Gibson: What is Fascism?

[ErikJ]

What is Fascism ?

by Rich Gibson

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3. Fascism deceptively calls for the national unity of social classes, class-collaboration, but actually promotes the division of people by race, sex, culture, nation, or religion. Fascism was, under Mussolini and, later, Hitler, conceived as the "corporate state", that is, all the resources of the society were directed toward the support of corporate profits in the name of national unity and economic development. In order to motivate warriors and bolster profits, fascism conceals the real and insoluble tensions between those who own and those who work.

4. Fascism frequently is employed as a strategic base for war. Fascist shifts in government and official ideology grow with war preparations.

5. Violence and terror, made tolerable by racism and sexism (ideas which view people as sub-human) become public policy.

6. Fascism relies on mysticism, organized irrationalism, a culture which turns to superstition, irrationality (extreme religious dogmatism, the fear of sexuality, celebrations of misogyny, death, and hopelessness--serving to explain apparent systematic despair), and retards science and social production in order to mask its own decay. Indeed, fascism is organized decay.

There is a jagged line which runs from conservative Christianity to anti-semitism to anti-communism which underpins much of fascist writing. But, there is no consistency to fascist ideology, other than to preserve capitalism. Fascism is irrationalism organized to sustain inequality and authoritarianism. Even so, the role of the ideology of irrationalism can become powerful, that is, Nazis sacrificed the productive work of many Jews in order to kill them.

7. Fascism is virulently anti-communist. Communists (and perhaps some anarchists), who have been the only consistent and effective anti-fascist fighters, are the fascist's first targets.
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/What_Is_Fascism_Gibson.html

[DevonRex]

1. That's all right but...

I would organize and phrase a bit differently, I guess. For example #4. To me it stands to reason that fascism has the best chance to take hold when a country struggles out of depression. Best way to do that? Defense spending and infrastructure spending. War preparations. So, might as well say who you're against, right? That's where nationalism and racism come in and really take root. Then, those corporations are turning out planes and bombs and making profits for the great people (only the right people) and of course there must eventually be a war.

I agree, communists are the only ones who saw fascists for what they were when there was still time to stop it. But capitalists wouldn't listen. Refused to listen. Refused to ally with them. And look what happened. It's why a certain revered western leader is not my favorite by a long shot. And I don't mean FDR.

[el_bryanto]

2. Up until the Nazi Soviet Pact of course

At which point International Communists decided that Western Democracies were fundamentally the same as Fascists.

Bryant

[DevonRex]

5. Well

Stalin tried to forge an alliance with us first. So that was the choice he was left with. He knew it wouldn't last long, though. It did give the USSR some additional time to prepare and they did. Which ended up helping us all in the end.

It's just one of those things that annoys me. I am no fan of Stalin at all. But he did have his strong points. He saw Hitler and Franco and Mussolini as really dangerous. He was right. Yes, I hear the irony in that. The fact is, he was spot on about Hitler's intent. England, France and the USA were hopelessly wrong. They were also wrong not to forge an alliance with Stalin when they could.

[COLGATE4]

7. Stalin may have thought he was buying time

to prepare when he signed the pact with Hitler but all reports show him to be so stunned as to be essentially catatonic for days after Hitler invaded Russia. He first refused to believe reports of the invasion and was very slow in trying to organize any resistance. He never believed Hitler would actually invade.

[DevonRex]

9. Oh, he knew.

He always knew. That's the only reason he had been willing to ally with capitalists. Let's face it, it's not as if communists like capitalists a helluva lot, either. But he knew Hitler would invade the USSR. Because Hitler hated Communists and made no bones about it. And he knew Hitler was more batshit crazy than he was.

Stalin was scared shitless, plain and simple. But if you were Stalin, which story would you rather get told? Scared shitless or he just didn't believe it? And when's the last time you went catatonic just because you didn't believe something, anyway?

I rest my case.

[COLGATE4]

10. Whether I get scared shitless and go catatonic or

not isn't particularly relevant here. His withdrawal and apathy for weeks after the invasion of Russia are not reported by him but by people close to him who observed him, so I don't see what 'what story he would want told' makes to the point of what actually happened. The 'buying time' canard was introduced later by apologists to cover up his being blindsided by Hitler's treachery.

