Quotes

Good points. A few rejoinders. Not to disagree so much as to expand on what you're saying.

I'm unsure if it's accurate but the quote is dated 1975, when the USSR was still a world power. Not that I disagree with the principle, though. I'd say communism begins with (or begins to emerge alongside) workers organising against capital. It's a long process, which can be divided into stages.

Then fascism is the reaction to worker organisation. Again, it's a process that can be split into stages.

From this perspective, the October revolution is the first time that workers were organised to such an extent that they could expell capital from a state. As such, it requires a more extreme reaction from capital, which must utilise states of its own. We see a complete restructuring of Germany, Italy, Spain, to prevent their own revolutions. I.e. capital's reaction to Marxism-Leninism.

As for today, as workers continue to resist capital, the forces of reaction continue to push back. Marxism-Leninism has been contained to a few countries for now. But the fascists are waiting in the wings to protect capital if progress towards communism increases pace.

In the meantime, many fascist practices have simply been built in as a prophylactic. So much so, that it's been naturalised and assimilated into vanilla liberalism.

Maybe Fidel's is colourful language where 'fascism' may need to be replaced with 'forces of reaction' in some places. The overall sentiment seems true.

Anyway, this is where I agree with you: reaction turning into fascism is intended to re-secure capitalism after it faces certain shocks.