Defining Fascism

Jim Farmelant farmelantj at juno.com
Wed Jun 27 10:35:54 PDT 2001


How do you feel about the traditional Trotskyist analysis of fascism, which treats fascist movements as means for mobilizing the petty bourgeoisie against the workers movement, and tends to view fascism in power as a species of bonarpartism?

Jim F.

On Wed, 27 Jun 2001 12:39:49 -0400 "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org> writes:
> Hi,
>
> Let me ask a blunt question. Has Charles Brown or Nathan Newman or
> anyone else claiming that it is hard to define fascism, or offering
> Dimitrov or R. Palme Dutt (or any of the other Comintern
> definitions),
> actually read anything written by Griffin? Anything written about
> fascism in the last 20 years?
>
> It seems to me that much of this discussion is based on a stunning
> lack
> of reading of recent material on the subject.
>
> Also. there is a difference between authoritarianism and
> totalitarianism. (and not the difference suggested by Kirkpatrick in
> her
> misrepresentation of arendt). There is a difference between a
> police
> state and a fascist police state.
>
> If you read Matt Lyons' definition, it talks about attacks on the
> left
> and the mythical organic tribalist nature of fascism.
>
> Here is the definition:
>
> What is Fascism?
> Some General Ideological Features
> by Matthew N. Lyons
>
> I am skeptical of efforts to produce a "definition" of fascism. As
> a
> dynamic historical current, fascism has taken many different forms,
> and
> has evolved dramatically in some ways. To understand what fascism
> has
> encompassed as a movement and a system of rule, we have to look at
> its
> historical context and development--as a form of
> counter-revolutionary
> politics that first arose in early twentieth-century Europe in
> response
> to rapid social upheaval, the devastation of World War I, and the
> Bolshevik Revolution. The following paragraphs are intented as an
> initial, open-ended sketch.
>
> Fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates
> the
> nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other
> loyalties. It emphasizes a myth of national or racial rebirth after
> a
> period of decline or destruction. To this end, fascism calls for a
> "spiritual revolution" against signs of moral decay such as
> individualism and materialism, and seeks to purge "alien" forces
> and
> groups that threaten the organic community. Fascism tends to
> celebrate
> masculinity, youth, mystical unity, and the regenerative power of
> violence. Often, but not always, it promotes racial superiority
> doctrines, ethnic persecution, imperialist expansion, and genocide.
> At
> the same time, fascists may embrace a form of internationalism based
> on
> either racial or ideological solidarity across national boundaries.
> Usually fascism espouses open male supremacy, though sometimes it
> may
> also promote female solidarity and new opportunities for women of
> the
> privileged nation or race.
>
> Fascism's approach to politics is both populist--in that it seeks
> to
> activate "the people" as a whole against perceived oppressors or
> enemies--and elitist--in that it treats the people's will as
> embodied in
> a select group, or often one supreme leader, from whom authority
> proceeds downward. Fascism seeks to organize a cadre-led mass
> movement
> in a drive to seize state power. It seeks to forcibly subordinate
> all
> spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community,
> usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a
> regime,
> fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and
> control,
> and uses organized violence to suppress opposition, although the
> scale
> of violence varies widely.
>
> Fascism is hostile to Marxism, liberalism, and conservatism, yet it
> borrows concepts and practices from all three. Fascism rejects the
> principles of class struggle and workers' internationalism as
> threats to
> national or racial unity, yet it often exploits real grievances
> against
> capitalists and landowners through ethnic scapegoating or
> radical-sounding conspiracy theories. Fascism rejects the liberal
> doctrines of individual autonomy and rights, political pluralism,
> and
> representative government, yet it advocates broad popular
> participation
> in politics and may use parliamentary channels in its drive to
> power.
> Its vision of a "new order" clashes with the conservative attachment
> to
> tradition-based institutions and hierarchies, yet fascism often
> romanticizes the past as inspiration for national rebirth.
>
> Fascism has a complex relationship with established elites and the
> non-fascist right. It is never a mere puppet of the ruling class,
> but an
> autonomous movement with its own social base. In practice, fascism
> defends capitalism against instability and the left, but also
> pursues an
> agenda that sometimes clashes with capitalist interests in
> significant
> ways. There has been much cooperation, competition, and interaction
> between fascism and other sections of the right, producing various
> hybrid movements and regimes.
>
>
>
>
>
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