[DevonRex]

16. No. You are absolutely wrong.

You're simply repeating the history that was told to justify a whole host of things. Stalin despised Hitler, which is why he got involved in Spain when no other country did. And that is exactly why he knew Hitler would invade the Soviet Union. He wasn't surprised by Hitler's treachery. He'd been screaming about it to anyone who would listen since the Spanish Revolution for chrisake.

FDR was more inclined to listen to Stalin's warnings. But he had a strong isolationist faction to deal with. Not only that but OUR large corporations were sympathetic to Hitler and fascism. Anything he could have done to prepare for war in the free market would have been immediately stymied. And he knew it. He had stretched the public coffers as far as they'd go on infrastructure projects to get people working again, so there wasn't much he could do within the federal budget to prepare for war. But make no mistake, FDR did know Stalin was right about Germany - even if he didn't grasp the magnitude of the military buildup.

FDR also had to deal with England who despised the USSR for more reasons than just economics. It did have everything to do with class and what happened to the last Tsar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/books/review/Seymour-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
"We Three Kings"

[Zen Democrat]

6. Stalin despised the Nazis and allied with them because the US would not get in the war.

Russia was afraid that without an alliance with Germany, Hitler would come after him and without a Western front that would be grim. Hitler invaded anyway.

[Starry Messenger]

12. I've met a couple of CPUSA WW2 veterans.

They are as serious as heart attacks about opposing the right-wing in this country because they never want to see the rise of what ultimately led to fascism ever again. For what its worth...

[BainsBane]

3. Fascism hinges on a corporatist state

Meaning the state was seen as a human body, with different sectors (labor, the military, agriculture, industry) comprising parts of the body. That is what is eluded to in part 1 above. Mussolini described fascism as a third way between capitalism and communism. It was meant to moderate the excesses of capitalism and co-opt the labor movement so as to avoid communist revolution.

[The Magistrate]

8. Exactly, Ma'am

I get very tired of the persistent mis-understanding and mis-representation of this 'corporate state' phrase, and dismiss out of hand any commentary which, as the above does, casts it falsely. Neither Mussolini nor Hitler, nor for that matter Pilsudski or Antonesceau or Horthy, or Franco, or any others who may slip immediate recollection, gave the north end of a south-bound rat for any company's money profits, and industrialists who thought they controlled any fascist leader found themselves pretty quickly in a world of hurt.

[newfie11]

4. Sounds like the repug party nt

[joeybee12]

11. That's not true...I saw all those teabagger signs saying Obama was A Fascist Communist!

[Nye Bevan]

13. Fascism also involves Government control of the press.

Dealing ruthlessly with journalists who step out of line, to send a message to the rest of the industry. Intimidating reporters by tapping their personal phones.

Using the awesome power of Government bodies such as the IRS against political enemies would be another warning sign.

We need to guard against stuff like this.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. Dictatorship is a sine qua non for fascism.

Not all dictatorships are fascist, but all fascist states are dictatorship (or at a pinch unelected oligarchies) s by definition. And the difference between a fascist and a non-fascist dictatorship is mostly just details and semantics.

If it is possible to remove leaders by elections, then a state is definitely not fascist.

[Nye Bevan]

15. And the genius of the US Constitution is that it is extremely hard to envisage a dictatorship here.

I can just about imagine something like that getting through two thirds of the House and Senate (in VERY extreme circumstances) but I can't see ratification by 38 states.

Compare this to somewhere like the UK where Parliament can simply vote to extend its life indefinitely, with a simple majority, without violating any constitutional provisions or being subject to any judicial review. The only possibility I can see is that the Queen might stop this.

It is certainly easier to imagine fascism taking root in the UK than in the US. Especially with people like Nick Griffin and Nigel Farage on the scene.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. I don't agree - I think that there is no possibility whatsoever of a parliament doing that.

Neither the BNP nor UKIP has a single MP. They do well as protest votes in elections people don't care about, but not in national elections.

[mrdmk]

17. There is a lot interesting reading on this site

check it out!

link: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Fascism/Fascism.html

[arely staircase]

18. I disagree with part of number 6

Hitler gave not shit about "preserving capitalism." His goal was a "racially pure" German empire and he was certainly willing/eager to get in bed with large corporations like Krupp or Mercedes-Benz or Hugo Boss to fulfill that dream. But to think that preserving Krupp/Mercedes/Boss were the "consistency" to his ideology is off the mark.