FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF FASCISM
ON a superficial view the theory and practice of Fascism
might appear to resemble closely Gibbon's famous definition of
the theory and practice of the mediaeval Catholic
Church"defending nonsense by violence." But in fact, as there
has already been occasion to emphasise, there is a highly
rational method in the nonsense, no less than in the violence.
Behind the ranting megalomaniacs, bullies, drug- fiends and
brokendown bohemians who constitute the outer facade of Fascism,
the business heads of finance-capital who pay the costs and pull
the strings are perfectly cool, clear and intelligent. And it is
with the real system of Fascism in this sense, rather than with
the imaginary ideology created to gull the innocent, that we are
here concerned. The second, the professed fantastic ideology, is
only of importance in relation to the first, the real working
system for the maintenance of capitalism in conditions of
extreme crisis and weakening.
I. Is There a "Theory" of Fascism? The first illusion that
requires to be cleared out of the way is the illusion that there
is a "theory" of Fascism, in the same sense that there is a
theory of Liberalism, Conservatism, Communism, etc. Many
intellectuals, while "deploring" the "excesses" of Fascism,
allow themselves to be fascinated and drawn into elaborate
speculative discussion of the "philosophy" of Fascism-and are
soon lost in the Serbonian bog of alternating "socialism,"
capitalism, corporatism, strong-man worship,high moral
adjurations, and platitudes, anti-alien agitation, appeals to
"unity," glorifications of war, torture-gloating, deification of
primitive man, denunciations of big business, idolisation of
captains of industry, kicking of the dead corpse of the
nineteenth century and "liberal-democratic humanitarian
superstitions," exhumation of the considerably more putrescent
198. FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
corpses of mercantilism, absolutism, inquisitorial methods
and caste- conceptions, racial theories of the inferiority of
all other human beings save the speaker's own tribe,
anti-Semitism, Nordicism and all the rest of it. The innocent
may solemnly and painstakingly discuss at face value these
miscellaneous "theories" provided to suit all tastes. But in
fact their importance is rather as symptoms and byproducts of
the real system and basis of Fascism than as its origin and
raison d'etre. The reality of Fascism is the violent attempt of
decaying capitalism to defeat the proletarian revolution and
forcibly arrest the growing contradictions of its whole
development. All the rest is decoration and stage-play, whether
conscious or unconscious, to cover and make presentable or
attractive this basic reactionary aim, which cannot be openly
stated without defeating its purpose. For this reason the real
scientific theory underlying Fascism can better be studied in
such a document as the Deutsche Fuhrerbrief e or confidential
bulletins of the Federation of German Industries, already quoted
in the previous chapter (PP. 1701174), rather than in the
propaganda statements for public consumption concerning its
professed "theories" by the Fascist leaders themselves. The
confidential statement of the heads of finance-capital defines
plainly and without disguise the objective essence and purpose
of Fascism as seen by its actual paymasters and controllers, and
is therefore of primary scientific and theoretical importance
for the real understanding of Fascism. Such a statement makes
plain that Fascism is solely a tactical method of
finance-capital-in exactly the same way as the support of
democratic forms and of Social Democratic Governments was also a
tactical method, either being supported with equal readiness
according to circumstances-to defeat the proletarian revolution,
to divide the exploited population, and so to maintain
capitalist rule. All the propaganda "theories," mythological
trimmings, supposed "new school of political thought'' etc.,
only constitute a smokescreen to cover this aim. We have already
seen, in the course of the enquiry "what is Fascism?" in the
fourth chapter, how empty and meaningless are all the infinite
attempted definitions of Fascism by its leading exponents. The
more these definitions are examined and analysed, the more they
resolve themselves into a string of commonplaces and platitudes
by no means peculiar to
IS THERE A "THEORY" OF FASCISM? 199.
Fascism, "the common interest before self" (basis of the
German National Socialist Programme); "duty," "heroism," "the
conception of the State as an absolute" (Mussolini); "an organic
and historical conception of society" (Rocco); "a conception
which leans neither to the Right nor to the Left," "the
co-operation of all classes," "the co- ordinated development of
all national resources for the common good" (Villari); "a high
conception of citizenship," "the Modern Movement," "the faith
of those who ever since the war have realised that the old
system was dead and that a new system must be created," "the
system of the next stage of civilisation," "the creed and
morality of British manhood" (Mosley); "orderly government,
national discipline," "co-ordinated progress," "a creed of
justice and Solidarity ... .. Social Christianity" (The
Blackshirt); "a return to statesmanship," "the national
observance of duty towards others," "less a policy than a state
of mind" (The Fascist), etc., etc. These and the like windfilled
phrases revolve without end through all the propagandist
explanations of Fascism. There is, it is true, one professedly
definite and specific content put forward, namely, the much
advertised "Corporate State"; but further analysis in a
subsequent section will show that this conception is actually as
empty and hollow as the rest. This vagueness and ambiguity of
conventional commonplaces to describe its basic aims is not
accidental in Fascism, but inherent and inevitable. This
terminology is the standard vague and deceitful terminology of
all capitalist parties to cover the realities of class- rule and
class-exploitation under empty phrases of "the community," "the
national welfare," "the State above classes," etc. It is the
familiar terminology of a MacDonald, a Henderson or of
Fabianism. in the Labour movement to defeat the aims of
Socialism and cover servitude to capitalism. It is the familiar
terminology of a Baldwin or a Lloyd George, of a Tardieu or a
Herriot, of a Hindenburg or a Wels, In the use of these
threadbare cliches of capitalist politics to describe its aims
Fascism differs not a whit from the other capitalist parties,
from Conservatism, Liberalism or Labourism, all of which would
readily accept all the formulas quoted above. By this identity
Fascism not only reveals its theoretical poverty and emptiness,
but also reveals its basic identity of aims with the other
capitalist parties. Fascism differs from the other
200. FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
capitalist parties only in its particular methods, in its
practice, to realise the same basic aims. There is, in short,
despite all the inflated claims and attempts to the contrary, no
distinctive "theory" of Fascism in the sense of a distinctive,
scientific system of doctrines and worldoutlook. There is only a
practice: and, to cover this practice, a medley of borrowed
plumes of any and every theory, principle or institution which
may serve the purpose of the moment, often with the utmost
consequent theoretical contradiction (e.g., in racial theories)
between one Fascism and another. To mistake the borrowed plumage
for the bird means to fail to understand the essence of Fascism.
Or , to vary the metaphor, the warning may be addressed to those
who seek in all innocence to study the highly "ideal" and
"spiritual" explanations of the "theoretical basis" of Fascism,
that to mistake the sheep's hide for the wolf means to reveal
oneself in truth a sheep and fit prey for the wolf. Fascism grew
up in historical fact as a movement without a theory- that is to
say, it grew up in reality as a negative movement (employing
mixed national-chauvinist and pseudorevolutionary slogans) in
opposition to the proletarian revolution, and mainly
distinguished by the use of violent and extralegal methods
against the proletarian movement. Only later, after over two
years of existence, when it became clear that in order to
appear fully dressed and equipped as a party and movement, it
required to have a "philosophy," in 192 1 the Fascist leadership
gave orders for a suitable "philosophy" to be created. In August
1921, in preparation f or the 1921 Congress Mussolini wrote:
Italian Fascism now requires, under pain of death, or worse, of
suicide, to provide itself with a "body of doctrines .... . .
The expression is a rather strong one, but I would desire that
within the two months between now and the National Congress the
philosophy of Fascism must be created(Mussolini, letter to
Bianchi, August 27, 1921, reprinted in Message et Proclami,
Milan, 1929, P. 39.)
"Within two months the philosophy of Fascism must be
created." The new "philosophy" is ordered as simply as a
waggon-load of blacksticks. The spirit of this is no doubt
magnificent in the style of a Selfridge's or Whiteley's
emporium, ready to provide anything at a moment's notice,
including even
IS THERE A "THEORY OF FASCISM? 201.
