The following text and video is a presentation given by Carlos Martinez to a Red Books Day hybrid event in London, organised by Manifesto Press. Carlos discusses the enduring relevance of Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism.
Parenti’s legacy was discussed in depth at a recent webinar organised by the International Manifesto Group, featuring Ali Kadri, Ben Norton, Corinna Mullin, Immanuel Ness, Gabriel Rockhill, Sara Flounders, Shiran Illanperuma and Barry Lituchy, and chaired by Carlos Martinez.
Michael Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds, published in 1997 — just a few years after Francis Fukuyama proclaimed “the end of history” — is a powerful and sweeping counter-history of the 20th century told from the standpoint of the global working class.
At its core, the book does three things. First, it provides a systematic Marxist analysis of fascism. Second, it tears down the edifice of Cold War anti-communist propaganda. And third, it dismantles the obscene notion — put forward not only by the right but by significant sections of the so-called liberal left — that fascism and communism are equivalent.
Fascism as rational class rule
Parenti builds on the work of Marxist theorists such as Rajani Palme Dutt, Georgi Dimitrov and Palmiro Togliatti to show that fascism is not an aberration, not a mysterious eruption of evil, but rather a systematic response of the ruling classes to the chronic crisis of capitalism and the threat of socialism. As Palme Dutt wrote in his 1934 study Fascism and Social Revolution: “Capitalism in its decay breeds fascism.”
Parenti demonstrates that while fascism tends to adopt some populist slogans and purports to represent the interests of the working class, in reality it always preserves existing capitalist property relations while violently suppressing labour movements, trade unions and left-wing parties. In his words: “If fascism means anything, it means all-out government support for business and severe repression of antibusiness, prolabour forces.” In this sense, fascism has functioned as a form of “rational” class rule — brutal and authoritarian, but serving clear economic interests.
Parenti also exposes the relationship between fascism and racism. Fascist doctrine marshals genetics and biology to justify and protect the class dynamics of capitalism, deploying national chauvinism, racism and patriarchal values to divide the working class and legitimise oppression at home and abroad. It’s no accident, by the way, that today we see a resurgence of racist pseudoscience and the popularisation of white supremacist ideas under the guise of so-called “conservative values”.
Defending actually existing socialism
The second major contribution of Blackshirts and Reds is its unflinching defence of the socialist countries. Parenti — with no regard whatsoever for the respectability or indeed salary that academics typically chase — tears down the “victims of communism” narrative, exposing the US-led imperialist system as the real perpetrator of mass slaughter and suffering around the world.
He observes that the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries have, in incredibly difficult circumstances, performed near-miracles in terms of economic development, social welfare and international solidarity. Not to mention playing the decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany.
Defending those achievements, Parenti advances a theory of “siege socialism”: that the socialist countries were from the very beginning subjected to war, foreign intervention, destabilisation, blockade and relentless propaganda. As he puts it:
“The anti-Red propagandists uttered nary a word about how revolutionaries in Russia, China, Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua, and other countries nationalised the lands held by rich exploitative landlords and initiated mass programs for education, health, housing, and jobs. Not a word about how their efforts advanced the living standards and life chances of hundreds of millions in countries that had long suffered under the yoke of feudal oppression and Western colonial pillage.”
Parenti exposes with devastating wit the absurdity of anti-communist propaganda, observing that within the Cold War ideological framework, literally any piece of data about the socialist countries could be twisted into hostile evidence: “If the churches in the USSR were empty, this demonstrated that religion was suppressed; but if the churches were full, this meant the people were rejecting the regime’s atheistic ideology.”
Against the “pure socialists”
Some of the most cutting passages in Blackshirts and Reds are directed not at the right but at sections of the left — what Parenti calls the “pure socialists”, who support every revolution except the ones that succeed:
“This ‘pure socialism’ view is ahistorical and nonfalsifiable; it cannot be tested against the actualities of history. It compares an ideal against an imperfect reality, and the reality comes off a poor second. It imagines what socialism would be like in a world far better than this one, where no strong state structure or security force is required, where none of the value produced by workers needs to be expropriated to rebuild society and defend it from invasion and internal sabotage.”
Parenti asks bluntly: is an open, pluralistic, democratic socialism actually possible in a context of imperialist encirclement? The pure socialists blame every revolution for failing to meet their imaginary standards, but “seem unable to apply their own leadership genius to producing a successful revolutionary movement in their own country.”
Why it matters today
Blackshirts and Reds was written nearly three decades ago, but it resonates with extraordinary force in the early 21st century.
Capitalism is once again in chronic crisis. Trumpism is in the ascendancy throughout the West. ICE functions as a modern-day stormtrooper force in the US. The US is launching flagrantly illegal attacks on Venezuela and Cuba, supporting an ongoing genocide in Gaza, and threatening war against Iran.
The Project for a New American Century increasingly requires what can only be described as the naked dictatorship of capital, both domestically and internationally.
Meanwhile, the Cold War propaganda that was once directed primarily against the Soviet Union is now directed primarily against China — and, sadly, is echoed by many on the left who have revived the unlamented “Neither Washington Nor Moscow” as “Neither Washington Nor Beijing”.
On the other hand, multipolarity is emerging. At a global and historic level, the socialist countries and the national liberation movements are gaining strength. Parenti’s analysis in Blackshirts and Reds strongly supports the organising principle that our movement needs now more than ever: a global united front against imperialism.
What does that mean in practice? It means supporting China, supporting Cuba, supporting all the socialist countries. It means supporting national liberation from Palestine to Ireland. It means opposing imperialist war and aggression. It means organising against fascism. It means supporting the forces of multipolarity and the defence of the United Nations Charter. And it means countering the propaganda war, exposing lies, and building a powerful counter-hegemonic narrative — exactly as Parenti spent his life doing.
Parenti showed that the choice facing humanity is not between capitalism and some imaginary perfect socialism, but between the actually existing struggle for a better world and the barbarism associated with a dying capitalism. Blackshirts and Reds is essential reading for anyone committed to standing on the side of socialism, not barbarism.