[Marxism] Re: Fascist intellectuals?

[Alex <spirit68@xxxxxxxxx>]

I didn't read the book you mention but in his 'The birth of fascist
ideology' Sternhell describes in quite some depth a certain kind syndicalism
in late 19th century, early 20th century Europe, especially France and
Italy, of which a number of activists became facists.
This kind of syndicalism was heavily influenced by a reading of marxism that
placed struggle at the heart of the development of history. These people
rejected what they saw as the parlementarism and reforism of the marxist
parties of the time. They also highly valued militant, direct action by a
'vanguard' acting on behalf of less radical layers of the workingclass. They
went as far as regarding violence and the confrontation it implies as
positive things in themselves because to them it meant a clear rejection of
compromising and reformism. They hoped these kind of actions would inspire
other workers to revolt, as a kind of 'propaganda by the deed'. At the same
time, these syndicalists are not to be confused with anarchists. They saw
themselves as marxists and were in favor of a dictatorship of the
proletariat. They analysed society in marxist class terms.
Because the working classes didn't act the way these syndicalists hoped or
predicted, the syndicalists started to re-asses their theories. Some of them
drifted farther and farther away from marxism. The problem, a number of them
started to think, was not exploitation of the workers in a class society,
but a decadent, permissive, liberal bourgeois culture. According to them,
the majority of the working classes was already too corrupted to become the
new leading class in society, tainted as workers were by 'bourgeois' ideas
as democracy and equality.
To herald a new age of productivity and what they saw as human dignity,
these syndicalists said a disciplined, militant vangaurd had to overthrow
this culture.  And since the root of society's ills was a certain culture,
not it's economic structure, they also turned away from anti-capitalism.
They were in favor of the capitalism and the 'free market', but within
parameters set by the new 'proletarian' state. They saw the free market as a
way to prevent society from becoming stagnant because it stimulates
competition. In Sternhell's book he quotes one of these syndicalists saying
something like that his economic views are in favor of a 'class liberalism'
(whatever that may mean)
Looking for a new revolutionary agent to replace the corrupted working
classes some of them turned to the 'nation'. The idea of Italy as a
'proletarian nation' was born in these circles. The drift from right to left
intensified during the First World War. In Italy there existed a pro-war
'left', including Mussolini who saw the war as an opportunity to gain an
appropiate status for the 'Italian nation' and involvement in the war as a
way to create an alternative to 'spine-less, soft bourgeois culture'.
It's easy to see how one can go from these ideas to full fledged
corporatist facism. It's a shame Sternhell doesn't analyse the social
surroundings in which this kind of syndicalism flourished. I reckon it was
mostly popular among well-educated and better paid workers who were taught
to see themsleves as leaders of, and better than, 'ordinary' workers. The
leading thinker of this current was Georges Sorel. His most famous book
'Reflections on violence' consists of essays written in 1906. In it he
praises Mussolini. He later (1919) also added an appendix called 'In defense
of Lenin'. Confused ideas make people say the craziest things I guess.

