Fascist symbolism

Fasces

The Roman fasces, also called fascio littorio, gave fascism both its name and foundational emblem.^[3] In fascism, the symbol of the fasces represents strength through unity: individual rods that could be broken separately became unbreakable when bound together.^[4] The choice of the fasces to represents the movement was also tied to Italy’s Roman legacy, as the fascist state presented itself as the legitimate heir of the Roman Empire.^[5] In ancient Rome, the fasces represented a symbol of power and authority, carried by lictors who accompained senior Roman magistrates.^[6]

The fasces was widely used by a wide range of political movements prior to 1914, including liberal of leftist groups. the symbol was later adopted by Benito Mussolini as the emblem of his Italian Fasces of Combat (later renamed the National Fascist Party in 1921), founded in 1919 in Milan.^[5] In Italy, the term fascio constituted a common political expression to designate a “group” or “association”, as it was used by the Fasci Siciliani in the 1890s, or the Fasci d'Azione Rivoluzionaria during World War I with the goal of promoting Italian intervention.^[6] Since Mussolini’s rise to power and the establishment of Fascist Italy, the fasces became synonymous with fascism in Italy and globally, as the image appeared on party insignia, military standards, public buildings, coins, and postage stamps throughout the years of the Fascist regime.^[7]

Outside of Italy, the fasces also enjoyed usage from other fascist parties in Europe. In Denmark, the fasces was used by a few groups inspired by Italian fascism in the early 1920s.^[8] In the United Kingdom, the fasces was also used as the main emblem of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and the Imperial Fascist League during their early years.^[9] According to Mosley himself, the fasces was “a symbol used in Britain for the last 2,000 years and are to be found on most of our great monuments. The symbol was brought to Britain by our Roman ancestors, who were here for four centuries and their stock remained for ever”.^[10] In 1935, as the BUF distanced from fascism to embrace Nazism, the group dropped the fasces and replaced it with the flash and circle as a regional fascist symbol, while the IFL replaced it with the swastika by the time the Nazis rose to power in Germany.^[11]

Other symbols used by the Italian Fascists included the aquila, the Capitoline Wolf, and the SPQR motto, each related to Italy's ancient Roman cultural history, which the Fascists attempted to resurrect.

Swastika

The right-facing swastika (German: Hakenkreuz, "hooked cross") became the defining symbol of National Socialism in Germany, being adopted during the interwar period as the main symbol of the Nazi movement. During the early twentieth-century, as early as 1910, the swastika was used as a symbol by German nationalists and the Völkisch movement, presented as an ancient Aryan sun symbol and a badge of the supposed racial superiority of the Germanic peoples.^[12] Following World War I, the swastika was used by the Freikorps of the Ehrhardt Brigade as a motif on their helmets.^[13] In 1920, the swastika was officially adopted by the Nazi Party as its main emblem, appearing on the party flag designed by Adolf Hitler himself — a red field bearing a white disc at its center, within which the black swastika was set at a forty-five-degree angle. Shortly after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in March 1933, the party flag was hoisted alongside the Imperial tricolor flag.^[14] In 1935, as part of the Nuremberg laws, the NSDAP flag – with the white disk and swastika slightly offset from centre – was adopted as the sole national flag of Germany.^[15]

The swastika’s use as a nationalist symbol was not exclusive to German National Socialism, as it also served as symbol of Russian fascism. The swastika as a fascist symbol was firstly adopted by Russian émigré circles and nationalist organizations during the interwar period. In 1931, the swastika was adopted as the official emblem of the All-Russian Fascist Party, formed under the leadership of Konstantin Rodzaevskii in Manchuria.^[16] In the Fourth Party Congress in 1939, following a dispute between the two leading Russian fascist figures —Konstantin Rodzaevskii and Mikhail Alekseevich Matkovskii— the later demanded to cut all ties with the Nazis and the removal of the swastika as the party emblem, as he believed Hitler’s interests were against the Slavs'.^[17]

Following Germany’s defeat in World War II and the consequent denazification of the country, the Allied governments removed Nazi propaganda and symbols and criminalized the dissemination of such, including the swastika. Subsequent German governments continued the ban on Nazi symbols and propaganda.^[18] Although the swastika was a popular symbol in art prior to the regimental use by Nazi Germany and has a long heritage in many other cultures throughout history, the meaning of the swastika in the West has remained intrinsically associated with the atrocities committed under the Nazi regime, including the Holocaust.^[19]

Yoke and arrows

The fascist Falange in Spain utilized the yoke and arrows as their symbol. It historically served as the symbol of the shield of the monarchy of Ferdinand and Isabella and subsequent Catholic monarchs, representing a united Spain and the "symbol of the heroic virtues of the race".^[20] The original uniform of the Falangistas was the blue shirt – derived from the blue overalls of industrial workers – which was later combined with the red beret of the Carlists to represent their merger by Franco.

