Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 13:12:32 -0500 (EST)
From: "Bryan A. Alexander" <bnalexan-AT-umich.edu>
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
Subject: Re: Follow-up to Jim Miller on fascism


If fascism finds its roots in ordinary capital-politics, its character 
nevertheless has undergone a qualitative transformation from the usual 
realpolitick.  Nationalism, hierarchy, militarism, coalition politics all 
synthesize into something other, something strange.  
	Deleuze and guattari make a disctinction between micro- and 
macrofascisms, with the former being at the local, usually personal, 
level.  If this sort of praxis is available and often practiced at this 
lower level of society, it appears and acts qualitatively different at 
the marco-, or national, level.
	Perhaps one sense of this is the aura of Crisis (not just any 
crisis, mind) - we see extra-ordinary governments take extra-ordinary 
measures.  As MArxists we can see these schemes as part of the status quo 
ante, but we must be aware of their new synthetic character.
	Those of you who watch TV might want to check out the current 
season of BABYLON-5.  PArt of the current storyline concerns the rise of 
a fascist government and movement.  The model isn't too bad.



Bryan Alexander					Department of English
email: bnalexan-AT-umich.edu			University of Michigan
phone: (313) 764-0418				Ann Arbor, MI  USA    48103
fax: (313) 763-3128				http://www.umich.edu/~bnalexan

On Sun, 17 Mar 1996, Louis N Proyect wrote:

> 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."
> 
> 
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