Fascism cyberseminar

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis:

This is a proposal for a cyberseminar on Fascism. I have tried to
incorporate titles that are easy to come by in any library or bookstore. I
have appended titles that were suggested by list members earlier on,
but am hesitant to include them because they don't appear to be easily
available.

I think it is important for us to operate from the same reference-point.
The titles tend to be oriented to political economy. Our list is top-
heavy with discussion that approaches things from an abstract
philosophical and economic approach. It is high time we started
looking at the real world. We should examine Fascism in exactly the
same way that Marx examined Bonapartism in the 18th Brumaire.
There is no reason, of course, people can't interject reports on books
that have a "cultural theory" approach, such as the kind that Jon
suggests, but we should try to look at class relations, the money trail,
etc. in a very focused way.

Prefascism:

1) Karl Marx, "18th Brumaire"
This is where it all starts. Louis Bonaparte, operating from a
petty-bourgeois base, appears to declare war on big capital, all the
while shafting the lower-classes in the back. This is the very model for
approaching social phenomena like populists, fascists, etc. in a
*dialectical* fashion.

2) C. Vann Woodward, "Tom Watson Agrarian Rebel"
This is a classic semi-Marxist/semi-Progressivist interpretation of the
small farmer's revolt against big business. This is the original
"populism". These populists railed against Wall St. They also railed
against foreigners and blacks. The book is over 400 pages but a real
page-turner.

Fascism:

1) Leon Trotsky, "The Struggle Against Fascism". One of Trotsky's great
contributions was his analysis of fascism. There is, of course, no such
thing as a "Trotskyist" interpretation of fascism. Trotsky simply used
the method of Marx in understanding Hitler, Franco and Mussolini.

2) Daniel Guerin, "Fascism and Big Business". Guerin was a Trotskyist
but eventually drifted toward anarchism. This book shows how
German big business was behind Hitler from the very beginning,
despite his anticapitalist rhetoric.

3) William Reich, "Mass Psychology of Fascism". A concession to the
"cultural studies" crowd perhaps. Reich was solidly grounded in
Marxism, however. Until he became obsessed with "orgones", he was a
really perceptive thinker. (Those orgone boxes don't work, trust me.)

Postfascism/neofascism:

1. James Ridgeway, "Blood in the Face". A journalistic approach to
survivalists, militias, patriots, neo-Nazis, etc. from a respected radical.

2. James Baldwin, "The Fire Next Time". A hostile look at the Nation of
Islam from a liberal integrationist written in 1963. Baldwin's conclusion:
Malcolm X is a black Nazi.

3. Malcolm X, "Autobiography". Story of one man's transition from
Black Muslim to Pan-Africanism and pending approach toward Socialism.  (This
book should seque effectively into a discussion of nationalism in general. I
wanted to include Eric Lincoln's "Black Muslims in America" but discovered
that the book is fairly hard to track down.)

Methodology: Very simply, a reader or readers will read one of the
books and then file a report to the list. If 2 or more people are
reporting on the same book, we will wait until they are all finished
before any of them post. Then, we will have a discussion of the topic.
By doing this, I expect we can avoid a lot of the amorphousness that
sometimes plagues this list and other internet lists. If it succeeds, and I
have every expectation that it will, I'll file a report with the "Journal of
Higher Education" and we'll all have photographs and interviews.  (I can
tell you in advance that I am hideously ugly and obese, so don't be
shocked.) I think we generally have terrific discussions here, but we can
always do better.

This is just a proposal, of course. Unless there is a storm of
controversy over the selections, I strongly urge that we proceed. There
is not much time to waste, since people seem to feel that fascism is
around the corner. (Some day, comrades, I promise to overcome my sarcasm.
Please bear with me. You know, despite it, I have a great affection for
each and every one of you even when I'm short-tempered with you.) If we can
come to some kind of agreement, then I suggest we start lining up reporters
for which I will take responsibility of coordinating.

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earlier suggestions:

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