Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 22:22:28 GMT
To: marxism-AT-jefferson.village.virginia.edu
From: hariette-AT-easynet.co.uk (hariette spierings)
Subject: Re: 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!']"
>
>
>


Excellent piece this.  By the way, the "bourgeoisie" that never tires "of
crying out to the revolution what St Arsenious cried out to the Christians:
"Fuge, tace, quiesce (flee, be silent, be still)", if it assumed individual
form instead of class proportions, would certainly remind me of a certain
Lord Jehova who practically says essentially the same thing everyday here in
this very list!. 


Adolfo



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