It has been persistently propagated that Right Wing is the breeding ground of Fascism, whereas according to historical archives, Fascism is on the Left.
Liberty and personal responsibility are on the Right. Fascism and Marxism are the two primary forms of Socialism, but for decades the Left has told the lie that Fascism is on the Political Right. Fascists pursue government control of the economy, the people, and everything else.
Since Fascism is statist, and those on the political Right embrace personal freedom and responsibility, Fascism has no logical relationship to the Conservative ideology of the political Right – at least technically.
Sub-nationalist, leftist political parties in Pakistan have portrayed fascism as the monopoly of Right wing or conservative parties, specific references are made for Taliban and Jamiat groups whereas it has been proven in almost all forums that there happen to be very violent/nationalist left wing political parties, particularly the secular leftist parties based in Karachi/Sindh and violent separatist groups in Baluchistan all happen to be fascist in nature and manifest the left wing secular ideologies.
It doesn’t mean that Talibs and other religious/sectarian terror outfits are excused but one cannot simply label fascism to be a Right-winger’s identity without spending time on research. The conflict in Pakistan has been actively digested as a ‘Right-Wing’s madness’ or “Zia ki policy (policies of Zia)” — a relatively simple binary in the average Leftist mind.
But the issue is beyond all those baseless theories; it is a systematic failure of our Governance system to enforce law in the country hence it has nothing to do with Right or Left wings.
In rare instances when this caricatured view (that every problem is due to Zia’s policy) is so overtly called into question, as in the case of recent incident where Sindhudesh liberation Army has bombed railway tracks, or MQM goons caught by Rangers, most of these left wing class, specially the journalist community choose to exercise passive indifference, perhaps wary of the cognitive dissonance a deeper engagement might induce.
While reading about Political ideologies of each side, Right supports Liberty, free enterprise, and personal responsibility. Fascism opposes each of these.
Fascists like Adolph Hitler destroy Liberty, free enterprise, and personal responsibility. Fascism and Marxism are the two Far Left components of Socialism.
Interestingly, “Nazism” is “National Socialism” and arose from the “National German Workers’ Party” and later became the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.” Such words are not used to identify those political ideologies that exist on the Right.
Following are the Leftist groups that are openly declared as fascist elements;
ANP is foundationally a Marxist group, originally named as NAP – a coalition of many sub-nationalists and communist groups from Punjab, KPK & Baluchistan was involved in war against the State of Pakistan during 1970s. This conflict is reported to be one of the most violent insurgencies that Pakistani state has ever faced prior to 9/11.
Al-Zulfiqar – a leftist terrorist outfit, knowingly formed as the militant wing of Peoples Party (Leftist Political Party) was responsible for murdering hundreds of people and was also involved in Plane hijacking case in 80s.
Mutahida Quami Movement; A self-proclaimed leftist secular party that has its own militant wing (according to Supreme Court of Pakistan) and plays a pivotal role in target killings in Karachi.
Baloch/Sindhi separatist militants – The secessionists from provinces of Sindh and Balochistan are widely considered as Leftist groups, influenced by Marxism/Socialism and are involved in ethnic-terrorism in their respective provinces
These are some examples to quote that fascism is not necessarily an identity of Right wing, perhaps it has its roots in Left.
Today Left can claim all it wants that Fascism is not what they support but Fascism and Marxism are the two primary forms of Socialism, whether the Left likes it or not.
Note: Writer does not necessarily belong to either left or right and is merely discussing the very nature of these terminologies with references from history.
The author would be correct if he was talking about some other country…but in Pakistan the right wing is completely controlled by the radical mullahs who do not want people to have personal freedoms…they want to control every aspect of life with religious interpretations that they will determine…this is fascism in its worst form…
Excellent Article! The Left is also guilty of violence and gangsterism at times and no particular political ideology has a monopoly on totalitarianism.
1. The Left attempts to support the working class, and it succeeds sometimes but also fails many times to achieve solidarity with the working class, ironically the Leftist narrative in a strange way is elitist, therefore eventually in Europe the Left lost the support of the working class and now they are shifting the the ”Right”
2. Good and evil is everywhere, there are good Leftists and tyrannical leftists just as there are decent Rightists and some evil rightists as well, it depends on the particular group or party you are referring to.
3. Most of those who are referred to as ”Western Liberals” in Pakistan , are just as bigoted and are many a times just as opposed to free speech and debate as some members on what we refer to as the ”right” are.
4. Lastly, many beleive in the official narrative of National Socialism and Hitler, but many adopt a positive narrative of Hitler, and Fascism, which they claim does not have totalitarian designs and it is simply propoganda, whereas the Soviet Union especially under Stalin was extremely oppressive and Totalitarian in nature.
V nice v simple but meaningable good articel.excellent