Re: FASCISM USA

[Justin Schwartz <jschwart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The proto-Nazi Freikorps and the pre-1933 SA hated the Weimar regime, too.
Anti-government attitudes don't make you a libertarian. Of course the
militia and other US right-wing movements have their own special national
character. They're not (most of them) Nazis. But then the fascist
movements of pre-war Europe were all nationally distinct. The Nazis were
very different from the Italian fascists, for whom anti-semitism was not a
central point of doctrine, and both were different again from the Utashi,
the Iron Guard, the Arrow Cross, Vichy, etc. A big difference between US
right-wing groups and all the classical fascist movements and states is
that the latter, competing with powerful socialist movements, had to
incorporate a lot of "socialist," anti-capitalist rhjetoric into their
propaganda and implement welfare state policies when in power. The
American far right doesn't do this. But be that as it may: militaristic
racist and sexist nationalism combined with fantasies or programs for
what;s nbow called "ethnic cleansing" is a pretty good criterion for
fascism. And the militia movement seems to satisfy this criterion.

--Justin Schwartz

On Sun, 30 Apr 1995, Kim Brian Gillespie wrote:

> Maybe the militia movement is a fascist movement.  However, because
> lefties many time call people they don't like fascists, I am skeptical.
> Without a doubt, the militia movement is an anti-Semetic, racist,
> homophobic, anti-Statist right-wing movement.  But, if they are fascist,
> I'd like to know how.  The _Wall Street Journal_ (28 April 1995) ran a
> front page article by Tony Horwitz showing how terrifying and wrong-headed
> and paranoid these folks really are.  Horwitz quotes Michael Hill, a
> University of Alabama history prof and militia man: "It is open season on
> anyone who has the audacity to question the dictates of an all-powerful
> federal government or the illicit rights bestowed on a compliant and
> deadly underclass that now fulfills a role similar to that of Hitler's
> brown-shirted street thugs of the 1930s" (A1, Western Edition).  How,
> maybe Hill is himself a fascist and is just calling the underclass (that
> is, the Jewish banker in league with poor blacks and probably the
> freemasons conspiracy) the Brown Shirts because he's such a clever Public
> Relations person.  Or, perhaps, he really believes the Federal government
> represents a fascist threat to the United States (just the same way he
> believes in any number of conspiracies).  The problem is this.  The left
> calls the militias fascist.  The militias call the Feds fascist.  Do we
> have some criteria by which to adjudicate these competing claims?
>
> mister kim gillespie
> gillespk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> program in modern thought
>
>
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