Anyway, I agree that the word "fascist" has been over-used. There are at least three different meanings.
1) specifically referring to Mussolini and his followers, or to a more general type of social movement that's Mussolini-like. (Often Nazism is seen as a sub-type of fascism, but it's often seen as separate from fascism.)
2) referring to a general type of socio-economic system.
3) referring to a psychological type or a personality structure. This originated, I think, with Wilhelm Reich, but became very popular with the New Left in the US (and elsewhere?)
------------------------ Jim Devine jdevine at lmu.edu & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Pugliese [mailto:debsian at pacbell.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2003 10:13 AM
> To: lbo-talk
> Subject: [lbo-talk] Fwd: (Carrol Cox: Trotskyist!)
>
>
> ------- Forwarded message -------
> From: John Earl Haynes <haynes at mail.h-net.msu.edu>
> To: H-HOAC at H-NET.MSU.EDU
> Subject: essay on McWilliams in JAH (Schwartz)
> Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 08:32:45 -0500
>
> > From: "Stephen Schwartz" <karastjepan at yahoo.com>
> > To: "H-Net Network on American communism and anticommunism"
> > <H-HOAC at H-NET.MSU.EDU>
> > Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 11:33 AM
> > Subject: McWilliams and Fascism
> <SNIP>
>
> > Trotsky's main contribution to political science in our
> time consisted,
> > in
> > my view, in the insistence on not confusing the ordinary
> conditions of
> > capitalism with the extraordinary nature of fascism as a system of
> > domination. To confuse conservatives with fascists is to confuse a
> > situation of political conflict within the system of
> bourgeois law, and
> > continuing institutionalization of the labor movement, with
> a situation
> > of
> > lawless repression and the complete destruction of the
> labor movement.
> >
> > Regarding Trotsky, it is worth noting that the period in
> which McWilliams
> > handily referred to "farm fascism" in California was also
> that in which
> > Trotskyists were routinely denounced as "fascists." For
> myself, I think
> > the
> > nadir of the "fascism" trope in California was reached in
> the Hitchcock
> > film
> > SABOTEUR where it is suggested that the entire wealthy class in
> > California,
> > as well as the whole local system of law enforcement,
> consisted of Axis
> > agents and sympathizers. That is pretty ridiculous. But I
> also recall
> > that
> > when cinema writers were asked why the Hollywood version of
> FOR WHOM THE
> > BELL TOLLS did not identify the enemy as "ther fascists"
> they answered
> > that
> > "the fascists" prevented it. This was a situation in which anything
> > including college football could be labelled fascist.
> >
> > Of course, we see similar abuse of the term "fascist"
> today. But that is
> > another matter entirely.
> >
> > Stephen Schwartz
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Michael Pugliese
> American imperialism has been made plausible and attractive
> in part by the
> insistence that it is not imperialistic.
> Harold Innis, 1948
> http://www.monthlyreview.org/sr2004.htm
>
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>