[Peace-discuss] we are here to help you

[Corey Mattson]

How we define 'fascism' is determined by our political ideology and agenda,
of course. I disagree with this formation for the following reasons ---

1. What's left out here is the context in which a Fascist movement develops.
It is a top-down, authoritarian response to smash popular forces of working
people and their institutions, supported by big business. Big business sees
a threat to the capitalist system and its functioning, so it needs to get
rid of its opposition. Labor unionists and working-class political parties
were attacked early on in Italy and Germany.

2. Also left out is that under Fascism, there is a fusion between big
business and the state. From what he says, Noam Chomsky thinks that this is
the single-most important facet of fascism.

3. Top-down "planning" is an element, I think, because big business finds it
necessary to keep the capitalist system afloat. They become the top-down
planners because they become the state. (But, I think it should be said that
capitalism always requires planning and would be unstable and eventually
collapse without it. The free market is a myth. ... And planning is
planning, whether it occurs in government or in corporate and bank
boardrooms. ....Whether under capitalism or some other social system, our
struggles should be over who controls "planning," where it should be
restricted, and making it democratic and accountable in democratic
institutions. But the formation given by Flynn includes opposing "planning"
that is progressive and democratic, and necessary.)

4. That a Fascist government is totalitarian and led by a Bonapartist (as
the most effective way to do it) seems obvious given that it is led by big
business, needs to overcome popular forces, and steps in to solve a crisis
for the capitalist system.


--- Corey


On Sat, Sep 3, 2011 at 4:10 PM, E. Wayne Johnson <ewj at pigs.ag> wrote:

> As we survey the whole scene in Italy, therefore, we may now name all the
> essential ingredients of fascism.
>
> It is a form of social organization
> 1. In which the government acknowledges no restraint upon its
> powers—totalitarianism.
>
> 2. In which this unrestrained government is managed by a dictator —the
> leadership principle.
>
> 3. In which the government is organized to operate the capitalist system
> and enable it to function-under an immense bureaucracy.
>
> 4. In which the economic society is organized on the syndicalist model,
> that is by producing groups formed into craft and professional
> categories under supervision of the state.
>
> 5. In which the government and the syndicalist organizations operate the
> capitalist society on the planned, autarchial principle.
>
> 6. In which the government holds itself responsible to provide the nation
> with adequate purchasing power by public spending and
> borrowing.
>
> 7. In which militarism is used as a conscious mechanism of government
> spending, and
> 8. In which imperialism is included as a policy inevitably flowing from
> militarism as well as other elements of fascism.
>
> Wherever you find a nation using all of these devices you will
> know that this is a fascist nation. In proportion as any nation uses
> most of them you may assume it is tending in the direction of fascism.
>
> (As We Go Marching, John T Flynn, 1944)
> ______________________________**_________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.**net <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
> http://lists.chambana.net/**mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss<http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20110903/178c8917/attachment-0001.html>