[Peace-discuss] a possible flier for the next Main Event

[C. G. Estabrook]

ann h. wrote:
> 14 Points of fascism: The warning signs 
> http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

Ann--

This might be a good place to start in a meeting discussion as we try to figure 
out the shape of politics in the contemporary US, in order to oppose them.  But 
I'm not sure it makes a good handout.

First, the US is not now a fascist state, except under a definition of fascism 
that would be adventitious and unhistorical.  What we want to oppose is not so 
much tendencies to fascism (altho' of course we would want to oppose them) as 
the policies of this existing (non-fascist) government.

Second, altho' it may in the future be seen to be true that the US was tending 
towards fascism in our day, making that the focus of our objection now may be 
regarded as crying wolf.  Again, I'd rather work on making people aware that our 
government is killing people around the world -- and exposing why, against their 
lies.

We might say that out enemy is neoliberalism, not (at the moment) fascism, 
because the latter doesn't exist (now), and the former surely does.  Bob 
McChesney made the distinction in a piece a decade ago:

    Earlier in the twentieth century some critics called fascism "capitalism 
with the gloves off," meaning that fascism was pure capitalism without 
democratic rights and organizations. In fact, we know that fascism is vastly 
more complex than that. Neoliberalism, on the other hand, is indeed "capitalism 
with the gloves off." It represents an era in which business forces are stronger 
and more aggressive, and face less organized opposition than ever before. In 
this political climate they attempt to codify their political power and enact 
their vision on every possible front. As a result, business is increasingly 
difficult to challenge, and civil society (nonmarket, noncommercial, and 
democratic forces) barely exists at all.

    It is precisely in its oppression of nonmarket forces that we see how 
neoliberalism operates - not only as an economic system, but as a political and 
cultural system as well. Here the differences with fascism, with its contempt 
for formal democracy and highly mobilized social movements based upon racism and 
nationalism, are striking.  Neoliberalism works best when there is formal 
electoral democracy, but when the population is diverted from the information, 
access, and public forums necessary for meaningful participation in 
decision-making. As neoliberal guru Milton Friedman put it in Capitalism and 
Freedom, because profitmaking is the essence of democracy, any government that 
pursues antimarket policies is being antidemocratic, no matter how much informed 
popular support they might enjoy. Therefore it is best to restrict governments 
to the job of protecting private property and enforcing contracts, and to limit 
political debate to minor issues. (The real matters of resource production and 
distribution and social organization should be determined by market forces.)

--CGE