a brand-new "philosophy" is desired. But it is not the spirit
of a genuine or serious movement with roots. In the same way we
may note Hitler's explanation that a new "world-theory" was
necessary as the sole means to combat the world- theory of
Marxism. Every attempt to combat a world-theory by means of
force comes to grief in the end, so long as the struggle fails
to take the form of aggression in favour of a new intellectual
conception. It is only when two world-theories are wrestling on
equal terms that brute force, persistent and ruthless, can bring
about a decision by arms in favour of the side which it
supports. It was on this side that the fight against Marxism had
failed up to that time. It was the reason why Bismarck's
legislation regarding Socialism failed in the end in spite of
everything, and was bound to fail. It lacked the platform of a
new world-theory to establish which the fight might have been
fought; for only the proverbial wisdom of high State officials
could find it possible to imagine that the twaddle about
so-called "State authority" or "order and tranquillity" are a
sufficient inducement to fight to the death. In 1914 a contest
against Social Democracy was in fact conceivable, but the lack
of any practical substitute made it doubtful how long such a
contest could have been maintained successfully. In that respect
there was a serious blank. (Hitler, Mein Kampf, English
translation, PP. 78-9.) Hitler, or the writer of this passage,
is here perfectly correct in placing his finger on the weakness
of the fight against Marxism. But his correctness is the
correctness of a cunning tactician, not of a world thinker or
historical leader. Marxism is strong and invincible because of
its world-theory; therefore we must also create a world- theory
in order to defeat it: such is the reasoning. Once again only
the negative approach to Marxism dictates the ideology and the
demand for it; Marxism remains the sole positive, dominating
force. It is obvious that no world-theory comes into existence
in this fashion, but only a substitute for one. The sensation of
a "new ideology" which intoxicates the more fanatical and
emotional adherents of Fascism, giving them the illusion of a
liberation from old superstitions and a new dynamic power,
represents in reality no new ideology distinct from the general
ideology of capitalism, but only the typical ideology of the
most modern phase of capitalism, that is to say, the sharpened
expression of all the tendencies of imperialism or capitalism in
decay, in the period of the general crisis. The
202 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
contempt for constitutional and legalist forms, the
glorification of violence, the denial of all liberal,
egalitarian and humanitarian ideas, the demand for the strong
and powerful state, the enthronement of war as the highest form
of human activity-all these are the typical expressions of
modern monopolist capitalism. They are not peculiar to Fascism;
they are only expressed with greater brutality by Fascism. In
the poems of a Kipling, in the Boer War agitation of a Daily
Mail in the war dictatorship of a Lloyd George riding roughshod
over constitutional forms and driving to the aim of a "Knock-out
Blow," the spirit of Fascism is already present in embryonic f
orms. And indeed Fascism grew historically out of war agitation,
and under the guiding inspiration of the Army authorities, in
both Italy and Germany. There is nothing original or creative in
Fascism. -Not one single creative idea or achievement can be
traced to Fascism. The critique of liberalism and of liberal
capitalist democracy, with its hollow contradiction between the
formal sovereign "citizenship" and the reality of wage-slavery
is borrowed from Marx. But Marx's conclusion, which alone
justifies the criticism by pointing the path forward to the
stage when the abolition of classes will make the formal
citizenship real, is omitted; for in Fascism the hollow
contradiction between the formal "citizenship" and the reality
of wageslavery remains, just as in Liberalism, save with heavier
coercion and subjection to maintain it. The pseudo-revolutionary
trappings, the sham staged "conquest of power," the new form of
government based on a single party running throughout the entire
population, is 'twisted, with servile imitation, from a
caricature of the Russian Revolution, turned upside down. But
even the caricature cannot be reproduced in the end; for, while
the idea of a single party leadership is borrowed (but of an
autocratic, not a democratic party), the key of the system, the
Soviets or drawing of the masses directly into the work of
government through their own elected organs from below, cannot
be copied even in caricature: on the contrary, even the
previously elected municipal councils have to be abolished and
replaced by the arbitrary rule of the nominated Podesta or
Prefect, or in Germany by the nominated State Commissary imposed
from above and overruling even nominal elected forms.
IS THERE A "THEORY" OF FASCISM? 203 The theory of economic
state regulation of privately owned industry and of
class-collaboration in the "Corporate State," that is, of
syndicated state-controlled capitalism with a dash of sham
"labour representation," is borrowed from the entire modern
development of monopolist capitalism in all countries. In
particular, these are the typical theories of modern Liberalism
and Social Democracy, with their "Organised Capitalism,"
"National Planning Boards," "National Economic Councils," "Joint
Industrial Councils," and all the rest of the apparatus of
theories and institutions which have developed continuously and
increasingly in the imperialist era, and more especially since
the war, before Fascism ever existed. Save for the peculiar
coercive methods of Fascism, all the essential formal theories
of the "Corporate State" can be found exactly paralleled in the
Liberal Yellow Book. Finally, the national-chauvinist ideology,
the anti-Semitism and the racial theories are all borrowed,
without a single new feature, from the stock in trade of the old
Conservative and reactionary parties, as utilised by a Bismarck
or Tsar Nicholas, and made familiar in the propaganda of the
Pan-Germans or Pan-Slavists.* *Modern Anti-Semitism developed
from Germany and Austria in the eighteenseventies, that is, as
capitalism was beginning to pass from the liberal epoch towards
the imperialist epoch. In 1873 appeared Marr's Der Sieg des
Judentums uber das Germanum, or, The Victory of Jewry over
Germanism. "It is impossible to doubt," writes Lucien Wolf,
former President of the Jewish Historical Society in England,
"that the secret springs of the new agitation were more or less
directly supplied by Prince Bismarck himself." It is worth
noting that a "Christian Social Working Alen's Union"(worthy
forerunner of the National Socialist Workers' Party) was founded
in this period by Stocker, a Court Chaplain, which preached a
programme of so-called "Christian Socialism," in practice
Anti-Semitism, dished up with denunciations of financial
corruption, and organised street riots and bloodshed. It was
with reference to this movement that the elder Liebknecht spoke
of Anti-Semitism as the "Socialism of Fools." The Anti-Semite
agitation spread from Germany to Russia in the beginning of the
'eighties, again directly inspired and stimulated from above.
"The modern Anti-Semitic element," writes Lucien Wolf, "came
from above. It has been freely charged against the Russian
Government that it promoted the riots in 1881 in order to
distract attention from the Nihilist propaganda. This seems to
be true of General Ignatiev, then Minister of the Interior, and
of the secret police." The conscious anti-revvolutionary,
antisocialist an officially inspired character of the movement
thus stands out in every case. In France, Drumont's La France
Juive appeared in 1886, and the antiDreyfus scandal, promoted by
all the high military and bureaucratic authorities with
wholesale forgeries, dragged from 1894 to 1906. Only British
Capitalism, which in its period of stability could make a
Conservative Jew Prime Minister and ennoble Jewish millionaires
in abundance, had for long no use for the primitive devices of
Anti-Semite demagogy; but to-day the signs begin to spread in
Britain in close association with the spread of Fascism. Thus
The Blackshirt (1933, No.
204 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
The whole outlook and ideology of Fascism is in short nothing
but a ragbag of borrowings from every source to cover the
realities and practice of modern monopolist capitalism in the
period of crisis and of extreme class-war. There is not a
single creative idea. Capitalism in its time, in its early
progressive days achieved a great constructive work, and carried
enormously forward the whole of human culture in every field.
The French Revolution spread a new life and a new understanding
throughout the world, the outcome of which we can to- day be
proud to inherit, even though we are to-day able to understand
that its bourgeois basis inevitably set a limit to what it could
achieve. The Russian Revolution opened a new era on a scale
exceeding every previous change in human history, the full
extent of which is still only beginning to be realised. But
Fascism has produced nothing, and can produce nothing. For
Fascism is the expression only of disease and death. 2. Demagogy
as a Science. Bolshevism is knocking at our gates. We can't
afford to let it in. We have got to organize ourselves against
it, and put our shoulders together and hold fast. We must keep
America whole and safe and unspoiled. We must keep the worker
away from red literature and red ruses; we must see that his
mind remains healthy. (Al Capone.) The above quotation from Al
Capone is a suitable introduction to the anti-Communist ideology
of Fascism. The earnestness of this appeal of a thief and
gangster to maintain existing society "unspoiled" in face of the
Communist menace might appear at first blush comic; but in fact
it is purely reasonable. None have more sincere concern and zeal
than thieves to maintain the institution of private property,
without which their profession would come to an end, and they
would find themselves faced with the unpleasant alternative of
having to work for their living. On the other hand, they cannot
publicly proclaim the principles of thievery and gangsterism as
the basis of their stand; for public purposes, they have to pro
23) prints on its front page under the heading "Britain for the
British: The Alien Menace": "The low type of foreign Jew,
together with other aliens who are debasing the life of this
nation, will be run out of the country in double-quick time
under Fascism." Anti-Sernitism, the typical degrading expression
of a tottering system, is developed by Capitalism in its
decaying stage in proportion as the class struggle grows acute.
DEMAGOGY AS A SCIENCE 205
claim the most high moral principles, to maintain existing
society "unspoiled" and to keep "the mind" of the worker
"healthy." This high moral tone runs through all Fascist
propaganda and accompanies their gangster exploits. Nor should
this be thought a contradiction; the two characteristics
invariably run together in periods of decay. As Plechanov has
remarked: Marx said very truly that the greater the development
of antagonism between the growing forces of production and the
extant social order, the more does the ideology of the ruling
class become permeated with hypocrisy. In addition, the more
effectively life unveils the mendacious character of this
ideology, the more does the language used by the dominant class
become sublime and virtuous (see Saint Max). This shrewd remark
is confirmed by what is going on to-day in Germany. The spread
of debauchery disclosed by the Harden-Moltke trial proceeds hand
in hand with the "revival of idealism" in s(Plechanov,
Fundamental Problems of Marxism, English edition, 1929, p. 82.)
