[Peace-discuss] Eschew fascism

[Karen Aram]

 I agree with your first three statements, especially the defining of left vs right given neoliberals are defined as “left” which is actually “left of center” vs. “right of center.” None the less, we have to accept that language is changing, based upon usage. Fascism is the term used when the state uses “militarism” to control the population. The militarization of our police, now places us in a “fascist state.”  

If some do not agree, I suggest they look at African American communities, where the police arrest, incarcerate, shoot, and or kill, with impunity. One is jailed for lack of funds to pay fines, one is jailed for the most trivial of offenses. I see that as fascism. When people have no recourse or justice, in a land where the homeless are shunted or bused out of the cities, to experience worse poverty, where property can be confiscated by police with out just cause, when peaceful protestors can be arrested, I see that as a fascist state. 

I will read Clara Zetkins book, and look deeper into that which Andre Arnove refers to as fascism and “concern in reference to fascism in Europe.” If he is referring to US interference in the Ukraine, which gave rise to a neo nazi, fascist government, then yes, that is something of which we as Americans should be concerned. 

However, I fear USG military intervention, using fascism as a pretext.

As to populist, yes it did mean, and still does, working on behalf of the people to oppose the elites, unfortunately when referring to our two Party system, it is to be sneered at, given they both represent the elites, just as most established political parties in Europe, using populism as a means of positioning themselves as representing the people, when they in fact, usually represent the elites, or a faction thereof. 

> On Mar 12, 2018, at 10:46, C G Estabrook via Peace-discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote:
> 
> “Fascism” isn’t much of analytic category these days - it doesn’t indicate an agreed-on list of policies or practices. No one (with minor exceptions) says, “I’m a fascist."
> 
> It’s used as a term of abuse against one's opponents. (Who’s the bigger fascist, Clinton or Trump?) I think it should be avoided altogether today.
> 
> People do say, “I’m on the Left,” or “I’m on the Right,” and it’s important to ask them what they mean.
> 
> And I think ‘populism' is worth recovering as an analytic category (and not a term of abuse), not easily translated as 'left' or 'right.’
> 
> In "Twenty-First Century Populism: The Spectre of Western European Democracy" (2008), Daniele Albertazzi and Duncan McDonnell define populism as an ideology that "pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous ‘others’ who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity, and voice.”
> 
> Recent examples include the Iranian demonstrators, the Trump campaign, the Sanders campaign, Brexit, the Le Pen and Mélenchon campaigns, the Five Star and Lega campaigns (in Italy), and the AfD (in Germany)…
> 
> Only by establishment convention are these movements 'right-wing,' which normally means support for the wealthy. But populism supports the opponents of wealth.
> 
> The US political establishment (the major party organizations, the ‘intelligence community,’ the leading media [NYT, WaPo et al.] and their pundits) understands this, as their sneers at ‘populism’ shows…
> 
> I think we should talk about populism, and perhaps avoid the term ‘fascism’ - and they certainly shouldn’t be used as synonyms.  —CGE
> 
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