Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 11:59:45 -0500 (EST)
From: Louis N Proyect <lnp3-AT-columbia.edu>
To: James Miller <jamiller-AT-igc.apc.org>
cc: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Fascism as "ordinary bourgeois politics"


Louis:

I am still not sure that Jim understands my take on this question, but 
let me have another go at it.

In Robert Tucker's preface to the 18th Brumaire in the "Marx-Engels 
Reader", he states that, "Since Louis Bonaparte's rise and rule have 
been seen as a forerunner of the phenomenon that was to become 
known in the twentieth century as fascism, Marx's interpretation of it is 
of interest, among other ways, as a sort of a prologue to later Marxist 
thought on the nature and meaning of fascism."

What Bonapartism and fascism have in common is that they are 
double-edged swords. While in the "last instance" they serve to defend 
private property relations, they do so in a manner that attacks the 
perogatives of the capitalist class as a whole. The German capitalist 
class backed a movement that was led by a madman and brought chaos 
and ruin upon itself. Many of Hitler's military moves were done 
unilaterally and finally took on a suicidal aspect. Elements of the 
German bourgeoisie tried to decapitate the Nazi government, but it 
was too late after war began. Hitler was able to suppress the General's 
revolt and other forms of bourgeois resistance and pushed forward.

The bourgeoisie *prefers* to rule through parliamentary means. This 
gives it the ability to mediate between different sectors of the property-
owning class. The US Congress, in effect, becomes a big board room 
where capital can talk through and act on the problems it faces. 
Fascism suspends this mechanism and takes away the ability of the 
ruling class to act in the most rational manner.

Marx commented on exactly the same tendency in Bonapartism when 
he wrote:

"The French bourgeoisie balked at the domination of the working 
proletariat; it has brought the lumpen proletariat to domination, with 
the Chief of the Society of December 10 at the head. The bourgeoisie 
kept France in breathless fear of the future terrors of red anarchy- 
Bonaparte discounted this future for it when, on December 4, he had 
the eminent bourgeois of the Boulevard Montmartre and the Boulevard 
des Italiens shot down at their windows by the drunken army of law 
and order. The bourgeoisie apotheosized the sword; the sword rules it. 
It destroyed the revolutionary press; its own press is destroyed. It 
placed popular meetings under police surveillance; its salons are 
placed under police supervision. It disbanded the democratic National 
Guard, its own National Guard is disbanded. It imposed a state of 
siege; a state of siege is imposed upon it. It supplanted the juries by 
military commissions; its juries are supplanted by military 
commissions. It subjected public education to the sway of the priests; 
the priests subject it to their own education. It jailed people without 
trial, it is being jailed without trial. It suppressed every stirring in 
society by means of state power; every stirring in its society is 
suppressed by means of state power. Out of enthusiasm for its 
moneybags it rebelled against its own politicians and literary men; its 
politicians and literary men are swept aside, but its moneybag is being 
plundered now that its mouth has been gagged and its pen broken. The 
bourgeoisie never tired of crying out to the revolution what St. 
Arsenius cried out to the Christians: 'Fuge, tace, quiesce!' ['Flee, be 
silent, keep still!']"



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