The process noted by Plechanov has gone considerably further in
Germany and in all capitalist Society to-day. The fact that many
of the principal leaders of German Fascism are not only
notorious drug- fiends and perverts, but express themselves in
their writings with highly jocular gusto over their exploits of
tortures of women and particularly revolting murders (see for
example the Ernstes und Heiteres aus dem Putschleben of von
Killinger, who was appointed by Hitler Commissar for Saxony and
Minister-President), while in their programme they demand the
protection of "the morals and sense of decency of the German
race," is no contradiction, but only a further exemplification
of the general rule.* *"Von Killinger was made Commissar for
Saxony and later MinisterPresident, and he consequently was in
charge of 'Gleichschaltung' in this State. Ile had previously
written a little book, Ernstes und Heiteres aus dem Putschleben,
in which he recounts, among other incidents, how in the campaign
against the Soviet Government in Munich he had a soldier whip a
young 'wench' with a horsewhip 'until there was not a white spot
left on her backside.' He also recounts how, after a Communist
street agitator had made an impudent reply to a threat, he had a
soldier toss a hand grenade at the man. He recounts with gusto
the Iorv details of the man's death" (Calvin B. Hoover, Germany
Enters tile Third Reich, 1933, P. 113). Leaders of this type
have invariably been given especially high position in German
Fascism. Many similar exploits could be recounted of the
notorious "Rasses" of Mussolini in Italy, of Finnish Fascism, of
Hungarian Fascism, etc. This charateristic is a general
characteristic of Fascism, and follows inevitably from the type
of work it has to do.
206 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
The mystical and openly non-rational character of Fascist
ideology and propaganda is only the inevitable expression of its
class- role to maintain the domination of a doomed and decaying
class. The present situation of world capitalism is in the
highest degree irrational. It is not rational that foodstuffs
should be destroyed, while millions are undernourished, that
building workers should be unemployed, while housing becomes
more and more overcrowded and inadequate; that the masses should
have to economise and go short, because there is too much
plenty; or that learned economists should discuss anxiously the
"menace" of a good harvest or the "hopes" of a bad harvest. But
all this is inherent in the present stage of capitalism.
Therefore capitalism can no longer defend itself on rational
grounds, as it used to do in its early days, when it argued that
its system, though cruel, meant the maximum development of
natural resources and the maximum material well-being. To-day
such arguments are dimissed as low, materialistic, utilitarian,
merely rational arguments unworthy of higher human nature,
characteristic of the exploded nineteenth-century outlook and
long replaced by twentieth-century "spirituality" and the
"revival of idealism." To-day capitalism defends itself on
mystical grounds. "Race," "the nation," "Christianity,"
"spirituality," "the mystery of patriotism," "faith"-this is the
language of the modern defenders of capitalism, and, in
particular, of Fascism. Thus Mussolini, in defining Fascism,
speaks with contempt of "doctrine" and exalts "faith": Doctrine,
beautifully defined and carefully elucidated, with headlines and
paragraphs, might be lacking; but there was to take its place
something more decisive-faith. (Mussolini, The Political and
Social Doctrine oj Fascism, p. 10.) Gentile, the philosopher of
Fascism, defines the Fascist State as "a wholly spiritual
creation." Hitler defines the State as "nothing to do with any
definite economic conception or economic development," but the
organisation of a community homogeneous in nature and feeling,
for the better furtherance and maintenance of their type and the
fulfilment of the destiny marked out for them by Providence.
(Hitler, Mein Kampf, English edition, p. 69.) The British Union
of Fascists, in its short definition of Fascism, declares:
DEMAGOGY AS A SCIENCE 207
We believe in the co-operation of all classes, in the
solidarity of all units of a nation, and in justice. And in the
mystery of patriotism. (The Blackshirt, No. 34, 1933.) Bottomley
in his wartime speeches and articles had many similar exalted
passages. This type of "ideal" "spiritual" language is the
familiar language of all scoundrels, rogues, war-profiteers,
gangsters, Kreugers, Al Capones, Morgans, MacDonalds,
Mussolinis, Hiders, Romanoffs and all who live by preying on
their fellow human beings and cannot face a plain, rational,
materialist examination of their role and of the Organisation of
society. On this exaltation of mystical "feeling" above
reasonwhether national "feeling," religious "feeling," racial
"feeling," etc.-as the ultimate basis, Hegel (himself
philosophically an idealist, but of a more solid type, and
therefore by his system laying the groundwork for the subsequent
dialectical materialism), wrote with incisive contempt in
Phenomenology of Mind: By referring to his feelings, his inward
oracle, he thinks he has a sufficient answer to those who do not
agree with him; he must declare that be has nothing more to say
to those who do not share the same feelings----in other words,
be tramples under foot the roots of humanity. For the nature of
this is to seek agreement with others, and it exists only in the
community of consciousness that has been brought about. The
inhuman, the brute consists in being guided only by feeling and
being able to communicate only through feelings. "He tramples
under foot the roots of humanity"-this pregnant saying applies
to all the racial, mystical, non-rational, anti-humanitarian,
anti- international ideologies of Fascism. And the result in
every case is the same-to lead only to "the inhuman, the brute."
The truth is, the propaganda of Fascism is essentially demagogy
carried to its most extreme point of development. It might
indeed be said that, if Marxism represented the development of
Socialism from Utopia to science, Fascism represents the
development of capitalist demagogy from amateurdorn to science.
Already before Fascism the precursors of the modern age,
Northcliffe, Lloyd George, Bottomley, Hearst and others had
done much to point the way and lay down the general lines and
methods; but these were still erratic and individualist in
character, and never solved completely the complicated and
contradictory problem of building up a reactionary mass
movement,
208 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
at once "popular" in form and anti-popular in content. Hitler
expresses generously his gratitude to his predecessors,
especially Northcliffe, Lloyd George and British wartime
propaganda, which he acknowledges as his model that he learnt
from, admiring its "psychological superiority"; he admires
particularly the idea of pretending to fight for "the freedom of
little nations" as a far superior motive to "lead men to their
death" rather than telling them the real aims of the war; he
praises Lloyd George highly as a "great demagogue," whose
"primitiveness" is "proof of towering political capacity." But
in fact Fascism was to leave these models far behind in its
systematisation of playing on every backward feeling, instinct
and ignorance in the population, in the unscrupulousness of its
programmes thrown out to appeal to any and every section without
pretense of regard for consistency, and in the brazenness of its
sudden changes of front and repudiation of its own programmes.
What is demagogy? The ruling classes will apply the epithet
"demagogue" to every revolutionary leader of the masses who
awakens them to the struggle to overthrow their oppressors, as
realised at its highest in a Lenin or a Liebknecht. Such
appellation is a glaring misuse of language; for the relation of
the revolutionary leader to the masses is based on the strictest
regard for objective truth, whether popular or unpopular, and
the most consistent and unwavering prosecution of the interests
of the mass struggle for liberation against all opposition,
however powerful. Demagogy, on the other hand, is the art of
playing on the hopes and the fears, the emotions and the
ignorance of the poor and the suffering for the benefit of the
rich and the powerful. It is the meanest of the arts. This is
the art of Fascism. An examination of the programmes of Italian
and of German Fascism will show the systernatisation of this
method, which is being painstakingly copied to-day by British
Fascism. It is unnecessary to go into the earlier record of
Mussolini himself, as when in 1910 be declared that "the
proletariat has no fatherland, nor in truth has the bourgeoisie;
in case of war we Socialists will not go to the front-we will
raise insurrection within our own borders," or when in 1012 he
denounced Bissolati for treason in having acclaimed the King
whose servitor he was himself to become. This is only the common
DEMAGOGY AS A SCIENCE 209
record of all the Corrupt Western European Social Democratic
politicians, of the Millerands and Briands, of the MacDonalds
and Snowdens. It is more important to begin with the early
programme of Italian Fascism in 1019-22 before power. The early
programme of Italian Fascism was, in the words of an official
spokesman of Fascism, Professor G. Volpe (Professor of Modern
History in the University of Milan), in the Yearbook of the
International Centre of Fascist Studies for 192 8, "a nebulous
programme at first . . . somewhat demagogic and revolutionary."
It contained items of the following type: Abolition of the
Monarchy, Senate and Nobility. Republic, and Universal Suffrage
to elect a Constituent Assembly as Italian Section of the
International Constituent Assembly of the Peoples. International
Disarmament and Abolition of Compulsory Military Service,
Confiscation of Church property. Confiscation of war
super-profits, and capital levy; abolition of the Stock Exchange
and dissolution of limited liability Companies and banks; Land
for the peasants. Transference of control of industry to
syndicates of technicians and workers. Italian Fascism
systematically applauded the occupation of factories by workers,
food-riots, strikes, peasant land-seizures, etc. and called for
the hanging of speculators from lamp-posts and similar measures.
