Fascism Cyberseminar required reading

[Louis N Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Louis:

The latest issue of the Monthly Review (Jan. 96) arrived in my
mailbox today. It contains an article by Vincente Navarro on "Fascism
and Antifascism: Yesterday and Today". It makes a number of
interesting points:

1) On Ken Loach's "Tierra Y Libertad":
"Loach should have made an antifascist, not an anti-communist, movie.
His anti-Stalinism has been used by the right wing in Spain. None
other than La Vanguardia, having now converted to a democratic
paper under the same ownership as when it was a pro-Franco paper,
has published positive reviews of Loach's film. Several articles in La
Vanguardia concluded that fascism may have been necessary to stop
what was even worse, communism. Today this position is widely held
among large sectors of the European right, in both its conservative and
its liberal traditions."

2) On Eric Hobsbawm's "The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991:
"In a much celebrated chapter, Hobsbawm denies that fascism is the
response of the capitalist class under stress. He believes that fascism
appears first, then once in power it is supported by the capitalist class
in the same way that this class always supports those in power...Big
business (the name used to define a critical component of the capitalist
class) did not support the establishment of fascism, although later on it
benefited from and collaborated with fascism. The New Republic, the
New York Review of Books, and many other publications have
applauded this reinterpretation of fascism. And, interestingly enough,
this chapter of Hobsbawm's book was the only one translated and
published in the major Spanish press at that time. It is also the chapter
in which Hobsbawm denies the fascist character of Franco's regime.
Quoting Professor Lintz of Yale University, he considers the Franco
regime an authoritarian but not a totalitarian regime in which the state
was not a fascist state. This, incidentally, is also the thesis of the
Spanish right."

3) Navarro's answer to Hobsbawm:
"There is plenty of Spanish literature and documentation, ignored by
Hobsbawm, that proves that the major economic interests of Spain
financed the Spanish fascist coup. A crucial source was the financial
empire of Joan March, who had been a major founder of the Liberal
Party and owner of the liberal paper La Libertad ("Liberty"). He was
considered an exemplary entrepreneur, a modernizer, and an
alternative to the oligarchic land-based reactionary sectors of capital.
When their interests were affected by the Socialist-led Republican
government, however, and the working-class parties kept growing,
March allied himself with the oligarchy and became the major
financial supporter of that coup, along with his international friends,
including Torkfield Riehberg, president of t he U.S.-based oil company
Texas Company, who, with the permission of the U.S. government,
supplied all the petroleum needed for the planes and ships that
transported the fascist forces."

4) Franco's fascism:
"Finally, as to the question of whether the Franco regime was fascist or
not, the best answer was provided by Franco himself. He proudly
declared himself a fascist and was the head of the fascist state. He was
also the head of the fascist party to which all the functionaries owed
their loyalty, from academic professors to mailmen. The national day
was the Day of the Hispanic Empire and Spanish Race. Catalans and
Basques were forbidden their own culture. As a child I was forbidden
to speak my mother tongue, Catalan. A policeman would hit me,
saying 'Don't talk like a dog. Talk like a Spaniard. Use the language of
our Empire.'"



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