Anti-Fascism & Egalitarianism
by John Spritzler
June 30, 2026
One way of thinking about what egalitarianism (described briefly here and in more detail here) is is that it is the abolition of ALL aspects of society that are oppressive (h/t to D.S. for this idea.) And one way of thinking about what fascism is is that it is pure oppression. In this sense, egalitarianism is pure anti-fascism.
Take for example what it is like to work for an employer in a society that most people would say is not a fascist society but just a liberal capitalist society. As far as one's hours on the job are concerned, one must obey the employer, do what the employer orders one to do, all for the benefit of the employer and not the benefit of oneself. There is not even the pretense of democracy. There is unvarnished tyranny, relieved only by the option to quit, in which case one must find a new employer to obey similarly. This has been rightly called 'wage slavery.' It could also rightly be called 'on-the-job fascism.'
In an egalitarian society such 'on-the-job fascism' is abolished. It is illegal for anybody to hire wage labor (not to mention illegal to possess slaves!)
Take for example the fact that in the liberal capitalist nations there is fake, not real, democracy. The government is actually a dictatorship of the rich, and the rich treat the have-nots like dirt. The only difference between this and overt fascism is that with overt fascism there is no pretence of democracy but in a liberal capitalist society there is such a pretense. Egalitarianism abolishes the dictatorship of the rich and replaces it with genuine democracy of, by and for people with egalitarian values. In this sense egalitarianism is pure anti-fascism.
The vast majority of people hate being oppressed on the job, ordered to do the bidding of an employer only for the benefit of the employer. And the vast majority of people hate living under a dictatorship of the rich and being treated like dirt by the rich. In this sense, the vast majority of people are anti-fascist and at the same time, for that very reason, pro-egalitarianism: pro-abolishing all fascist aspects of society.
There is, however, a sense in which egalitarianism is not anti-fascism.
Egalitarianism is not anti-fascism if, by "anti-fascism," one means ONLY opposing certain overt aspects of oppression, such as the kind of things we typically associate with fascists (an over-the-top autocratic all-powerful 'leader'; over-the-top use of racism and nationalism; denial of any pretense of democracy or civil rights) while NOT opposing the fascism on-the-job and the fascism of a fake democracy. Unfortunately all too many people do use the phrase 'anti-fascism' to mean this wrongly limited understanding of it. By limiting the meaning of 'anti-fascism' in this way, these 'anti-fascists' end up supporting actual fascists-in-practice-if-not-in-name. Egalitarians oppose fascists of all kinds, which is what most people want to do.