Alex

Sternhell points to the numbers of syndicalists who, in the early twentieth
> century,
> shifted from the left to the far right, either before or during the First
> World War. However, he doesn't say what he means by syndicalism. Does
> anyone
> have a good definition of what syndicalism meant in France?
>
> Paul F
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 13
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:20:17 -0400
> From: dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Marxism] Re: History of French CP?
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <1156868417.44f469417c7b9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Also, we're building a nice archive of the history of the PCF here:
>
> http://marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/france/index.htm
>
> And, much larger linked time line and archive on French workers History
> here:
> http://marxists.org/subject/france/index.htm
>
> David Walters
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 14
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:26:34 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Marla Vijaya kumar <marlavk@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Marxism] Re: Is BJP Fascist? (was Fascist Intell ectuals)
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <20060829162634.4521.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>
> Sub: "Resisting the Fascists through Self-Organisation and
> Struggle: The Only Road Forward" by Soma Marik and Kunal
> Chattopadhyay of The authors are both members of Pratibadi
> Udyog (Protest Initiative), West Bengal.
>
>   Eric, the material you had quoted is interesting and is
> instructive  about how isolationist groups, without any record of
> practical  struggles talk nonsense about major problems.
>   Anyone who harbours the illusion that fascism can not be defeated
> single-handedly is either ignorant of the history of struggle
> against  fascism worldwide or is obviously living in some
> self-constructed  illusion. Anyway much of what is proposed in the referred
> paper is  interesting but devoid of a real basis.
>   Vijaya Kumar Marla
>
>
> ---------------------------------
> Get your email and more, right on the  new Yahoo.com
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 15
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:31:11 -0400
> From: "Michael Hoover" <mhhoover@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] History of French CP?
> To: "Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition"
>         <marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID:
>         <389e270608290931h1b64ea2eq700cc8490f8dd5c5@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 8/29/06, Todd Chretien <ToddChretien@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >   Anyone know of a good history of the French CP.  One that covers its
> > roots, founding and the 1920's and 30's?
> > Todd
> <<<<<>>>>>
>
> two quite different books examining the period under question:
>
> Tom Kemp, Stalinism in France
> I read this book years ago, probably late 70s or early 80s. Some
> marxmailers may have comments about this one given either positive or
> negative assessments of the late kemp's politics...
>
> Laird Boswell, Rural Communism
> Published in the 90s if memory serves. Boswell is a U.S. historian.
> His book combines interviews with some folks from the era who are
> still alive and voting data...
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 16
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:42:00 -0400
> From: Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: [Marxism] History of French CP?
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <20060829.134206.2944.0.farmelantj@xxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain
>
>
>
> On Tue, 29 Aug 2006 12:02:52 -0400 Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> >
>
> >
> > There's an out-of-print book by by Maxwell Adereth titled "French
> > Communist
> > Party: From Comintern to the Colors of France : A Critical History
> > 1920-1984"
> >
> > But I would look for Tony Judt's "Marxism and the French Left:
> > Studies on
> > Labour and Politics in France, 1830-1981", even though he is a
> > typical NY
> > Review of Books liberal idiot.
> >
> >
>
> He is that, but Judt did have the gumption to call for
> a one-state solution to the Israel/Palestine issue,
> and was booted off the masthead of New Republic
> by Marty Peretz for that.
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 17
> Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 13:45:46 -0400
> From: dwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [Marxism] Fwd: Trotskyism & the Mid-East Archive
> To: marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Message-ID: <1156873546.44f47d4a9fe0f@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> In the encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL), which is part of the
> Marxists' Internet Archive (MIA), we have just established a Trotskyism
> & the Middle East Archive. check it out at
> <http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/mideast/index.htm>.
>
> Our definition of Trotskyism here, as in other parts of ETOL, is quite
> wide and we eventually intend to include not only works by people who
> came/come from a broadly Trotskyist background but also works that have
> been important for the development of Trotskyist analyses (e.g. the
> works of a number of Palestinian theorists who strictly speaking were
> never Trotskyists).
>
> We also intend to include works that will trace the development of
> particular theoreticians and groups - I personally am particularly
> interested in tracing the development (degeneration ?) of the tendency
> that has become the Alliance for Workers Liberty, so any early works by
> John O'Mahoney/Sean Matgamna will be most welcome.
>
> At the moment the archive consists of two sections: (1) books (most of
> those we have are already available elsewhere, but we hope to add a
> number of other works soon); (2) periodicals (we have indexes of all
> articles on the Middle East from New International (1934-1957), Fourth
> International (1940-1956), International Socialist Review (SWPUS
> 1956-1970), Workers' International News (1938-1949) and Labour Review
> (1952-1963) - these indexes are linked to the articles taht are
> available on-line. We're working on Socialist Review (1st series) and
> International Socialism (1st series), but if comrades have any other
> suggestions we will be happy to take them up.
>
> We will also be including indexes of political tendencies and individual
> writers.
>
> If comrades would like to contribute any works that aren't available
> on-line or to suggest articles that we don't have but are on-line
> elsewhere please contact me at einde(at)marxists(dot)org.
>
> Our definition of Middle East is as wide as our definition of Trotskyism
> - broadly speaking from the Maghreb to Afghanistan and Iran and from
> Turkey to Sudan, Eritrea and Yemen. In addition we will also be
> including a number of studies on Islam, on the Jews and Judaism and on
> religion in general as well as on Bolshevik and Comintern studies on
> religion and the national question in order to provide background to
> contemporary debates.
>
> Please note that the whole effort is intended to be completely
> non-sectarian - the present selection represents what was available to
> me and the small number of other comrades involved in the ETOL project.
> We welcome new volunteers who wish to get involved either with the
> ETOL in particular or the MIA in general.
>
> Einde O'Callaghan
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> End of Marxism Digest, Vol 34, Issue 91
> ***************************************



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