Socialism is democracy. Communism is anarchy. Fascism is representative state tyranny.

According to Benito Mussolini, Fascism is a system in which all things are arms of the state and nothing is permitted to be independent of the state. It was nationalist in scope and did not have the ethno-racial aspects of German National Socialism.

German National Socialism was ethnic in scope. One ethnic group were "supermen" and everyone else were subhuman. All Germans, everywhere, were expected to follow its dictates and practices with enthusiasm. The "Bund" movement was its American metastasis.

My reading of history indicates that, in both of the above, the wealthy could keep their wealth IF they would slavishly do as the state ordered. Not all were happy about it but they lost everything if perceived to resent it.

Marxism is the belief that Karl Marx was correct in his statements in "The Communist Manifesto." Because its pages describe both "Socialism" and "Communism," both can be correctly called "marxist." Both center on class distinctions without regard to nationality or ethnicity and explicitly focus on the welfare of the "working class." His theory of "Scientific Materialism" is motivated by what he calls the "Law of the Dialectic" which, he says, forces diametrically opposed natural forces ("thesis" and "antithesis" ) to merge, bit by bit, into a third different force ("synthesis" ).

Marx describes a process in which the "working class" overthrows its ruling class, takes over ownership and control of "the means of production" and establishes "the dictatorship of the proletariat." He calls this the state of Socialism and makes claims about the inevitable democratic progress that will occur.

That progress will inevitably lead to a classless society which he calls "Communism." He doesn't really say in any detail HOW this metamorphosis is to happen. I always see the image of a flowchart with box labeled "Magic happens HERE" whenever I think of this topic.

ALL of the above can be thought of as "socialism" because the society built on the specified framework is to be THE object of your loyalty and love. None other can be permitted to challenge it.

The above is my "theoretical answer" to your question.

In history, ALL of these systems have rested upon a practical foundation of secret police and arbitrary imprisonment and/or execution. Those forces and efforts ar expended to keep the tribe pure in every case. For the original Italian Fascists, it meant being Italian without any conflicting loyalties. For NAZIs, it meant being "Aryan" without conflicting loyalties. For both the Socialist and Communist, that means being a member of the laboring class. They appear to be "peas in a pod" to me with the only practical difference being how they define the tribe.

Therefore, my "practical answer" to your question is "the uniforms of the secret police."

They all sprang from Hegelian thought and working class anti elitism. In much the same way the various children of Karl der Große formed different nations out of the fractured Frankish Empire, the intellectual children of Hegel formed the various forms of modernism. Someone more knowledgeable than myself can probably do a much more thorough job of explaining the technical differences between them, I view them too much as different heads of the same Hydra to give an accurate description. Sorry that this wasn't exactly an answer to your question, I'm all about the interesting yet irrelevant.

All connected. Marxism is the general philosophy that socialism and communism were built on. Socialism is when the government (or community as a whole as fools will argue) own or control the ways and means of production. There is still some upward or downward mobility as you can earn different amounts based on skill and effort. Socialism is just communism in waiting though eventually those working hard are sick of carrying those that aren't. Those that aren't are still jealous of those doing better so it becomes communism, which is socialism where everyone makes the same. Fascism is the oppression of anyone that opposes the soul crushing reality of the piracy which is socialism