It is only necessary to examine this programme of Fascism in
comparison with its record in power to understand the meaning of
demagogy. In comparison with Fascism, the average "old gang
politician's'' record of election promises and subsequent
violation is innocent child's play and almost honest by
contrast. Political history in all its range from a Machiavelli
to a Tammany Hall knows no parallel of brazen dishonesty to
equal Fascism.* * The examples of this record in every field are
too abundant and commonplace to be worth detailed review. Thus
on the question of Republicanism Mussolini wrote in the Popolo
d'Italia on May 2 4, 19 2 1:
"I shall not allow Fascism to be altered and made
unrecognizable by changing from republican in tendency, as I
founded it, and as it ought to remain, to a monarchical, nay
more, a dynastic movement. Our symbol is not the scutcheon of
the House of Savoy.... It is not permissible to preach one thing
and practise another." On the very next day, when the
controlling capitalist and landed elements in
210 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
The programme of German National Socialism surpassed that of
Italian Fascism in unblushing demagogy. Here, in the more
advanced stage of development of Germany, it was necessary for
Fascism to proclaim the aim of "Socialism." The Krupps and the
Thyssens, the Deterdings and the Hohenzollerns paid out their
money to spread the propaganda of "Socialism." The Twenty-Five
Points Programme, adopted in 1920, and proclaimed by the 1926
Congress to be "unalterable," set out the following aims among
its miscellaneous medley of items: Abolition of Unearned Income
(11). Breaking of Interest- Slavery (11). Confiscation of all
war profits (12). Nationalisation of all trusts (13).
Profit-sharing in large concerns (14). Confiscation without
compensation of land for communal purposes (17). Death penalty
for usurers and profiteers (17). The meaning of these
high-sounding "revolutionary" and "socialistic" aims was left
deliberately obscure. It is reported that two earnest students
and devotees of National Socialism having approached Goebbels
for an explanation how the famous Eleventh Point on the
"Breaking of Interest-Slavery" would be accomplished received
the reply that the only "breaking" likely to take place would be
of the heads of those who tried to understand it.
Interpretation" was, however, at a later stage brought into play
in reference to one point, the Seventeenth Point on the
confiscation of land without compensation. This demand had
Fascism insisted on the withdrawal of this republican
declaration, Mussolini at once obediently wrote (Popolo
d'Italia, May 2 1, 1921): "Fascism is superior to monarchy and
republic.... The future is uncertain, and the absolute does not
exist. . . . Those who would draw the conclusion that Fascism
espouses the republican cause, and regards the setting up of the
republic as a prime necessity, reveal a lamentable want of
understanding." On the question of religion Mussolini wrote on
April 3, 1921: "Fascism is the strongest of all heresies that
strikes at the doors of the churches.Away with these temples
that are doomed to destruction; for our triumphant heresy is
destined to illumine all hearts and brains." in his Encyclopedia
article on Fascism in 1932 he wrote: "In the Fascist State
religion is considered as one of the deepest manifestations of
the spirit of man, thus it is not only respected, but defended
and protected." These examples could be continued indefinitely,
and are only of importance as the demonstration that Fascism
cannot be interpreted in terms of its own alleged political
"theories," but only in terms of its service to finance-
capital.
DEMAGOGY AS A SCIENCE 211
evidently caused alarm to the more stupid large landlords,
who required an assurance in writing, while the more wily heads
of big business and finance remained wholly unperturbed at the
terrible Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in the shape
of the "Nationalisation of All Trusts," "Abolition of Unearned
Income" and the "Death Penalty for Profiteers." Accordingly, the
following explanatory addition was officially inserted in the
"unalterable" programme in 1928: It is necessary to reply to the
false interpretation on the part of our opponents on Point 17 of
the programme. Since the National Socialist German Workers'
Party admits the principle of private property, it is obvious
that the expression "confiscation without compensation" merely
refers to possible legal powers to confiscate, if necessary,
land illegally acquired or not administered in accordance with
national welfare. It is directed in the first instance at the
Jewish companies which speculate in land. This specimen exercise
in official "interpretation" speaks volumes for the real
character of the whole programme. At the same time, occasional
assurances bad in fact also to be given to some of the more
hesitating capitalists. An official letter of this type from the
district party leadership in Dresden to a Weimar capitalist, who
had hesitated to give financial support owing to the
"anti-capitalist" propaganda conducted, and to whom it was
officially explained that he should not be alarmed at the
anti-capitalist "catchwords," since these were only adopted "for
reasons of diplomacy," fell into the bands of the opponents of
the Nazis in 1930 and was published. The text of this indiscreet
letter ran: Do not let yourself be continually confused by the
text of our posters. Of course there are catchwords like "Down
with Capitalism!" etc.; but these are unquestionably necessary,
for under the flag of "German national," or "national" alone,
you must know, we should never reach our goal, we should have no
future. We must talk the language of the embittered socialist
workmen . . . or else they wouldn't feel at home with us. We
don't come out with a direct programme for reasons of diplomacy.
(Letter of Dresden party leader to the industrialist, Fritsche,
in Weimar: reprinted in Mowrer, Germany Puts the Clock Back, p.
150.) This illuminating letter makes further comment on the real
meaning of Fascist "demagogy" and its purpose superfluous.
212 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
3. Capitalism, Socialism and the Corporate State. Fascism
differs from Socialism chiefly in this-that in the Corporate
State you will be left in possession of your business. ("Fascism
Callingto the Industrialists and Business Men," The Fascist
Week, January 19-25, 1934.) Fascism endeavours to present itself
as a third alternative distinct from either Capitalism or
Socialism. To the workers Fascism insists that it does not stand
for Capitalism. To the employers Fascism insists that it does
not stand for Socialism. For its supposed distinct positive
conception it remains extremely vague. Only after several years
of existence Italian Fascism worked out the formula of the
"Corporate State" to cover its aim. German Fascism worked out
the formula of "National Socialism." Both these formulas are
intended to represent the supposed "third alternative" to
Capitalism or Socialism. This supposed "third alternative"-the
will o' the wisp dream of petit- bourgeois ideology ever since
the development of Capitalism and the class struggle-remains a
myth and can never be other than a myth. It is in fact nothing
but a repetition of the old petit-bourgeois dream of a
class-society without class-contradictions or class-struggle,
but this time used to cover in reality the most violently
coercive class-state and classsuppression. The "Corporate State"
is in fact the transparent masquerade-dress of modern
Capitalism, with developed state Organisation of industry, and
complete suppression of all independent workers' Organisation
and rights. Economically, there can only be Capitalism or
Socialism in the conditions of modern society based on
large-scale industry. What is Capitalism? Capitalism is marked
by (I) production for profit, (2) class ownership of the means
of production, (3) employment of the dispossessed workers or
proletariat for wages. What is Socialism? Socialism is marked
by (I) common ownership of the means of production by the
workers, constituting the entire society, (2 ) production for
use. The current fashionable vulgar talk of all bourgeois
journalists and politicians about "the disappearance nowadays of
the line of distinction between Capitalism and Socialism" is
only based on the confusion that Capitalism is identified with
the old liberal laisser- faire relatively small-scale Capitalism
or individualism of the nineteenth century, while Socialism is
identified with
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 213
State intervention. Hence the most typical characteristics of
modern Capitalism or Imperialism, with the increasing role of
the State in its Organisation, are described as "Socialism,
while the realities of wage- labour, profits and class-division
are unchanged and even intensified. This muddle-headed
confusion, which is common to all capitalist, Labourist and
Fascist ideology, and is the breeding-ground for all the
demagogic attempts of Fascism to conceal its capitalist
character, becomes impossible as soon as the class-analysis of
Capitalism is understood. Fascism by all the above tests is
economically identical with Capitalism, representing only a
special method to maintain its power and hold down the workers.
Fascism is profit-making society, is class- society, is society
based on exploitation. Alike in Italy and in Germany, production
is carried on for profit; the means of production are the
property of a small minority, the upper strata of whom draw
large incomes through their ownership; the mass of the workers
are cut off from ownership, and work for a wage, producing
surplus-value for the owners, or are left unemployed, if it is
not profitable to employ them. All these are the familiar
characteristics of capitalism in all countries, as are equally
the crisis, depression, decline of production and mass
unemployment. The Fascist countries show no difference from the
other capitalist countries in any of these respects. Fascist
Italy and Fascist Germany are no better off than non-Fascist
France and non-Fascist 13 ritain (in fact worse off, but for
reasons not necessarily connected with Fascism); they are all
economically in the same boat, in the capitalist boat. The only
contrast is provided by the land of socialist construction, the
Soviet Union, with its ending of unemployment and gigantic rise
of production alongside the decline in all Fascist or other
capitalist countries. It is necessary at the outset to insist on
these very elementary facts, before examining more closely the
specific economic institutions of Fascism, because Fascist
propaganda, which is characterised by brazenness of assertion
rather than any attempt at objective or scientific character, is
so insistent on denying the capitalist basis of Fascism that it
may easily confuse those who mistake words for facts. As this
plea is at the heart of the economic apologies for Fascism, it
will be necessary to examine more closely, first, the Fascist
line of expression on
214 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Capitalism; second, the Fascist line of expression on
"Socialism," as exemplified in "National Socialism"; and
finally, the positive economic principles and practice of
Fascism, as exemplified in the Corporate State or in the German
Labour Code. The Fascist line of expression on Capitalism is
marked by extreme self-contradiction. According to Hitler, there
is no such thing as the "capitalist system." He writes: There
does not exist a capitalist system. The employers have worked
their way up to the top by their industry and efficiency. And by
virtue of this selection, which shows that they belong to a
higher type, they have the right to lead. Every leader of
industry will forbid any interference by a factory council.
