Re: [Marxism] Re: Return Of The Renters

[Waistline2@xxxxxxx]

>>From Jack A. Smith
>
> There is no political need to mount a united front of left and bourgeois
> elements against fascism in the 2004 elections particularly one
> subordinate to the Democratic Party because there is no fascist threat
> at this time.
>
> The objective conditions simply do not exist: The capitalist ruling class
> does not fear imminent displacement by the revolutionary left, the U.S.
> economy is not on the verge of collapse, intra-capitalist rivalries are
> not about to overthrow Washington's leadership, and fascism has no
significant
> social base in our country. All of this could happen some day, but it is
> not today's reality.

Comment

There is an academic and theory side to the question of the ascension to
power of fascism, the evolution of fascist currents in American society, the 
class
and social basis of fascism and what juncture of history we are at. Unlike
Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. I am not 100% sure if it even valid to speak of
and conceive a United Front, as this political doctrine of combat was handed
down to us.

On this question political tradition gets in the way. Political tradition is
not resolvable. The problem is that concepts become confusing because each
individual means something different using the same words.


>From the standpoint of the ascension to power of fascism we are talking about
a process or development that must take place is phases and quantitative
junctures.

"The ascension to power of fascism" means how is this process unfolding at
this juncture of history and under our own conditions? The Communist
International (Comintern) description of fascism is that of the dictatorship of 
a section
of the bourgeoisie. The open terroristic dictatorship of the most
reactionary, chauvinistic and imperialistic elements of finance capital - and 
pin pointed
the industrial sector of capital as the party of attack.

The industrial capitalists have already been defeated. They have been
defeated by computers and advanced robotics. The concept put forth by the 
Comintern
and its factional offshoots - pinpointing the role of industrial capitalists,
is no longer valid.  We have to free up our minds and understand that process
logic says the United Front was based on a concrete historically verifiable
class configuration responding to a sector of capital. The United Front of the
past was based on the inner tension of capital itself.

I am not exactly sure what this means. What is clear in the realm of politics
is that the United Front consisted of a political block that was antifascist
and anti-Communist at the same time. Another block was antifascist and
antibourgeois democracy.  It seems to me that we can agree that these two blocks
represented different class ideology.

That is to say the concrete political question was not communism versus
capitalism after Hitler's parliamentary victory, but whether or not to have a
democratic society, even if the democracy was reactionary. We are in a different
reality and I do not think it will be possible for the emergence of antifascist
and anti-Communist political groups. All antifascist groups and political
tendencies are going to one way or another be captured within the political
gravity of the communist class and it is going to virtually be impossible to 
fight
against the need of the people for food, clothing, shelter and means without
being outright fascist.

The issue need to be posed as "The ascension to power of fascism" and not if
fascism comes to power in 2004. Karl L. and Rosa Luxembourg were murdered
before Hitler came to power under what must be described as a reactionary
bourgeois democracy. This reactionary bourgeois democracy is a prelude to "the
ascension to power of fascism."

The current drift into a reactionary form of bourgeois democracy and towards
"the ascension to power of fascism" does not grow out of the inner tension of
capital as manifest in the industrial sectors as industrial workers and
industrial bourgeoisie. The turn to state terror is being driven on a new basis
where capital as capital confronts the proletariat as proletariat.

The objective conditions for "the ascension to power of fascism" does in fact
exist today. The objective factor grows out of the leap underway in the
material power of the productive forces. What is blocking this current are the
subjective factors of our history and the need for the fascist to win over a
social base. The class basis of the fascist movement is the bourgeoisie and its
basis in society in extremely narrow.

It is paramount that revolutionaries understand that for the first time in
history there is an objective basis for communism. It is important that we
deeply understand and internalize this class configuration. In the last instance
the failure of every communist movement in our history, including the
Bolsheviks, reside in the fact that there was no objective communist movement to
stabilize the subjective or political and ideological communist movement.

We can argue about political deviations until we are blue in the face but the
fact of the matter is that a deviation has to be a political current running
counter to an objectively existing material phenomenon. A political deviation
is not a deviation from that which does not yet exist.

The point is that "the ascension to power of fascism" is being fought for on
the basis of the expansion of police power and the effort of the bourgeoisie
to control the streets. All of us noted how the battle for the streets and
against globalization took a sharp and violent turn. The fascist threat is in 
fact
growing and this is registered in the increased incarceration rates of the
most poverty stricken sector of the proletariat in America.  There is enormous
resistance to the fascist current from every sector of society.

Fascism can be defeated and will be defeated because no political act can
hold together the unity of the productive forces undergoing the evolutionary
leap. This was not the case with Germany in the 1930s or America in the 1940s 
and
1950s. In the 1940s and 1950s every segment of the population in America could
side with anti-communism and reactionary because the economy was objectively
expanding.

The point is that we have to fight to frame every social question in new
light and figure out where we are at this juncture of history. The question that
is emerging is fascism versus economic communism and perhaps the slow abolition
of the state as the dispenser of rights. The state does not have a legitimate
right to limit any of our rights - especially when we are not charged with
any crime according to the bourgeoisie own code of law.

The fascist danger is real and growing and we are going to end up battling
for the streets.


Melvin P.

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