Your definition?

[Rusty Shackleford]

This is a slightly serious thread. Im doing this to get an idea of the definitions that should be used in the Leftist Video Project.
Either you can be as general as you want, or if it is not along any tendency line, or wildly different from others, please explain.

i may put this in learning and OI to get a broader view.

What is your definition of:
A) Socialism

B) Communism

C) Anarchism

D) Capitalism

E) Fascism

[Durruti's Ghost]

Socialism--a society characterized by workers' collective control of the means of production OR an ideology that aim to establish such a society.

Communism--a moneyless, classless, stateless society characterized by workers' collective control of the means of production OR an ideology that aims to establish such a society (a subset of socialism). There have been no communist societies in the modern era; however, there have been societies run by communists (i.e., the Soviet Union, revolutionary Spain, Cuba, PRC, etc.).

Anarchism--a variant of socialism that carries the caveat that a socialist society should be stateless, that it should be an "anarchy".

Capitalism--a society characterized by post-feudal relations of production, in which the social status of individuals is not legally defined and workers are not bound to their places of work but are instead hired by the private owners of the means of production (the bourgeoisie) on a temporary basis and on a market. The word can be used to describe the ideology that supports such a society; however, the more commonly used word for this ideology is "liberalism".

Fascism--a reactionary, hypernationalistic ideology that typically emerges in capitalist society as a reaction against both a perceived threat to the idealized "nation" (often in the form of some group of people or ideology perceived as being foreign to said nation) and against the negative aspects of capitalist society (exploitation, loss of community, etc.), which are usually perceived as being tied to the positive aspects of capitalist society (the disestablishment of religion, the breakdown of cultural barriers, etc.), leading fascists to attempt to attack and, indeed, reverse both. Fascism exists only as an ideology, and not as a socioeconomic system in itself; all previous societies run by fascists have retained capitalist relations of production.

[Kléber]

The modern definition of fascism is very broad and many people apply it to all far-right groups. Since the extreme right tends to be very sloppy about their ideology, I can see an argument for this broad usage of the term.

However the historical definition of fascism, as applied to the National Fascist Party of Italy and the National Socialist German Workers' Party, is a bit more clinical. European fascism as a mass movement ~100 years ago began in the realm of middle-class socialism; fascist leaders often had origins in national populism (which was once considered "left" in Italy and Germany because unification was viewed as a progressive demand) or the workers' movement itself. These people took nationalist positions in WWI and thus became renegades from the left; when crises shook their countries, they were co-opted by their nations' capitalists and bankrolled for the purpose of fighting, politically and in street battles, the organized working class. In spite of their bourgeois imperialist character, the mass fascist parties used a lot of radical anti-capitalist rhetoric, and deliberately copied the tactics and symbolism of the Socialist and Communist Parties to try and steal their members. In Mein Kampf Hitler said the Nazis chose red as their main color to get Marxist workers to come to their meetings. The Spanish Falangists chose red and black to appeal to anarchists. With massive funding, the fascists built mass support among not only the middle class but also the working class. They created paramilitary groups of thugs, often from the most exploited sectors of society, to break up strikes and combat the Socialists and Communists - whose occasional decision to align with ultra-right forces against one another only fed the growth of fascism.

Traditional conservatives love to point out the historical link between fascism and socialism. Fascism is like an evil twin of the workers' movement, molded in our image for the purpose of destroying us. If a mass fascist movement appears in a country it is a very bad sign.