According to Mussolini, however, in his speech to the Council of
Corporations on November 14, 1933, the present crisis is "a
general crisis of capitalism." He defines Capitalism as follows:
Capitalism in its most highly developed form is a mass
production for mass consumption, financed nationally and
internationally by anonymous capital. Having thus brilliantly
"defined" Capitalism in terms of "capital" (he is compelled to
tie himself up in this way, for if he were to attempt to analyse
capital, he would be compelled to lay bare the capitalist basis
of Fascism), he proceeds to distinguish three periods of
capitalism, the period of free competition from 1830 to 1870,
the "static" or "stagnating" period of the great trusts from
1870 to 1913, and the period of "decadence" since the war (here
we have only a very confused and mangled borrowing from Lenin's
Imperialism). He then poses the question: The crisis which has
held us in its clutches for four years-is it a crisis in the
capitalist system or of the capitalist system? And he reaches
the answer that the crisis which has held "us" (Fascist Italy)
in its clutches for four years is "a crisis of the capitalist
system" (which Hitler says does not exist). But having reached
this important admission, he then endeavours to argue that Italy
is "not a capitalist country." Upon what does he base this
argument? On the plea that in Italy there is a majority
proportion of agriculture and small industry (as if this made
any difference to the dominance of the capitalist class
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 215
and of capitalist exploitation, which knows very well how to
suck the labours, not only of the industrial workers, but also
of the peasants and small producers). But if this structure
makes Italy "not capitalist," this structure applied equally to
Italy before Fascism, and Italy was accordingly "not capitalist"
also before Fascism. But if Italy was "not capitalist" before
Fascism, what was it? Again he can give no answer which would
not undermine his whole attempt to present Fascist Italy as any
different in its essential capitalist basis from pre-Fascist
Italy. Finally he argues that, since the corporate system has
admittedly failed to save Italy from the crisis of capitalism
"which has held us in its clutches for four years," therefore
the corporate system may be recommended to other capitalist
countries to save them equally: We come to the last question:
Can the corporative principle be applied in other countries?
There is no doubt about it. As there is a general crisis of
capitalism, solution by the Corporate State seems to be
necessary in other countries. However, in that case he would
need to show that "solution by the Corporate State" has applied
to Italy, which has suffered as heavily from the capitalist
crisis as any other capitalist country. But when the crisis
broke on Italy in 1929-30, what was his line? Did he argue that
"solution by the Corporate State" would save Italy? On the
contrary, he argued that Fascist Italy was helpless to do any
more about the crisis than any other capitalist country. In his
speech of October 1, he declared: The situation has grown
considerably worse throughout the world, including Italy. . . .
The State cannot perform miracles. Not even Mr. Hoover, the most
powerful man in the world in the richest country in the world,
has succeeded in putting his house in order.
"The State" (i.e., the Fascist State) "cannot perform
miracles." It cannot hope to do more than other capitalist
countries. Quite right, and very honestly said for once. But in
that case what happens to the boasted superiority of Fascism and
the supposed emancipation of Fascism from capitalism and its
contradictions? It is evident that we have here a mere tangle of
confusions and self-contradictions (which could be endlessly
further
216 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
exemplified from the statements of all the principal Fascist
leaders in all countries), without attempt at serious thinking.
Let us now turn to the Fascist line on "Socialism." According to
Mussolini, in his speech on January 13, 1934, "Socialism" is
condemned outright as "the bureaucratisation of economy."
According to German Fascism, "Socialism" is the ideal, provided
it is "National Socialism." But what do they mean by
"Socialism"? The definitions given by the leaders of German
Fascism afford an instructive variety of choice. The thirteenth
point of the official party programme calls for "the
nationalisation of all trusts." However, the official economic
theorist of the party, Feder, explains in his Manifesto on the
suppression of interest-slavery: Every honest politician knows
that general socialisation means economic collapse and the
absolute bankruptcy of the State. Our watchword must be, not
"socialisation," but "desocialisation." Goebbels in his Little
A.B.C. of the National Socialists, states: The Socialisation of
all the means of production is absolutely
unachievable.Addressing a group of business men at Hamburg on
December 15, 1933, Feder won their applause by declaring that
"the State must not engage in business itself as a competitor,"
and adding, "Don't be afraid your enterprises will be
nationalised." Where then is the "Socialism"? Explanations are
forthcoming in abundance. Gregor Strasser, speaking on the radio
on behalf of the party on June 14, 1932, gave the following
comprehensive definition: By socialism we understand
governmental measures for the protection of the individual or
the group against any sort of exploitation. The taking over of
the railways by the State, of the street- cars, power plants and
gas works by the municipalities; the emancipation of the
peasants by Baron von Stein, and the incorporation of the guild
system into the State; the Prussian officers' system of
selection by achievement; the incorruptibility of the German
official; the old walls, the town hall, the cathedral of the
free Imperial citythese are all expressions of German Socialism
as we conceive and demand it. "Socialism," after passing gently
through the stages of gas-and-water Fabianism and an admixture
of "guilds," thus comes to
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 217
rest at last in the solid ground of "the old walls ... .. the
cathedral" and "the Prussian officers' system," Goebbels is
still more explicit in his brochure Prussia Must Become Prussian
Again: Socialism is Prussianism (Preussentum). The conception
"Prusianism" is identical with what we mean by Socialism. And
again in a speech in East Prussia: Our Socialism is that which
animated the kings of Prussia, and which reflected itself in the
march-step of the Prussian Grenadier regiments: a socialism of
duty. It is impossible not to recall Marx's comments on "German
Socialism" (despite all the differences) nearly a century ago:
German Socialism recognised its own calling as the bombastic
representative of the petit-bourgeois Philistine. It proclaimed
the German nation to be the model nation, and the German
petit-bourgeois Philistine to be the typical man. To every
typical meanness of this model man it gave a hidden, higher,
"socialist" interpretation, the exact contrary of its real
character. It went to the length of directly opposing the
"brutally destructive" tendency of Communism, and of proclaiming
its supreme and impartial contempt of all class struggles. But
this old "German Socialism," which Marx thus castigated, was by
comparison the noblest-bearted idealism if set against the
conscious and open filth of their "German Socialist" descendants
of the twentieth century, the bootlickers of reaction and
murderers of the workers, dressing up the hated Prussian,
militarist, absolutist corpse as "Socialism." It is obvious that
the Fascist conceptions on "Socialism" are even less worthy of
serious discussion than their conceptions on "Capitalism." It
remains to consider their supposed "new" and "distinctive"
programme: the Corporate State "the greatest constructive
conception yet devised by the mind of man" (Mosley). What is the
Corporate State? The basic official document of principles, the
Italian Labour Charter, published in 1927, lays down the
following (7): The Corporate State considers that in the sphere
of production private initiative is the most effective and
valuable instrument in the interests of the nation. Since
private enterprise is a function of national concern, the
218 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
organiser of the enterprise is responsible to the State for
the manage ment of its production. From the fact that the
elements of production (labour and capital) are co-operators in
a common enterprise, reciprocal rights and duties devolve upon
them. The employee, whether labourer, clerk or skilled workman,
is an active collaborator in the economic enterprise,
responsibility for the direction of which rests with the
employer. These principles are tolerably familiar in all
capitalist countries. The standard semi-official work on the
question, Fausto Pitigliani's "The Italian Corporative State"
(P. S. King, 1933, written "in close contact with the Ministry
of Corporations") declares: The idea of the sovereignty of the
State and of national unity is the primary motive underlying the
Fascist theory of govern. ment. . . . Parallel to this unifying
principle . . . there is to be noted another concept implicit in
the State system which Fascism desires to build up, namely, the
economic collaboration of the various categories engaged in
production. This new economic departure may be said to lie
somewhere between Liberalism . . . and Communism. . . . The
different categories of producers are represented officially by
various Occupational Associations. . . . These Occupational
Associations, consisting solely of employers or of workers or of
persons belonging to one or other of the liberal professions,
are grouped in Corporations for purposes of protection and
development of some specific branch of production. These
advisory bodies are organs of State, and they embody all the
elements involved in a given branch of production, namely,
capital, labour and technical direction. It is precisely from
the character of these institutionsso distinctive a feature of
the new political and economic order in Italy-that the epithet
of "corporative" is derived, which serves to differentiate the
Fascist State in its particular characteristics from other State
types. Paul Einzig in his pro-Fascist "Economic Foundations of
Fascism" (1933) describes the Corporate State as "a new economic
system that differs fundamentally from Liberal Capitalism and
Communism": In the Corporate State private property is respected
just as in any capitalist country. There is no expropriation
without compensation. The State reserves the right, however, to
limit and guide the employment of the means of production, and
to intervene in the process of
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 219
distribution in accordance with public interest. It does not
aim at owning the means of production any more than in a
capitalist country. Private ownership is the rule, and State
ownership the exception. Individual initiative is not superseded
by State intervention. But the Government reserves the right to
supplement individual initiative whenever this is considered
necessary; to prevent it from developing in directions
detrimental to public interest, and to guide it so as to obtain
the maximum benefit for the community as a whole. Mosley in his
Fascism in Britain describes the Corporate State as follows. Our
policy is the establishment of the Corporate State. As the name
implies, this means a State organised like the human body. Every
member of that body acts in harmony with the purpose of the
whole under the guidance and driving brain of the Fascist
Government. This does not mean that industry will be conducted
or interfered with from Whitehall, as in Socialist organisation.
