Resisting Rising Fascism: People’s Anti-imperialism Solidarity

Sushovan Dhar

Sushovan Dhar, from CADTM-India, speaking about how imperialism normalizes domination and violence.

THE CURRENT GLOBAL moment is marked by a dangerous convergence of three broad trends: the rise of authoritarian nationalism — at times exclusive ultra-nationalism, the growth of far-right movements, and renewed imperialist competition between global and regional powers.

These developments are not isolated phenomena, but deeply interconnected expressions of a broader crisis of global capitalism and political legitimacy.

Historically, fascism has emerged during periods of deep social and economic instability. When inequality intensifies, democratic institutions weaken, and ruling elites face challenges to their authority, authoritarian and reactionary forces often gain ground.

In such moments nationalism, racism and militarization become tools to consolidate power and redirect social anger away from structural inequalities.

Today, we are witnessing similar patterns across different regions. Militarization is expanding. Wars are increasingly justified in the name of security, democracy, or civilization. Migrants are turned into scapegoats. Minorities are demonized. Democratic institutions are hollowed out, while executive power becomes more centralized.

Behind these developments lies a deeper structural reality: imperialism.

Anti-fascism without anti-imperialism remains incomplete. Imperialism normalizes hierarchy, domination and violence at the global level. It creates a world order where powerful states and multinational corporations exercise disproportionate influence over weaker economies and political systems.

Through mechanisms such as debt dependency, trade imbalances, resource extraction and political intervention, imperialism undermines sovereignty and deepens inequality. However, any struggle against imperialism is impossible without a fight against capitalism.

This global order reinforces authoritarian tendencies. When violence is normalized internationally, repression becomes easier domestically. When geopolitical rivalry is framed in civilizational or racial terms, xenophobia grows within societies. When economic domination is accepted globally, inequality intensifies within countries.

Illusions of Multipolarity: India

Today’s geopolitical tensions are often presented as a struggle between competing blocs and emerging “multipolarity.” Many argue that the rise of new powers and formations such as BRICS represents a progressive alternative to Western domination. However, this assumption requires careful scrutiny.

Multipolarity in itself does not necessarily mean emancipation. A world with multiple competing powers can still reproduce imperial hierarchies, geopolitical rivalry, militarization, and economic domination.

Multipolarity may reduce the dominance of a single hegemonic power, but it does not automatically produce a more democratic or just global order.

In this sense, multipolarity may offer opportunities for ruling elites and state actors, but does not necessarily provide an alternative for the peoples of the world. Competition among powers can intensify militarization, resource conflicts, and geopolitical tensions.

Without democratic internationalism and solidarity among peoples, multipolarity risks becoming merely a redistribution of power among competing elites.

India provides an important example of these contradictions. The country is often presented as part of an emerging multipolar world through its membership in BRICS. Yet at the same time, India has deepened strategic cooperation with Western military and security frameworks aimed at containing China.

While not formally part of the regional security AUKUS alliance, India has strengthened military and strategic alignment with the United States and its allies through arrangements such as the Quad, expanding defense cooperation, joint military exercises, and strategic technology partnerships.

This dual positioning illustrates the complexity of contemporary geopolitics. States simultaneously participate in multiple power blocs, pursuing strategic autonomy while reinforcing militarization and geopolitical rivalry. Such alignments do not necessarily represent an alternative to imperialism but often reflect new configurations within the same global power competition.

At the same time, India also represents one of the most significant contemporary examples of the rise of authoritarian majoritarian nationalism. The current political regime is closely linked to the (Hindu-supremacist)  Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a nearly hundred-year-old ideological and organizational project founded in 1925.

The RSS drew inspiration in its early years from European fascist movements, particularly Mussolini’s Italy, and later from aspects of Nazi Germany’s model of cultural nationalism, majoritarian identity, and centralized ideological mobilization.

Over decades, the RSS has developed an extensive organizational network across Indian society, including political, educational, cultural and paramilitary structures. Its long-term political project has been the transformation of India from a secular, pluralistic republic into a Hindu majoritarian state, often described as a “Hindu Rashtra” [Hindu Nation —ed.]

This ideological project has gained unprecedented state power in recent years. The consequences include increasing attacks on minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians, restrictions on civil liberties, pressure on independent media, weakening of democratic institutions, and growing centralization of power.

At the same time, the Indian government has deepened political and military relations with Israel, which increasingly serves as a model in areas such as security doctrine, surveillance technologies, militarization, and majoritarian nationalism. Sections of the Indian far-right openly draw parallels between the project of a Hindu majoritarian state and Israel’s ethno-national model.

Anti-fascism Must Be International

This illustrates a broader global trend: far-right and authoritarian movements increasingly learn from one another. There is a circulation of ideological frameworks, security doctrines, surveillance technologies, and methods of governance across borders.

These developments reinforce an important point: contemporary anti-fascism must also be international. Across countries and continents, working people face increasingly similar challenges.

Labor precarity, austerity, privatization and rising living costs are widespread. Farmers confront land dispossession and agrarian crises. Indigenous communities resist extractive industries. Migrants face criminalization and exploitation. Women experience both economic marginalization and intensified patriarchal violence.

These struggles are interconnected. Yet far-right and authoritarian movements seek to fragment them. Migrants are blamed for unemployment. Minorities are portrayed as threats to national identity. External enemies are invoked to justify domestic repression.

These strategies are designed to divide the oppressed and protect entrenched power structures. Solidarity among peoples provides the most effective response.

This solidarity cannot remain abstract. It must be built through concrete forms of cooperation: joint campaigns against debt and austerity, solidarity with migrants and refugees, resistance to militarization and war, defense of labor rights, and protection of democratic freedoms.

Internationalism is therefore not merely an ethical commitment. It is a political necessity.

Coalitions of Resistance

History offers important lessons. The strongest resistance to fascism has emerged from broad coalitions of social forces: workers, peasants, students, intellectuals, and democratic movements.

These struggles often crossed national borders. Anti-colonial movements, anti-apartheid struggles, and international labour solidarity all demonstrated the power of collective action beyond national boundaries. Rebuilding that spirit of solidarity is essential today.

In a world marked by fragmentation and fear, international cooperation among peoples offers an alternative based on equality and justice. Anti-imperialism and anti-fascism are not separate struggles but interconnected dimensions of the same political project.

Strengthening cooperation across movements, deepening international solidarity, and resisting division and authoritarianism are urgent tasks.

The future will not be determined solely by powerful states or geopolitical rivalries. It will also be shaped by organized peoples acting collectively across borders.

In confronting rising fascism, anti-imperialism and solidarity among peoples remain central pillars of a democratic and emancipatory alternative.

July-August 2026, ATC 243