Re: Working class support for the Nazis?

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>> Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> 02/07/00 12:07PM >>>
Charles:
The partymembers , storm troopers and elite guards may have been petit
bourgeoisie, but the bulk of the troops of the Nazi war machine had to be
working class/peasants.

Response:
Troops did what they did because resistance could result in torture or
death. For a useful reminder of the working class attitudes of the lesser
cogs of the Nazi war-machine, I recommend Tariq Ali's observations on
Ernest Mandel's wartime resistance activities, written on the occasion of
Mandel's death:

====
CB: Agree with that. I almost said it in my post. Much of the civilian , 
working class
"support " for fascists was probably because the fascists were not known to be 
what we
know them as now.  As I say, the fascists pretended to be "socialists"  and
anti-capitalist in many ways. I just saw a history channel show on a Nazi 
hanging
judge , Chrysler. He was pronouncing the whole name "National Socialists" until 
the
end in 1945.  They used the word "socialist" to refer to themselves. Think 
about it.
That means that the three main parties in the election in which the Nazis came 
to
power, ALL claimed to be socialists of a sort.  Of course, the Nazis were the 
complete
opposite of socialists, but to get enough votes to be a "player" , they had to 
pretend
to be socialists. That's how ripe the idea of socialism was in Germany in the 
20's and
30's. Virtually , everybody who voted in the 1932 German election was voting 
for some
type of "socialist".  The bourgeoisie turned an election with!
 99% vote for socialism into the most anti-socialist government in history. 
This was
an example of absolute demogogy about democratic elections, and bourgeois 
democracy.

What an incredibly ironic , tragic dimension. The word and idea of "socialism" 
was so
popular, the most anti-socialist elements used it ( had to use it !) to thwart
socialism. The treacherousness and dirty tricks of the bourgeois in preventing 
the
obviously rational coming into being of socialism has still not been 
sufficiently
exposed, both in Europe and the U.S.

   By the time the fascists were in power, many workers would then have been 
buffaloed
into "support" (and acquiescence)  by intimidation both as soldiers and 
civilians.


CB