the economy is to be one of those sweet summer children who’ve not been around long enough to understand how the world turns.
Tim Worstall