Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 09:54:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Follow-up to Jim Miller on fascism


Louis:

I get the strong sense that there is still a fundamental disagreement 
between Jim and myself over the character of fascist movements. He 
describes it as an extreme outgrowth of "ordinary bourgeois politics". 
This makes one wonder. What then is the difference between fascism and 
ordinary dictatorship? What are we to make of the Greek military 
dictatorship of several decades past? Or what about the Primo de Rivera 
dictatorship in Spain that preceded Franco's fascist regime? What was the 
exact difference there?

The key is that the fascist movement arises out of petty-bourgeoisie, not 
the bourgeoisie. The petty-bourgeoisie is exploited by the bourgeoisie 
who it envies and often hates. The bourgeoisie will utilize the 
mobilized petty-bourgeoisie as a battering ram against the labor 
movement, but only as a last resort. It distrusts petty-bourgeois mass 
movements since they have a tendency to break down barriers set up from 
on high by the ruling-class.

Pilsudski, the Polish fascist, made a coup d'etat in 1926 against the 
traditional parties of the bourgeoisie. The hatred of Polish fascism toward 
the capitalist class fooled the Polish CP into believing that Pilsudski had 
created a "revolutionary democratic dictatorship".

Trotsky at the time made the following comments on the Pilsudski coup:

"The bourgeoisie in decline is incapable of maintaining itself in power 
with the methods and means of its own creation -- the parliamentary 
state. It needs fascism as a weapon of self-defense, at least at the most 
critical moments. The bourgeoisie does not like the 'plebian' means of 
solving its problems. It had an extremely hostile attitude toward 
Jacobinism, which cleared a path in blood for the development of 
bourgeois society. The fascists are immeasurably closer to the 
bourgeoisie in decline than the Jacobins were to the bourgeoisie on the 
rise. But the established bourgeoisie does not like the fascist means of 
solving its problems either, for the shocks and disturbances, although in 
the interests of bourgeois society, involve dangers as well. This is the 
source of the antagonism between fascism and the traditional parties of 
the bourgeoisie...

The big bourgeoisie dislikes this method, much as a man with a swollen 
jaw dislikees having his teeth pulled. The respectable circles of 
bourgeois society viewed with hatred the services of the dentist 
Pilsudski, but in the end they gave in to the inevitable, to be sure, 
with threats of resistance and much haggling and wrangling over the 
price. And lo, the petty bourgeoisie's idol of yesterday has been 
transformed into the gendarme of capital."


     --- from list marxism-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---