Re: Fascism as twisted Socialism

[Julio Pino <jpino@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:57 AM 7/12/00 PDT, you wrote:
Wow! Nestor will love this post!
The problem with your analysis, comrade George, is that you want to sweep
under the rug every right (or in the case of Peron, left) movement that you
dislike and label it "fascist."This reminds me of an argument I head on the
Che-List about a year ago with an Italian comrade who insisted that Stalin
was a "Red-Fascist."
 I do not agree at all that fascism can be reduced to a bunch of terrorists
carrying the wishes of the bourgeosie to smash socialism. (Roughly, that
was Dimitrov's definition of fascism: "The terroristic rule of the most
reactionary elements of high finance capital." I do concurr that to win a
mass following fascism must adopt some of the rhetoric of the left, hence
Nationalism Socialism or Mussolini's Italian Social Republic of 1943-1945.

I never said fascism features arch-myths that are applicable everywhere and
at all times. To the contrary, national or ethnic or religious imagery
particular to that people must be utilized.

 I never said fascism triumphed because it produced (for a while, anyway)
better myths than socialism, only that the success of fascism cannot be
explained sorely in political terms but also through what Reich rightly
called "the Mass Psychology of Fascism" in which mythmaking is essential.

  Likewise, fascism obviously could not be saved by its own myths, but it's
significant to point out that there is no evidence whatsoever that the
German people were any less devoted to Hitler after he started to lose the
war. On the contrary, post-war surveys conducted by the US occupation
authorities (which Arendt used in her book on totalitarianism) show that
Mr. H still enjoyed wide popularity until 1945.
Thanks for your post; I enjoyed it.
Julio Cesar

>Did we forget that the word 'Nazi' is a foreshortening of the formal title
>"National Socialist Party"?? Did we forget that the Italian Fascist movement
>sprang from the failed Italian Proletarian Revolution of 1920?  Did we
>forget that Peronism sprang from a resurgance of the organized labor
>movement in Argentina?
>