From: Michael Hoover <hoov-AT-freenet.tlh.fl.us>
Subject: Re: M-I: A Critique of Adorno-Horkheimer: In Defense of Donald Duck
Date: Sat, 21 Dec 96 12:39:15 18000


Louis P:
> The ruling body of the CP took ultraleft positions in the 1920s in 
> compliance with the so-called "third period" Comintern strategy. In its 
> essence this meant treating the SP as being no better than Nazis. There 
> was "social fascism" and "Hitlerite fascism" and the workers should 
> oppose both. 
> This was a terrible mistake. It reached tragic depths when the 
> Communists advocated a vote for a Nazi referendum to unseat the 
> local Socialist government in Saxony in the year 1931. This would be 

there were a few joint Communist-Nazi rallies in the summer of 1923
as the German crisis was continuing to worsen...the Comintern strategy
was to make common cause with "honest patriotic masses" who were
attracted to the Nazis...while Hilter opposed these efforts, the 
repercussions of "National Bolshevism" hurt the CP more than it helped.
..workers could not understand what common bonds existed between the 
two...this is reflected in the fact that as Nazi and Communist leaders 
stood on rally stages together calling for common efforts, rank-and-
file members from each side fought one another in the crowd...and in
the '30s - until 1934 - when the communists were blamed for burning the
parliament building and outlawed in the name of public safety (while
the socialists were being rendered impotent by the abolition of the
parliament itself), the CP slogan was "after Hitler, us"...instead,
both communists and socialists became police targets and were forced
to emigrate or face indefinite imprisonment or death...Michael


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