Cockburns anti-PLC

brad.hatch brad.hatch at mciworld.com
Thu May 11 18:51:38 PDT 2000



>
>
> No I am not using a DSM4 type check list of fascism. I do not think such
> operational diagnostic schema get to the inner processes that shape
> phenomena. They are a check list of epiphenomena and deeply empricist in
> philosophical nature.
>
> I regard fascism as an abuse of bourgeois democratic rights probably
> accompanied by populist politics.
>
> It may sometimes suit finance capital but not always so.
>
> Bourgeois democratic rights can undoubtedly be abused by the left. That is
> a particular danger in post socialist societies. I think there was social
> fascism in Croatia and in Serbia. Putin, in alliance with the Russian
> Communist Party may move in that direction too.
>
> (I am not using the term social fascist as a form of abuse against social
> demoratic parties, who often need to be allies in the struggle to resist
> fascist tendencies, to defend and extend human rights in a socially
> coherent context, and not as abstract individualistic rights.)
>
> Do you not think that there can be abuses of socialist legality and human
> rights violations under socialism?

Yes I do think so. I've never thought of it as being fascist. I have a more narrow view of what fascism is. Maybe my definition is different from most. I see fascism as something more connected to capitalism. It also has more features of racism and xenaphobia. This doesn't make Stalin any better than Hitler. Both there histories are pretty grizzly.



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