By CAIO HENRIQUE LOPES RAMIRO*

Primo Levi's denunciation is strongly projected in our time, reminding us how fascism is a cancer and we must oppose it

1.

In 1975, exactly thirty years after the end of the 2nd planetary war in which the Nazi-fascist alliance was militarily defeated, Primo Levi writes the text This was Auschwitz and warns: “fascism is a cancer that proliferates quickly and its return threatens us. Is it too much to ask that we oppose him from the start?”

Primo Levi is an Italian Jew – born in Turin on July 31, 1919 – who was part of the resistance to fascism in Italy at the time, meaning he is an “anti-fascist”.. On December 13, 1943, he was captured and imprisoned in a safe house located in the Alps and sent to the Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. The field experience will mark his skin and the (over)life of this trained chemist and writer due to his duty to give testimony.

In this way, as a survivor of concentration camps, Primo Levi's work is an account of evil, perhaps banal, but radically raw; of what materializes and takes legal form, a mythical violence that turns into a true death factory, managed by the Nazis.

The question posed by Primo Levi reaches our time and his testimony resonates strongly in our days, touching on important points in the Brazilian political debate, in particular it allows us to think about the topic of anti-fascism, that is, what political action in opposition to fascism means. .

2.

At the outset, it is worth stating some elements about what can be understood as fascism, not without some difficulty in approaching the political phenomenon to be seen as the object of our reflection. We do not accept as our task an exhaustive analysis of the fascist problem, but rather highlight some points that help us understand this difficult enigma.

This has been reflected on for some time and a fertile literature has been produced about fascism and its possible theoretical definitions, however, in general terms, we can see three meanings usually attributed to the term, namely: (a) a historical demarcation, which points to the specific historicity of Italian fascism, which emerged in the 1920s;

(b) An international approach, which considers the projection of fascism beyond Italian borders, fundamentally its reach into German territory – what was characterized as German fascism –, or at least the emergence of a literature of ultimate confrontation that praises the war and warriors, as can be seen, for example, in the writings of Ernst Jünger, which puts itself in the field of a total mobilization of resentments, projecting the image on the one hand of an eternal war and, sometimes, of a last combat , which in the shadows, as Walter Benjamin tells us, contains the idea of ​​a ritual and technical war that allows a discourse that aims to produce a new nationalism.

(c) The third use characterizes all movements and ideologies that come close to the first term, that is, “historical fascism”, taking on such a scope that made its use difficult. Therefore, there is a tendency to restrict its application and consider the phenomenon within the European time frame of the years 1919-1945, taking the Italian and Nazi models as a reference.

As mentioned above and observing the limits of this writing, we intend to present the general lines of what is characterized as fascism. It is important to consider that fascism is an authoritarian political regime whose characteristics are domination exercised through the cult of the leader, worship constructed by a political theology that works on a discourse about the mythical character of leadership, a device for mystifying the personality originating in myth. of the courage of the soldier/combatant or of the Messiah who will purify politics, which implies total control of society.

Furthermore, there may be a monopolization of political representation through the single mass and hierarchically organized party, which does not mean the complete disappearance of “mythical” leadership figures. Furthermore, an ideological narrative is constructed with exaltation of the national element, that is, a nationalism that despises democratic or liberal values, as well as some pretense of class collaboration, with socialism and communism as its enemy, which appears as a project to extinguish oppositions through violence and terror and, nevertheless, the use of a political propaganda apparatus which, in the words of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, is based on lies repeated a thousand times – which gains enormous meaning in times of social networks, memes, etc. Finally, in the economic sphere there is a certain dirigisme of an economy still structured on private property and the logic of capital whose objective is profit.

3.

Faced with such characteristics of fascism, the issue of Primo Levi seems to be strongly projected in our time. Therefore, it is important to consider Primo Levi's warning, as fascism is a cancer and we must oppose it, everyone who disagrees with the ideology exposed above and opposes this perspective takes an anti-fascist attitude.

Thus, in Primo Levi's definition, a fascist regime is any one in which “the fundamental equality of rights among human beings is denied, in theory or in practice; Now, as the individual or class whose rights are denied rarely adapts, in a fascist regime violence or fraud becomes necessary. Violence, to eliminate opponents, who always exist; fraud, to confirm to faithful followers that the exercise of arbitrariness is commendable and legitimate”.

In this way, if testimony was Primo Levi's duty, assuming an ethical meaning here, therefore; it comes to us, who must, then – out of respect for the memory of those who succumbed, as well as those who were saved and witnessed, it does not seem reasonable to place ourselves in the ranks of those who intend to trample on their bodies –, place and reflect honestly on the imperative question: “fascism is a rapidly proliferating cancer, and its return threatens us. Is it too much to ask that we oppose him from the start?”

*Caio Henrique Lopes Ramiro holds a doctorate in law from the University of Brasília (UnB).

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