Trump and American Fascism

ABSTRACT

The election of Donald Trump reflects the rise of a Right-wing nationalist movement. Central to Trump’s appeal has been his advocacy of anti-immigrant, racist, and misogynist ideas. At its core, his ruling power bloc consists of neo-liberal fundamentalists, the religious Right, and white nationalists. There are similarities between the new power bloc and fascism, and there are many who see Trump’s administration as such. Nevertheless, the new president’s authoritarian power bloc is neither hegemonic nor fascist, but such a definition can send oppositional strategy in the wrong direction.

KEYWORDS:

• Hegemony
• fascism
• nationalism
• neo-liberalism
• racism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Jerry Harris is a founding member and national secretary of the Global Studies Association of North America and a founding member and on the international executive committee of the Network for the Critical Studies of Global Capitalism. He specializes in transnational capitalist class theory and political economy. He is author of Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy (Clarity Press, 2016) and The Dialectics of Globalization: Economic and Political Conflict in a Transnational World (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008).

Carl Davidson is a co-founder of the Global Studies Association and director of the Online University of the Left (http://ouleft.org). His area of interest is in American history and politics. He is author (with Jerry Harris) of Cyber Radicalism: A New Left for a Global Age (Changemaker Publications, 2005). His most recent book is New Paths to Socialism (Changemaker Publications, 2011).

Bill Fletcher Jr. is former president of TransAfrica Forum, a senior scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, and co-author (with Peter Agard) of The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934–1941, co-author (with Dr. Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, and author of They’re Bankrupting Us—And Twenty Other Myths about Unions.

Paul Harris is a founding member of the San Francisco Law Collective, was national president of the Lawyers Guild and is author of Black Rage Confronts the Law (New York University Press, 1997).