Antonio Gramsci's Anti‐Fascism: Not Your Average Fascist's Cultural Marxism

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses the form and content of Gramsci's Marxism in light of long debates about anti‐fascism. Through twists and turns, Gramsci came to understand fascism as a new form of politics, as a movement, ideology or regime. No mere bourgeois reaction, fascism is a sui generis form of mass politics that translates the roots of modern authoritarianism in particular ways. In Gramsci's writing, fascism is not an ideal type but a moving force. The specific threat fascism poses must thus be assessed not in the abstract but through dynamics of transformation. Open‐ended, Gramsci's approach intervened in crisis‐ridden conjunctures shaped by multiple temporalities and geographies; it also proposed a multi‐scalar internationalist response to international fascism. Finally, Gramsci's non‐sectarian anti‐fascism became a core element of hegemonic praxis. While forced to operate on the hegemonic terrain of fascism, it was an infinitely more ambitious project and should not be confused with the Gramsci far‐right authors have vilified or claimed under the rubric of cultural Marxism.