ABSTRACT
The products were so hybrid that it is necessary to speak of French fascisms rather than fascism. Indiscriminate use of the label ‘fascist’ in contemporary political controversy adds greatly to the difficulty of defining and identifying the true phenomenon. The failure of the insurrection drove the irreconcilables of the Organisation Armee Secrete into nihilistic terrorism, which made them the heroes of the fascist hard core throughout Europe. Only in Algeria between 1954 and 1961 has anything that could remotely be called fascism won mass support, and even it met disaster when it failed to move metropolitan France. Anti-communism also is a basic component of fascism. All fascists demand, if not the suppression, at least the isolation and harassment of communist parties. Their anti-communism often extends to socialists. On this point the parties of the extreme right share the hard core’s views.