But it does mean that the limits within which interests may
operate will be laid down by Government, and that those limits
will be the welfare of the nation as a whole. To that interest
of the nation as a whole, all lesser interests are subordinate,
whether of Right or of Left, whether they be employers'
federation, trade union, banking or professional interests. All
such interests are woven into the permanently functioning
machinery of Corporate Government. Within the Corporate
structure interests such as trade unions and employers'
federations will no longer be the general staffs of opposing
armies, but the joint directors of national enterprise. Classwar
will give place to national co-operation. All who pursue a
sectional and anti-national policy will be opposed by the might
of the organized State. Profit can be made provided that the
activity enriches the nation as well as the individual. Profit
may not be made at the expense of the nation and of the working
class. The Corporate State will secure that the nation, and the
workers who are part of the nation will share fully in the
benefits and rewards of industry. The Corporations, it should be
noted, are "advisory" bodies (Pitigliani). Control rests with
the private employer in his enterprise, and with the State above
him, as in all capitalist countries. The Corporations are
joint-committees of employers' representatives and so-called
"workers' representatives" (after the destruction of all
independent workers' organisation). Only the "workers'
organisations" recognised by the Fascist State, not those chosen
by the workers, are admitted, the only
220 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
legal requirement being that they should represent one-tenth
of the workers in an industry to secure sole recognition as
representing all the workers in the industry. The functions of
the Corporations (Article 44 of the Decree of July 1, 1926) are:
(i) conciliation; (ii) encouragement of measures "to coordinate
production and improve its Organisation"; (iii) establishment of
labour exchanges; (iv) regulation of training and
apprenticeship. The purely nominal stage-dressing character of
the Corporations is shown by the fact that up to 1933, eleven
years after the establishment of the Fascist regime, not a
single Corporation had yet been established, except for the
amusement "industry" (in 1930). The work will be done directly
by the Minister of Corporations, and hence these largely nominal
bodies will be not merely "organs of the State," as the theory
demands, but really mere additional powers for present
politicians. As a result, not a single corporation has been
formally created. (H. W. Schneider, Making the Fascist State,
1928.)
In 1933 Pitigliani, in his semi-official work already quoted,
in the fourth chapter on "Corporative Organisation," coming to
his third section under the grandiose title "The Corporations in
their Actual Working," is compelled to write under that title
(like the famous chapter on Snakes in Iceland): It is impossible
to judge in the light of any practical results how the system is
actually working in the corporative field properly so-called.
Reference has already been made to the fact that only a single
corporation, viz., that of the stage, has so far been
established in Italy. In November 1933, the Milan correspondent
of the Times wrote (November 28, 1933): Much is beard of the
Corporative State. The Ministry of Corporations was created, and
there are the National Council of Corporations, the Corporative
Central Committee, and so on; but so far, the Corporations, that
is, the organs which must apply the principle on which the whole
reform is based, have not appeared. Only in May, 1934, when this
criticism of the absence of any actual Corporations had begun to
become widespread, a decision was hastily announced, at a
meeting of the "Central Corporative Committee" convened under
Mussolini on May 9,
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 221
1934) to "create twenty-two Corporations" at a single stroke
(Times, May 10, 1934). What, then, does the Corporate State, as
so far described in the terms of its own advocates, actually
represent? Its principles, according to these descriptions,
amount in fact to the following: I. Maintenance of the
class-structure of society, and of class- exploitation, under
cover of phrases about "organic unity," etc.;* 2. Maintenance of
capitalist ownership, "private enterprise," "profits," etc.;
3.Moderate State intervention or regulatory role, where
necessary; 4. Compulsory conciliation committees or joint
industrial councils of capital and labour. But so far this is
identical with the principles of all modern capitalist states.
The cool effrontery of attempting to present this as something
"new" is only based on the naive trick of The transparent
deception, which is at the root of the "Corporate State," of
maintaining class-division in fact and denying it in words, is
strikingly expressed by Rossoni, writing as President of the
National Confederation of Fascist Syndicates on "The
Significance of Fascist Syndicalism" in the Yearbook of Fascist
Studies, 1928: "The conception of Fascist Syndicalism changes
the outlook of all those engaged in industry, and takes from
Socialism all that it has of value. Even the old terminology of
'masters' and 'men' is changing. Ile word 'master' has an
offensive meaning and implies the servitude of labour, a
servitude which is in direct contradiction to modern progress.
The Italian scheme of Corporations brings about a much-needed
co-operation between the directors and the executors of an
undertaking, and is the only present-day conception which
entails equilibrium and economic justice. "It should be
emphasised that it was these very Fascist organisers who were
the first to insist that the old expressions 'masters' and 'men'
should be abolished, and this because master supposes servant.
Nowadays we are no longer able to concur with the old absurd
idea of class-distinctions, nor do we hold that there is by
nature any moral inferiority between men. On the contrary, it is
fully recognised that all men have the same right to citizenship
in the national life." It will be seen that the "absurd idea of
class-distinctions" is regarded as solely a question of
"terminology." Hence, while Socialism aims at overcoming the
classdivision of society by the abolition of classes and thus
achieving for the first time real social unity, Fascism proposes
a verbal liquidation of classes, while the reality remains.
Employers and wage-earners remain; the whole system of profits
and exploitation remains; but these are to be covered by the new
terms "directors" and "executors" of an undertaking or in the
German labour code, "leaders" and "followers"), and thereafter
it is assumed that the class struggle should end. This is
typical of the "idealist" outlook of Fascism-or, to speak more
frankly, of its humbug.
222 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
making the comparison with the long-ago defunct,
preimperialist, "laisser-faire," capitalist epoch. Ever since
the imperialist epoch all modern capitalism has developed
increasing state regulation and control, co-ordination and
cartellisation under state guidance , and a hundred thousand
experiments and devices in joint industrial councils and every
other possible mechanism for the collaboration of capital and
labour. As for the conception of industry as a "public service,"
and the approval of profit-making only in so far as it is
consistent with "national welfare," it really does not need a
Fascist "revolution" in order to be able to repeat the wisdom of
a Callisthenes. The practical meaning of the Fascist
"revolution" and its "Corporate State" lies elsewhere, as we
shall shortly see. Take, for example , pre-Fascist Germany,
where the State already held in its hands one-tenth of
industrial production held the dominating shares in the big
banks, in shipping and in the Steel Trust, and where industry
and capital-labour relations were covered by a network of
regulating councils. C. B. Hoover writes in his book already
quoted: Cartellisation had been carried to further limits than
in any other country. In 1932 there were some 3,000 of these
cartels. In the coal and potassium mining industry syndication
was compulsory, and complicated regulating councils known as the
Federal Coal Council and the Federal Potassium Council had been
set up. Upon these Councils the operators , labourers, consumers
and coal merchants were represented. There was a Federal
Economic Council, but its regulatory functions had failed to
develop. This Federal Coal Council, based on compulsory
syndication representing employers, workers, consumers and coal
merchants, with wide regulatory powers, was already a very much
more developed "Corporation" than anything produced by Fascism.
But this was only an advanced example of the tendency of modern
capitalist development throughout the world. Here Fascism brings
nothing new. "The idea of a National Council," writes Mosley in
his Greater Britain, with the complacency of an infant peacock,
"was, I believe, first advanced in my speech on resignation from
the Labour Government in May 1930. The idea has since been
developed by Sir Arthur Salter and other writers." The history
of Capitalism since the war is littered with "the idea of a
National Council" (i.e., National Economic Council
CAPITALISM, SOCIALISM AND THE CORPORATE STATE 223
or National Council of Industry) in every country. Clemenceau
in 1918 proposed the formation of a National Economic Council,
and the proposal only broke down on the opposition of the
Confederation of Labour. Rathenau in his new proposals for
state organisation put in the centre the formation of a
representative State Economic Council. Millerand in 1920
proposed the incorporation of a National Economic Council,
including representatives of the trade unions, in the state.
