Fascism is back on the agenda with a vengeance. Not merely because two Canadian ‘alt-right’ activists want to spread their message in Aotearoa. Of course ‘alt-right’ is a euphemism for fascism. But when someone actively attempts to stop refugees from Africa and the Middle East from reaching Europe by attacking their boats there is no denying fascism as ‘alt-right’.
Today, capitalism is dying and is thrashing about destroying everything it touches. It deserves to die, but not to take us with it. Fascism is the political response of last resort against the overthrow of capitalism by the working class. It will not give up its fight peacefully, logically, rationally, resorting to undemocratic and illegal actions, wars and genocide.
Yet it wants its class enemy to fight peacefully and respect bourgeois human rights – including ‘free speech’. Never mind the right to life of African refugees. It wants fascism to be normalized as just another ideology that deserves equality before the law. Meanwhile it builds and organizes a reactionary social movement against refugee rights, workers’ rights and socialist revolution.
The denial of a platform to fascists is a longstanding question, first raised with the rise of the fascist movement in Germany in 1920, rapidly followed by Italy and then Spain. If you look at these movements its clear that they took advantage of the pacifism and disorganization of the workers to put up resistance to its armed shock troops.
Remember Visconti’s film, The Leopard, set in Italy during the 1920s. The communists were a powerful political force but no match for armed fascist bands that attacked their union halls and murdered labour leaders defeating their movement. In Germany the same methods were used to weaken, divide and destroy the labour movement. Revolutionary leaders like Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were assassinated and workers armed uprisings put down.
The fascists succeeded because workers were divided along ideological lines. Social Democracy was committed to parliamentary socialism and the rule of law. It looked to the state to protect them from fascists, denying the fact that the state supports fascism in defending capitalism against socialist revolution. Since social democracy prefers fascism to communism the Communists were isolated. Fascists even appealed to workers and declassed petty bourgeois as ‘socialist’ to deceive them.
Fascism is the militant, violent, undemocratic and unlawful instrument of brutal bourgeois class rule. It doesn’t defend bourgeois freedoms even while it attempts to hide behind them. Its main purpose is to smash the working class as the only class that can overthrow capitalism and build a new society free from exploitation and oppression.
Therefore, since we must learn from history or die, it is stupid to ignore that lesson and fall for the ploy that fascism is somehow an aberration that is equally at home on the ‘alt-right’ and ‘alt- left’ against the law-abiding, pacifist, moderate middle. That is to separate the symptoms of fascism from its cause.
The only language that fascists understand is that of force – class force. Either they use that force against us and win the class war, or we organize our own class force and defeat fascism in its embryo before it gains the upper hand.
Marxists do not call on the bourgeois state to ban fascists because we have learned that historically the state sides with fascism to smash the working class. We organize as a class to use every bourgeois freedom that advances our class interests in socialism. That is why we do not fetishize ‘freedom of speech’ when it disarms us in the face of the rise of fascism.
Those who want to survive capitalism’s decline and fall need to work out where their class allegiance lies now before it is too late, and build a working class anti-fascist movement to defeat fascism on the streets.
Dave Brownz is TDBs guest Marxist blogger, because every left wing blog needs a guest Marxist.
How one group of supporters of murderous totalitarian dictatorship could fight another group of supporters of murderous totalitarian dictatorship in Aotearoa? Oh, great. Could we maybe not have totalitarians fighting each other in Aotearoa? That would be my preferred option.
Not sure I’d want to be entering armed struggle any time soon but i’ll choose to otherwise fully agree with the piece that fascism needs pointing out and shutting down, not encouraging.
Contrast Mr Trotter, who has a phenomenal grasp of political history to have overlooked what is staring us in the face.
That’s a bit of a straw man isn’t it? Yes the Soviet Union communist uprising got taken over by those bent on dictatorship but the point about the other side fighting dirty is surely important!
History never repeats and the future is hard to predict but we should never forget that we’re up against a ruthless bunch of sociopaths.
At the same time we should be building relationships with the people who tend to get swept up in fascist further instead of sneering at them the way the progressive left currently does.
Wtf. I agree capitalism is a repressive cage. But you can’t change communism from with in. The only way to defeat a one party government is by revolution. I’m always skiprical of people proclaiming the virtues of communism. I’d like to see them try 1 week in a northern Syrian town in the middle of an ISIS recruitment drive.
Aaron you profoundly misunderstand revolutionary Marxism if you think it got take over by authoritarianism. It began that way with the avowed intention of destroying all class enemies. Do you think that means giving them a lollipop and saying, “You are now a proletarian?” Think bullets and gulags, and lethal purges to ensure ideological purity.
Of course nice NZ Marxists wouldn’t do that, it would be all cuddly and soft.
My position, I’ll fight both fascists and communists because left to their Will we all die.
It isn’t a straw man. Marxist revolutionaries have created murderous totalitarian dictatorships every time they’ve succeeded in taking over. Some people may be inclined to avoid lumping them in with fascists due to them having good intentions (unlike fascists), but I prefer to judge on results rather than intentions, and based on results you can only conclude communism is worse than fascism.
Been there done this before back in the future. Marxism was created by the banksters for the banksters to control the workers with their own delusions. Thats why only psychopaths were ever allowed to run the “communist” worker paradises which were actually hell on earth. Check out Pawns In The Game by William Guy Carr:
https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/07/11/essential-reading-pawns-in-the-game-by-william-guy-carr-part-4/
We are in the final stages of the banksters take down of humanity whereby they will implement their final solution which can be seen already being rolled out in China with full spectrum control of the population through AI. They need class war to bring about this cataclysm so the public will swallow their total control solutions willingly. Play their game of class warfare and we are dead as a species as we will be reduced to puppets controlled by the few through high tech mind/body control systems they are just beginning to roll out.
