" You simply do not understand how vicious and destructive bourgeois democracy at its very best is. Calling this sort of thing fascist is
really to apologize for capitalism. You have made "fascism" merely a synonym for nasty, and therefore emptied it of any useful meaning."
Perhaps the real question is: What WORD, rather than a phrase, can we use to describe the institutionalised poisoning of the population and the (almost overnight) destruction of our natural environment?
'Nasty' is a euphism for such government-sanctioned behaviour -as any family suffering from environmentally-induced tumours will tell you.
Neither do I regard 'fascism' as merely 'nasty'. I do not wish to empty the word 'fascism' from it's meaning.
What we have in Tasmania is a group of union thugs finding their way into State Government, nominating their cronies as Secretaries of the Departments and ensuring that 'conflict of interest' is structured into any body organised to 'monitor' and 'police' the agricutural industries.
This is not democracy. The bourgeous today (in Tasmania) have derived from the working classes. These thugs still, however, serve the interest of the corporate bureaucracy (probably through 'bribery'). A debate on the Tasmanian environmental issues cannot get off the ground in parliament because a Minister (or body set up to monitor the predicament) will merely 'lie' about the situation.
'Incipient fascism' isn't accurate either because the undemocratic and thuggish behaviour of government and the corporates shows 'full -blown' actions of contempt toward human rights (ie it's not in it's 'beginning phase').
....and what is there to prevent the repetition of such disastrous behaviour under 'socialism' and 'communism'..or any other system of government?
One fellow activists in Tasmania said (in response to this very question):
"I think its helpful to see this 'neo imperialism' that is represented by economic rationalism, corporatism and gobalistion as no more than an expression of the deep dark side of the human will to existence. The unchecked forces of the libido. Until we understand how they manifest themselves, in our individual selves , and how to regualte them , we are ill prepared to analyse the way in which they can manifest themselves in our instituions. We need this understanding to know how to design and modify our institutions to control this dark side. It is these instutions that we need as individuals to provide an ethical framework for the workings of the market.
In the case of Tasmanian forestry, we have a situation where these institutions have been penetrated, appropriated and corrupted over time. Recruited to the service of the libidinal needs of industry professionals, executives, shareholders and politicians alike. The Forest Practices Act and the RFA are no more than the fashioning of institutional tools to serve and protect those interests.
How do we move forward, as individuals? As community groups we have to build our understanding of this phenomenon. It is only when we demand the institutional reform to protect individual and community interests from our dark side, that it will happen. Lets have more MAEMaGs [a Tasmanian Email Network on forestry corruption), more politically active Catchment Management groups and landcare groups. Group prepared to stand up for their own interests.
Power taken by corrupt institutions and individuals, is power given by citizens, through apathy, ignorance, greed or weakness."
Brenda
----- Original Message ----- From: "Carrol Cox" <cbcox at ilstu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2001 11:28 PM Subject: Re: Fascism? in Tasmania
>
>
> > Brenda Rosser wrote:
> >
> > Perhaps someone in the lbo list could define what sort of behaviour
> > our State Government is currently involved:
> >
> > Is it f'ascist' to be allowing plantation corporations to poison a
> > multitude of household drinking water supplies with pesticides?
> >
> > Is it 'fascist' to carry on the escalation of the destruction of our
> > native forests and wildlife through massive clearfelling and 1080
> > poisoning state-wide?
>
> You simply do not understand how vicious and destructive bourgeois
> democracy at its very best is. Calling this sort of thing fascist is
> really to apologize for capitalism. You have made "fascism" merely a
> synonym for nasty, and therefore emptied it of any useful meaning.
>
> Carrol
>