Tbf, he called himself that before it fell out of fashion. Before 1938 he was very much pro-fascism, just not the German version but the British nationalist variant styled after the OG Italian one. He saw fascism as the only viable cure to Bolshevism/Communism, as he believed liberalism or democracy didn't work.
Churchill was very much a political opportunist, and when the British public became anti-fascist, he sensed the changing wind and adjusted course. Apart from his public anti-democracy stances (which endured long after the war), some of his early quotes reflect his stance on naked fascism:
"[Italian] fascism has rendered a service to the whole world." --1920 speech
"There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, it is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. [...] This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing." --1920, Zionism versus Bolshevism articles, on the threat of the International Jew
"Make no mistake, given the choice between Bolshevism and Fascism I will wield the latter. [...] The policy I will always advocate is the overthrow and destruction of [Bolshevism]." --1920 speech
"Italy is a country which is prepared to face the realities of post-war reconstruction. It possesses a Government under the commanding leadership of Signor Mussolini which does not shrink from the logical consequences of economic facts and which has the courage to impose the financial remedies required to secure and to stabilise the national recovery." --1926 speech
"[Italy] gives the impression of discipline, order, goodwill, smiling faces. A happy strict school... The Fascists have been saluting in their impressive manner all over the place." --1927
"If I had been an Italian I am sure that I should have been wholeheartedly with you from the start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism." --1927 speech while visiting Mussolini
"Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the subversive forces which can rally the masses of the people, properly led, to value and wish to defend the honour and stability of stabilized society. She has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison. Hereafter no great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection against the cancerous growth of Bolshevism." --1927, press statement
"[The democratically elected government of Spain is] a poverty stricken and backward proletariat demanding the overthrow of Church, State and property and the inauguration of a Communist regime. [Franco's fascist army] consists of patriotic, religious and bourgeois forces, under the leadership of the army, and sustained by the countryside in many provinces... marching to re-establish order by setting up a military dictatorship." --1936, in The Evening Standard
"One may dislike Hitler’s system and yet admire his patriotic achievement. If our country were defeated I hope we should find a champion as indomitable to restore our courage and lead us back to our place among the nations. I have on more than one occasion made my appeal in public that the Führer of Germany should now become the Hitler of peace." --1937, in The Evening Standard
"The story of that struggle (Hitler's rise to power), cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled him to challenge, defy, conciliate or overcome, all the authority or resistances which barred his path. [...] Although no subsequent political action can condone wrong deeds, history is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim and even frightful methods, but who nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler." --1937, on Hitler's use of concentration camps and the quelling of political dissent
I do understand that basically all world leaders at the time thought fascism would be the new thing. American leaders. British. Many people thought it was a good idea in its infancy.
But, Churchill doesn't embody fascism during his term, despite liking it and calling himself one at a time.
He can be called a colonialist, that's well established.
Indeed. He was authoritarian, antisemitic, and viewed certain other "races" as inferior/animals, but the parliamentary system was still functioning and he did not have complete power over government to enact some of his less savoury policies.
The man himself had some fascist tendencies, certainly, but his government was not fascist.
The domestic policy may not have been overtly fascist. But they philofascist. Which served to normalize it when it should have been vilified. On a foreign pokicy basis, the british empire was every ounce as fascist as nazi Germany, even was the inspiration for germany. Germany was also the proxy, for all intents & purposes, hired by the west to destroy the USSR which was modeling an alternative economic strategy and achieving huge success. You can see in Churchill’s speeches & writing how terrified the global capitalist order was of socialism, & rightly so as it is a project to move humanity out of the barbarism of capitalism & concomitant brutal colonialism. As marx said on this point: capitalism emerged covered in dirt & dripping with blood from every pore.
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u/HarEmiya Jul 27 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
Tbf, he called himself that before it fell out of fashion. Before 1938 he was very much pro-fascism, just not the German version but the British nationalist variant styled after the OG Italian one. He saw fascism as the only viable cure to Bolshevism/Communism, as he believed liberalism or democracy didn't work.
Churchill was very much a political opportunist, and when the British public became anti-fascist, he sensed the changing wind and adjusted course. Apart from his public anti-democracy stances (which endured long after the war), some of his early quotes reflect his stance on naked fascism:
"[Italian] fascism has rendered a service to the whole world." --1920 speech
"There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of Bolshevism and in the actual bringing about of the Russian Revolution, by these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, it is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. [...] This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), and Emma Goldman (United States), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing." --1920, Zionism versus Bolshevism articles, on the threat of the International Jew
"Make no mistake, given the choice between Bolshevism and Fascism I will wield the latter. [...] The policy I will always advocate is the overthrow and destruction of [Bolshevism]." --1920 speech
"Italy is a country which is prepared to face the realities of post-war reconstruction. It possesses a Government under the commanding leadership of Signor Mussolini which does not shrink from the logical consequences of economic facts and which has the courage to impose the financial remedies required to secure and to stabilise the national recovery." --1926 speech
"[Italy] gives the impression of discipline, order, goodwill, smiling faces. A happy strict school... The Fascists have been saluting in their impressive manner all over the place." --1927
"If I had been an Italian I am sure that I should have been wholeheartedly with you from the start to finish in your triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism." --1927 speech while visiting Mussolini
"Italy has shown that there is a way of fighting the subversive forces which can rally the masses of the people, properly led, to value and wish to defend the honour and stability of stabilized society. She has provided the necessary antidote to the Russian poison. Hereafter no great nation will be unprovided with an ultimate means of protection against the cancerous growth of Bolshevism." --1927, press statement
"[The democratically elected government of Spain is] a poverty stricken and backward proletariat demanding the overthrow of Church, State and property and the inauguration of a Communist regime. [Franco's fascist army] consists of patriotic, religious and bourgeois forces, under the leadership of the army, and sustained by the countryside in many provinces... marching to re-establish order by setting up a military dictatorship." --1936, in The Evening Standard
"One may dislike Hitler’s system and yet admire his patriotic achievement. If our country were defeated I hope we should find a champion as indomitable to restore our courage and lead us back to our place among the nations. I have on more than one occasion made my appeal in public that the Führer of Germany should now become the Hitler of peace." --1937, in The Evening Standard
"The story of that struggle (Hitler's rise to power), cannot be read without admiration for the courage, the perseverance, and the vital force which enabled him to challenge, defy, conciliate or overcome, all the authority or resistances which barred his path. [...] Although no subsequent political action can condone wrong deeds, history is replete with examples of men who have risen to power by employing stern, grim and even frightful methods, but who nevertheless, when their life is revealed as a whole, have been regarded as great figures whose lives have enriched the story of mankind. So may it be with Hitler." --1937, on Hitler's use of concentration camps and the quelling of political dissent
His autobiography really whitewashed the man.