Left-wing fascism

Left-wing fascism and left fascism are sociological and philosophical terms used to categorize tendencies in left-wing politics otherwise commonly attributed to the ideology of fascism. Fascism has historically been considered a far-right ideology, but crossovers may be expected according to the theory of horseshoe theory, where the touching point between the far-left and the far-right may be the use of power and/or political terrorism. Syntagmas such as left-wing fascism provide shorthand labels, but they lack any universally understood or agreed meaning and in common parlance may be used as a pejorative for any left-wing political position, or where unusual (or contradictory) hybrid political positions are perceived.

The term has its origins with criticism by Vladimir Lenin of the threat of anti-Marxist ultraleftism, before being formulated as a position by sociologists Jürgen Habermas and Irving Louis Horowitz.

The most prominent early user of the term "left-fascism" was Jürgen Habermas, a sociologist and philosopher influenced by the neo-Marxist Frankfurt School. He used the term in the 1960s to distance the Frankfurt School from the violence and authoritarianism of left-wing terrorists. Habermas, whose work emphasizes the importance of rational discourse, democratic institutions and opposition to violence, has made important contributions to conflict theory and is often associated with the radical left.

Sociologist Irving Louis Horowitz in his 1984 book Winners and Losers built on Vladimir Lenin's work "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder. Lenin describes the enemies of the working class as opportunists and petty-bourgeois revolutionaries, which he links to anarchism. Horowitz argues that there was a similar political strain in the United States in the 1980s, which he characterizes as "left-wing fascism". Horowitz argues that it is dangerous to assume clear distinctions between left, centre and right and that various combinations are possible. He warned of "left fascism" during later years of the European Years of Lead, which were rife with red-black terrorist groups such as the German Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) and the Italian Red Brigades, which had mixed left- and right-wing influences. Horowitz argues that "left-wing fascism" in the United States, as in Europe, is capable of combining very different ideological strains into a political formula that has the potential for mass appeal. He argues that it operates through mystified language, attributes faults "everywhere and always in an imperial conspiracy of wealth, power or status" and uses anti-Semitism as a pseudo-populist tool.

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