Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 01:55:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Siddharth Chatterjee <siddhart-AT-mailbox.syr.edu>
Subject: Re: M-I: Fascism and social fascism



Louis P,

How would you characterize the present regime in China? Are they 
"bureacratic capitalist" or can they be called "social fascist" (I am
still trying to understand the ramifications of this latter description)?
The Chinese regime speaks about socialism but they are "furiously"
in a well-planned and deliberate manner (as William Hinton has documented)
transforming an erstwhile socialist economy into a capitalist one.

And they are doing this (voluntarily or involuntarily under international
pressure; that is not the issue here) while loudly proclaiming their
fidelity to socialism. The picture of Chairman Mao still hangs in
Tienanmen Square. One should not be surprised if in the near future,
this portrait, which serves as a fig-leaf, is dispensed with as the
statues of Lenin were tumbled in the Soviet Union.

And the Chinese "Communist" Party has used fascist type measures in order
to suppress the working class and the petty bourgeois intellectuals,
e.g., the Tienanmen Square massacre and preserve its rule. So in this
case, we have a CP transforming into its opposite (a fascist-type party)
along with the transformation of a socialist economy into a capitalist
one. So is the term "social fascist" incorrect?

Contrary to what you say about this being undialectical, materialist
dialectics recognizes that the two aspects of a contradiction
can change with time with one dominating the other as things evolve
(e.g., the class struggle). Thus, socialism can be transformed into
its opposite capitalism as we have witnessed in this century and this
capitalism can be maintained by using fascist-type measures against
the working class.

Perhaps, the ex-SU and China is an omen for what may happen in Cuba in
the future as the Castro brothers increasingly court international
capital and hobnob with dictators like Fujimori. Castro today may not
be the same Castro as in the Granma expedition. Afterall, Liu Shao Chi
and Deng were in the Long March.

Sid



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