This plan has been initiated by off-world forces to control and harvest humanity for it own ends. We are the biological software they want for their own ends to operate in the physical realm of the universe. And yes the real puppet masters beyond the banksters operate in the non-physical realm as this is ultimately what is colloquially referred to as “satanic” forces at work. Sorry plebs Jesus aint coming to save our sorry arses its up to us and us alone to make the evolutionary leap to stand on our our 2 feet and say we aint gonna be bossed around by no alien and satanic forces.
We need to take our own evolution into our own hands and free ourselves from the banksters who control both the fascist and the marxist movements. Peaceful resistance is the only solution by stating quite clearly and loudly that one is a free human soul beholden to no external force or ideology but guided by the light of ones own soul (higher power) and universal love and love alone.
Nice and succinct Dave.
Now just sit back and watch the left smash itself to pieces on the great pudding of bourgeois sensibilities…
From wikipedia on fascism, “Fascists believe that liberal democracy is obsolete and they regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties.[12] Such a state is led by a strong leader—such as a dictator and a martial government composed of the members of the governing fascist party—to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society.[12] Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature and views political violence, war and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation.[13][14][15][16] Fascists advocate a mixed economy, with the principal goal of achieving autarky through protectionist and interventionist economic policies.[17].”
Reads pretty much like the old Soviet Union doesn’t it?
“Protectionist and interventionist economic policies ” doesn’t sound like free market globalised capitalism.
Are you calling for a violent revolution Dave ? If so what happens next? The same as in Soviet Russia? If not do you have some other plan of action?
D J S
A Semi-Revolution
I advocate a semi-revolution.
The trouble with a total revolution
(Ask any reputable Rosicrucian)
Is that it brings the same class up on top.
Executives of skilful execution
Will therefore plan to go half way and stop.
Yes, revolutions are the only salves,
But they’re one thing that should be done by halves.
Robert Frost
.
In order to have the Fascists you appear so eager to fight you must first create them ….what better way than to act like them.
Jesus dude……chill. You’re trying too hard.
I tend to think you’re not trying enough.
So….you think (based on what he’s actually asking us to do) that I need to – right now – pick a side and be prepared to literally fight the other side in the streets in violent battle to determine the winner of the collapse of capitalism…???
That’s your idea of me trying harder..??
This is some guy indulging in a fantasyland of attention-seeking hyperbole. It does the progressive cause and liberal-minded no favours at all.
Some people like to work smarter, not harder.
I totally agree with you. This guy is indeed a try-hard, and not smart.
And if i were a deeply devout Christian your taking of the the Lords name in vain would be deeply offensive,,,as it happens Im not so w’ll put it down to a lack of thought and consideration….not so simple eh?
So you domt like hyperbole?…guess you’ll be dismissing such phrasesas “Fascism is back on the agenda with a vengeance.”
or”Therefore, since we must learn from history or die, it is stupid to ignore that lesson and fall for the ploy that fascism is somehow an aberration that is equally at home on the ‘alt-right’ and ‘alt- left’ against the law-abiding, pacifist, moderate middle. That is to separate the symptoms of fascism from its cause.”
You muppet
Jesus dude….you’re trying too hard to be offended.
I tend to think you’re not trying enough.
Oh believe me, he is very trying…
What a lot of dribble
Test us they will.
So many of you who recognise that MSM is mainly lies, are totally beholden to the lies they spin about communism. Marx thought capitalism was initially progressive, but progressed on the basis of exploitation of workers that would be intensified. We are moving into a crisis of capitalism. As it intensifies we could end up in a fascist society but to some of you this would be a better alternative than communism. You couldn’t tolerate the thought of armed conflict in NZ (leave that to the Palestinians) or totalitarian rule which is (apparently) inevitable under communism.
I visited Nicaragua as part of a workers fact finding tour not long after the revolution. The USA were using armed contras to attack the country from within. We saw the evidence of bombings in the countryside. But already there were land reforms,reforms in education & health, improvements for women. It was a hopeful time and inspiring to see how people in their neighbourhoods were working together for the changes. These were undermined by those who promoted a ‘mixed economy’ to appease the US. A reality foisted on Nicaragua by Chris Trotter types. The reforms slowed down, the country is now in a mess. It is not as bad as it was under the former dictators like Somoza who the US supported, but a mess nevertheless.
To me, what I saw in Nicaragua, was the possibility of a communist society where people could actively control their own lives. The communist film maker, Ken Loach, depicts scenes in some of his films (like the one about the Spanish civil war) which show this optimism. They are scenes where people debate what should be done. We should feel confident that we can fight for change and we can work together to make and maintain the change.
Thanks for your comment Janio!
I think communism is an appealing idea. how to bring about a situation where it can be tried out without the totalitarian rule that so far seems to have accompanied it is the challenge.
The signs are everywhere that the neoliberal extreme of present day capitalism are likely to soon come to a self – created chaos. This will create a climate nationally and internationally where people will seriously look for alternative ways of running society. I personally think that a better fairer model of capitalism, under control of society with sovereign banking systems would work best for humanity. But if a majority can be persuaded that a communist system could work better for the majority, and fairer for all, without a net loss of living standards ( save what might be needed to save the planet) then I would be fine with that. But the structure would need to be explained to the public with a clarity and thoroughness that is not being remotely addressed here . All we are getting is vitriolic but incoherent lambasting of “capitalism ” as if there was no possible variation of it but neoliberal capitalism. Without more constructive argument from the proponents of marxism (whatever that would be) the discussion serves only to convince people that there is indeed no alternative to what we have now. It’s doing more harm than good.
D J S
Yes, DS, and thank you for starting the explanation.
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