Caillaux made the same proposal in his Ou va la France, ou va
I'Europe? The National Industrial Conference in Britain in 1919
put forward similar proposals for the establishment of a
permanent representative National Industrial Council. The whole
trend of post-war Liberalism, Labourism and Social Democracy, in
particular, is closely parallel to the Fascist line and
propaganda of the Corporate State-i.e., the general line of
combination of state control and private enterprise,
co-ordination through a network of regulating councils,
classcollaboration and so- called workers' representation, in
short, the whole myth of "Organised Capitalism." The great part
of the Liberal Yellow Book, of Labour and the Nation and of the
Fascist Labour Charter could be interchanged without noticeable
difference. Nevertheless, there is a "new" and distinct feature
in the Fascist Corporate State. All the Liberal-Labour proposals
are based on the incorporation of the existing workers'
organisations into the capitalist state, with the maintenance of
the formal independent rights of organisation and the right to
strike. The Fascist policy of the Corporate State is based on
the violent destruction of the workers' independent
organisations and the complete abolition of the right to strike.
This is the sole new feature of the Fascist Corporate State, to
which modern Capitalism elsewhere has not yet dared to advance,
although developing in this direction as rapidly as it is able.
The Italian Law of Syndicates of April 3, 1926, the basis of the
Corporate State, lays down in Article 18: Employees and
labourers who in groups of three or more cease work by
agreement, or who work in such a manner as to disturb its
continuity or regularity, in order to compel the employers to
change the existing contracts, are punishable by a fine of from
100 to 1,000 lire. The chiefs, promoters and organisers of the
crimes mentioned
224 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
above are punishable by imprisonment for not less than one
year, nor more than two years, in addition to the fines
prescribed above. Here is the real heart of the Fascist
Corporate State; all the rest is window-dressing. The meaning of
this is expressed with simple delight by the financial
Publicist, Einzig, in his Economic Foundations of Fascism (a
book written for the business public) Strikes and lock-outs were
outlawed from the very outset of the Fascist regime (p. ii). In
no country was it so easy as in Italy to obtain the consent of
employees to a reduction in wages (P. 31 Thanks to the
establishment of industrial peace, wages in Italy are more
elastic than in any other country p. 73). "In no country was it
so easy to obtain a reduction in wages." Here is the essence of
the Corporate State. Similarly Augusto Turati, Secretary-General
of the Fascist Party, wrote in 1928: The year 1927 was one of
widespread economic depression.... It was necessary for the
Government of the Fascist Party to take steps with the object of
bringing about a general reduction of wages from 110 to 20 per
cent. . . . It was then that the Labour Charter showed itself to
be the one secure point of reference in the negotiations which
followed. In the ungrateful task of reducing wages, not one of
the principles, solemnly enunciated in the Labour Charter, was
violated. (A. Turati, Secretary-General of the Fascist Party, on
"The Labour Charter," in the International Yearbook of Fascist
Studies, 1928.) And the prominent Fascist trade union official,
Olivetti, declared at the Fascist Trades Union Congress in 1928:
Á It was an illusion to presume that the existence of class-war
had been finally abolished. It has been abolished . . . for the
workers. On the other side, class-war is being continued. Á The
German Labour Code, brought into force on May I, 1934, reveals
the same picture. Its essence is the wiping out of all the
collective contracts which have hitherto regulated German
industry, and the establishment of the absolute power of the
employer, called "the leader of the factory," over his workers,
called "followers." Á In the factory the employer, as the leader
of the factory, and the workers and clerical employees as his
followers, work jointly to further the aims of the factory in
the joint interests of the people
THE OUTCOME OF FASCISM IN THE ECONOMIC SPHERE 225
and of the State. The decision of the leader of the factory
is binding on his followers in all factory matters. In place of
the previous elected works councils, the new factory councils
are to be appointed by the employer in agreement with the Nazi
leader in the factory, and to meet only when called by the
employer. All collective agreements for industries or trades as
a whole, or even for districts, are annulled; wages are to be
fixed separately by each firm according to the conditions of
"profitableness." The last word rests with the "Labour Trustees"
or district dictators on all questions of wages and abour
conditions, appointed by the Nazi Government. The character of
these "Labour Trustees" can be judged from the fact that the big
industrialist, Krupp, has been appointed "Labour Trustee" for
the Ruhr area. The destruction of all independent workers'
organisation, the complete slave-subjection of the workers to
the employers, the abolition of the right to strike, and
intensified exploitation-this is the sole and entire reality of
the Corporate State for the working class. 4. The Outcome of
Fascism in the Economic Sphere. Fortunately the Italian people
is not yet accustomed to eat several times a day. Its standard
of living is so low that it feels scarcity and suffering less.
(Mussolini, speech to the Italian Senate on December 18, 1930,
Corriera della Sera, December 19, 1930.) The principal reasoned
claim put forward by Fascism on its own behalf, on the rare
occasions when it descends from emotional chauvinist and
spiritual verbiage to endeavour to make a reasoned claim, is
that Fascism provides a solution of the economic crisis of
modern capitalist society and ensures economic harmony,
prosperity and progress. Fascism in its propaganda promises t e
solution of unemployment, rising production and consumption,
higher wages, higher profits, and in general the end of all the
contradictions of capitalism without ending capitalism. The
decisive test of this claim is the test of facts-the facts of
the economic situation in every country where Fascism rules, and
above all in Italy, the land of the "Corporate State," where the
Fascist regime has had twelve years to show its results. That
the word crisis of capitalism has hit Italy as hard as any
226 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
other capitalist country, with colossal unemployment, falling
production and trade, and lowered wages, so that Fascism has
brought no immunity whatever from the common ills of capitalism,
even the official apologists of Fascism are compelled to admit.
But in fact the economic crisis hit Italy before the world
crisis, while the rest of the capitalist world was enjoying a
boom, and then became further intensified by the world crisis.
The pro-Fascist Einzig writes in his Economic Foundations of
Fascism: Between 1926 and 1930 the depression prevailing in
Italy presented a discouraging contrast with the prosperity of
most other countries. But that prosperity has since been proved
to be fictitious, so that we are now in a position to say that
Italy has missed little by failing to share it. Moreover, during
her period of depression Italy became hardened to face the
subsequent crisis. If this is the best that a supporter of
Fascism on economic grounds can claim, it is scarcely an
advertisement. The only "consolation" for the failure of Italy
under Fascism to share in even the limited upward movement of
other capitalist countries between 1926 and 1930 is found in the
fact that in consequence even the world crisis could hardly make
things much worse than they were already in Italy. According to
the League of Nations World Economic Survey 1932-3, the national
income in Italy fell from 94 billion lire in 1928 to 60-70
billion lire in 1931, or a drop of one-third. In the same period
in the Soviet Union, according to the same authority, the total
income rose from 18.6 billion gold roubles to 31.2 billions, or
an increase by two- thirds. Foreign trade in 1932 was less than
half the volume of 1930; and the tonnage of goods cleared at the
ports in 1932 was actually less than in 1913, when the
population was six millions fewer. Italy keeps no general index
of production; but the production of pig iron which was 603,000
tons in 1913, was 461,ooo tons in 1932. The production of steel
was raised to 2.1 million tons in 1929, but fell to 1-4 millions
in 1932. 1933 saw a slight upward movement as in other
countries, but foreign trade continued to fall from 15-1 million
lire in 1932 to 13-3 million in 1933. The Budget deficit rose
from 504 million lire in 1930- 31 to 3,687 millions in 11932-3.
The floating debt rose from 1,618 million lire in June 1928, to
8,912 millions in June 1933. THE OUTCOME OF FASCISM IN THE
ECONOMIC SPHERE 227
Bankruptcies in 1931 reached the record in Europe, exceeding
21,000, or five times the British total. The unemployment record
is still more revealing. The total of industrial and commercial
wage-earners was returned in 1933 at 4,283,000, or about
one-quarter of the British total. Yet the official return of
wholly unemployed for 1933, monthly average, stood at T,o18,ooo,
and in January 1934, the latest return available at the time of
writing, stood at 1,158,000 in addition to about a quarter of a
million returned as partially or seasonally unemployed. As for
unemployment insurance, "the amount of unemployment insurance is
moderate, even for the low standard of living prevailing, and it
is paid only for a short period" (Einzig, Economic Foundations
of Fascism). For forty weeks' contributions only three months'
benefit is paid, at a maximum Of 3.75 lire or IId. a day; there
is no transitional benefit. In December 193 1, Of 982,32 1
registered unemployed, only 195,454 were receiving benefit.