Other symbols

Many other fascist movements did not win power or were relatively minor regimes in comparison and their symbolism is not well-remembered today in many parts of the world, although the BUF's Flash and Circle was later used by the non-fascist People's Action Party of Singapore.

In alphabetical order by nation:

• In Argentina, the Nationalist Liberation Alliance, used the Andean condor.
• Austria's Fatherland's Front, that ruled the country from 1933 to 1938, used the crutch cross as its symbol.
• Lightning bolts were a common symbol of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, appearing on uniforms, newspaper mastheads, badges and on the movement's flags. The symbol completely replaced the fasces used from 1932 to 1935 with the adoption of the Flash and Circle.
• The Brazilian Integralist Action used an upper case sigma (Σ), to represent the summation of all things under the State.
• The symbol of the Bulgarian national-socialist Ratnik movements was a sun cross named "Bogar".
• The symbol of the Croatian Ustaše movement was capital letter U with the flaming grenade and the Croatian coat of arms.
• A prominent symbol of the Greek 4th of August Regime was the Labrys/Pelekys, the double-headed axe which Ioannis Metaxas thought to be the oldest symbol of all Hellenic civilizations.
• Greece's far-right, ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn Party uses a flag depicting a meandros in a style and color scheme reminiscent of the Nazi swastika.
• The symbol of Hungary's fascistic Arrow Cross Party was the Arrow Cross.
• The National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB) used the Wolfsangel as its main symbol.
• The symbol of the Norwegian Nasjonal Samling was a golden/yellow sun cross on red background.
• The symbol of Salazar's Portuguese Estado Novo regime was a stylized version of the Christ Cross and shield found on the national flag to distinguish its rivals in the Movimento Nacional-Sindicalista used the Order of Christ Cross.
• The symbol of the Romanian Iron Guard was a triple cross (a variant of the triple parted and fretted) – three parallel verticals intersected with three parallel horizontals, usually in black; it was meant to represent prison bars, as a badge of martyrdom. It was sometimes deemed the Archangel Michael Cross, after the patron saint of the movement.
• The symbol of the Silver Legion of America was a silver flag with a scarlet letter L.
• The Russian Movement Against Illegal Immigration used the black-colored road sign "Stop Prohibited" (similar to the swastika) as their main symbol.
• The quasi-Fascist Yugoslav ZBOR used a green shield with a blade of wheat on it, with a sword crossing the shield.

Credere, obbedire, combattere

"Credere, obbedire, combattere” (Believe, obey, fight) is the most well-known Fascist slogan.^[27] It calls for an absolute faith in the leader, disciplined submission to the state, and readiness for struggle and sacrifice in service of the nation.^[28] Allegedly coined by fascist politician Achille Starace,^[29] the motto was introduced by the National Fascist Party as an official slogan during the brief leadership of party secretary Giovanni Giuriati in 1931.^[27] During the fascist period, it was written on walls, introduced in school textbooks, and announced to the Italian youth at summer camps.^[28]

Me ne frego

The slogan “Me ne frego” (I don’t care) is a historic fascist and nationalist motto that expresses a contempt for fear, pain and death in service of the nation. It originated in Gabriele d’Annunzio’s writings, and was employed in World War I as a motto among the Italian Arditi, monarchists who volunteered to fight at the front.^[30] It served as a war cry for courage and daring, expressing “I don’t mind dying for freedom”.^[31] During the interwar period, the slogan became closely associated with the fascist movement in Italy as it was adopted by Mussolini’s Black Shirts and later by the Fascist regime, symbolizing a new Italian lifestyle and the interpretation of life as duty, exaltation and conquest.^[32] Following World War II, the slogan has been revived by modern fascist and neo-fascists movements in Italy.^[33]

Fasces

Swastika

Yoke and Arrows