Re: [Marxism] The Anatomy of Fascism

[DLVinvest@xxxxxx]

In a message dated 5/3/04 10:08:37 AM Mountain Daylight Time, tzsche@xxxxxxx
writes:
> Eagleton seems to contradict himself in this review. On the one hand, he
> agrees with Paxton that "fascism is inconceivable in the absence of a mature
> and expanding socialist left." But, at the end, he sees some current trends
> as signs of fascism on the horizon. That implies that there is a "mature and
> expanding socialist left." Where is it, may I ask?

One of the main differences between the fascist movements and regimes of
Europe in the 1920s-40s and fascitoid policies and sentiments after WWII is
precisely the sense of a world besieged, a way of life disintegrating,  power 
up for
grabs, as embodied in a class-conscious movement of workers inspired by
communist ideas. Today in the big-capitalist countries, especially since the
collapse of the USSR and the capitalistic penetration and transformation of 
China,
what is often called fascism is more a pre-emptive form of repression that
seeks to isolate, contain and exterminate any revolutionary leadership that 
might
contaminate larger groups of discontented and potentially rebellious people,
in hopes of preventing the growth of "a mature and expanding socialist left."
But were such a left to emerge, we would witness a full-blown mass-movement of
a fascist-lie character already in place on the right, starting with the cops,
military officer corps, and small capitalists with a racist, anti-immigrant
appeal to "backward" workers and plety of lumpen to do the hired dirty work in
the streets. But it probably won't were Klan robes or strut in blaskshirts or
brown with a swastika. It will be all-American and patriotic. The bosses just
don't need it yet.

Douglas L. Vaughan, Jr.
Investigations
for Print, Film & Electronic Media
3140 W. 32nd Ave.
Denver CO 80211
303-455-9429
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