The overwhelming response from those who heard this program was disbelief - how can an analysis of Fascism made in 1995 be so relevant for 2025! This talk was recorded before a standing room audience of 1,200 in Berkeley, CA, on September 23, 1995.
Fascism, as Mussolini allegedly said, should be more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." And history, as told by Michael Parenti, shows that in all fascist societies, be it Italy, Germany, Japan, Spain, and into the present, corporate power increased. When the power of capital is untrammeled, Parenti says, all of us are at risk. The environment, the sacred forests, the creatures of the sea. The real burden to society are not the poor but the corporate rich we can no longer afford them.
Parenti reminds us that US corporations such as Dupont, Ford, GM, ITT, had factories in fascist Germany and after the war collected money from the US tax payers for damages incurred in Allied bombing raids.
Parenti grew up in a working class Italian part of New York City and earned a PhD in political science from Yale. He consciously gave up the opportunity for an academic career when he publicly opposed the war on Vietnam, was arrested and lost his position. Parenti decided to become an independent author, lecturer and activist and has taught in the US and abroad.
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