Between 1919 and 1929 the Unemployment Fund received 1,275
million lire in contributions from the employers and workers,
the State contributing nothing, and paid Out Only 413 millions
in benefits the State constantly raiding the Fund for its own
purposes. Truly a halcyon state of affairs from the capitalist
point of view, at which even the skinflints of the National
Government might look with despairing envy. It may be noted that
the social services expenditure in Italy is among the lowest of
any leading country in Europe, amounting to 3 per cent. of the
total national budget, as against 7 per cent. in Belgium or 9
per cent. in Britain. The wage-cutting record gives the final
stamp on the realities of Fascist economics. Between 1929 and
1932 the total pay-roll of wages and salaries fell from 6,040
million lire to 4,100 millions (World Economic Survey 1932-3).
In the same period, according to a Report of the Director of the
International Labour Office in June 1933, "the purchasing-power
of the wage-earners fell by 19 per cent." Cuts had been heavy
already before the world crisis: Between June 1927 and December
1928, wages fell by about 20 per cent. as a result of agreements
between masters and men in connection with the stabilisation of
the lira. A further drop of approximately 10 per cent. took
place in 1929, and in November 1930 there was a general downward
movement, in some cases not
228 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
exceeding 18 per cent., but in particular instances involving
as much as 25 per cent. Moreover we must not overlook the fact
that many other adjustments were made in 1931 (Biagi, Secretary
of the National Confederation of Fascist Syndicates, Corriera
della Sera, March 26, 1932.) This makes successive cuts, first
Of 20 per cent., then of 10 per cent., then of 18-25 per cent.,
in addition to "many other adjustments." The Department of
Overseas Trade Report on Economic Conditions in Italy 1933,
states: While the cost of living with an index figure of 93.78
in 1927 has fallen in 1932 to 78-05, a difference of 15.73 per
cent., industrial wages have been reduced by much larger
proportions. . . . Cuts have been made ranging from 16 to 18 per
cent. in the sheltered printing and woodworking trades, 25 per
cent. in the metal and chemical industries, to 40 per cent. in
the cotton industry. . . . To the above must be added arbitrary
reductions affected by various means without negotiation, such
as the re-grading of workstaff and the systematic reduction of
piece-work rates. Examples are given of the percentage cuts in
the various industries: Chemicals....20-25% Silk Weaving....38%
Rayon ....20% jute ....30% Rayon (Turin)....38% Metal
trades....23% Glass ....30-40% Building ....30% Cotton ....40%
Mining ....30% Wool ....27
%This process has been carried still further with the
extensive all-round wages and salaries cuts proclaimed by
Government Order in April, 1934. The importance of the Fascist
"Corporate" system, making strikes a penal offence, is obvious.
If we turn to Germany, it is clear that one year's experience is
not yet sufficient to achieve the imposing completeness of the
Italian results in depressing the conditions of the workers and
spreading poverty; but the signs of the direction are already
abundant. Foreign trade in 1933 fell by 13 per cent. in
comparison with 1932, exports by 16 per cent. and the export
surplus by 40 per cent. The volume of production rose by 12 per
cent.; but this rise was mainly in industries (iron and steel,
dyes and chemicals, artificial silk, electro- technical, motors)
connected with war
THE OUTCOME OF FASCISM IN THE ECONOMIC SPHERE 229
needs, and was actually accompanied, as will be seen, by a
fall in the general standard of living. The rise in output was
not accompanied by any rise in the total pay-roll until the
third quarter. "This means that fresh employment was only found
at the expense of those already occupied, by cutting down their
hours of work and reducing their wages accordingly" (Economist,
December 30, 1933). Retail sales, the measure of internal trade
and of the standard of living, fell heavily, even compared with
the low level of 1932: Retail sales of the first ten months of
1933 were 8 per cent. below those of the very depressed
corresponding period of 1932, department store sales declining
20 per cent. on a like comparison, and later reports indicate
substantial further decline. (New York Annalist, January 19,
1934.) This reflects a lowered standard of life. The German
Institute for Economic Research reported a decline of 10 per
cent. in the consumption of the principal foodstuffs during the
first and second quarters of 1933, in some articles of even 30
per cent., and "stabilisation" at this lower level in the third
quarter. For the whole of 1933 it reported a decline Of 7 per
cent. in the turnover of retail commodities, compared with 1932.
Prices rose steadily, especially of foodstuffs, through special
legislation, e.g., the Fat Monopoly and raising of the price of
margarine by 175 per cent., the raising of the price of wheat to
182 marks per ton or four times the world price, etc. Nazi
propaganda tries to make much of the rise in the volume of
production by 12 per cent. during 1933, "and of the decline in
the official figure of registered unemployed by 2 millions on
the previous 6 millions (actually by 1.7 millions from 5,773,000
in December 1932, to 4,058,000 in December 1933). Both claims
are misleading. The rise in production was, as explained in
great part connected with the war industries. It was not a rise
peculiar to Germany, but was part of a world movement during the
same period. Between January and December, 1933, the German
index of industrial production (on the basis of 1928 as 100)
rose from 62.9 to 72.8, the United States index from 58.6 to
67.6, the French from 78.7 to 83.5, the Japanese from 117.2 to
139-4 (November), the Canadian from 52.8 to 72.2, the Swedish
from 83.7 to 97.1 (League of Nations Monthly Bulletin of
Statistics, March 1934)
230 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
The figures of the alleged decline in unemployment are still
more misleading. The official figure is given of a decline in
the registered unemployed from 6,014,000 in January 1933, to
3,715,000 in November 1933, and to 2,798,000 in March, 1934. But
the total of employed workers in November 1933, according to the
health insurance statistics, was 14,020,000, making with the
3,715,000 registered unemployed a combined total of 17,735,000
workers. In August 1929, that is, before the crisis, the same
combined total of employed and unemployed workers numbered
20,400,000. Thus, since 1929, 2.3 million workers have dropped
clean out of the German official statistics, being neither
entered as employed, nor as unemployed-alongside an increase in
population! "The actual number of unemployed is admitted to be
considerably larger than the number registered. The 'invisible
unemployed' are now reckoned at about 1,500,000" Manchester
Guardian Weekly, January 12, 1934). "Most signs tend to show
that the volume of unrecorded unemployment has increased"
(Economist, March 3, 1934). This contradiction was strikingly
brought out when in March, 1934, the official figure for
unemployment was returned at 2,798,000, and in the very same
month Hitler, momentarily forgetful of the official figure, in
his speech at Munich on March 21, spoke of the necessity during
the coming year to endeavour to bring into employment 5,000,000
Of those at present unemployed. The official decline in
registered unemployed in fact reflects a series of factors.
Married women have been driven out of industry without being
registered as unemployed, consequent on the Nazi law forbidding
the employment of married women where their husbands are
employed, and thus disappear from the official records. The same
applies to the prisoners in concentration camps, and to the
Jewish and political refugees. Several hundreds of thousands of
workers (estimated at 680,000-Basel Rundschau, November 18,
1933), have been drafted into the militarised labour camps,
agricultural service and other works schemes, and are thus
counted as "employed," but in fact receive no normal wage, but
either only food and a few marks a week or a very low
subsistence allowance equivalent to unemployment relief. Finally
throughout industry, by a series of devices THE OUTCOME OF
FASCISM IN THE ECONOMIC SPHERE 231
offering inducements for this process to employers, workers
have been given part-time work by spreading existing work, with
reduced hours and weekly wages, that is, at the expense of other
workers, and of a general lowering of standards. On the whole
process the British financial journal, The Statist, comments,
with reference to Hitler's anniversary speech to the Reichstag:
As regard economic affairs he had not very much to say, perhaps
because there is not much to report. He claimed, as the figures
show, a reduction in unemployment Of 21/2 millions to about 3.7
millions. But this is obviously not a reliable guide to the
trend of industrial conditions, since, apart from labour
immobilisation in labour camps and concentration camps, the
effect of the tax certificate system has been to spread
employment out over the work available rather than to succeed in
creating new work. There has, however, been some improvement in
production, particularly in iron and steel, in 1933 as compared
with 1932, and doubtless this has meant some real decrease in
unemployment. The improvement in employment is therefore only
partly due to a net increase in the demand for labour, and it
arises mainly from spreading out employment. This may be a good
thing psychologically, but economically it results in lower
wages and even in lower real wages. In addition to this lowering
of the standard of living, there must be counted the numerous
"voluntary" contributions which have to be deducted from the
weekly wages. It is possible as a result that the beneficial
political effect of spreading employment may be lost in the
lowering of the standard of living, and probably for this reason
Herr Hitler did not devote much of his speech to economic
affairs. (Statist, February 3, 1934.) This process of effective
wage-reduction and lowering of the standard of living, already
revealed in the statistics of falling consumption during 1933,
is further borne out by the available information on the
movement of wages. The official statistics claim that the total
of wages plus salaries for the third quarter Of 1933 exceeded
the corresponding total for 1932 by 4 per cent., alongside an
increase in the number employed by 7 per cent.; it is obvious
that even these figures, which do not take into account the
heavily increased deductions from wages, nevertheless betray a
net reduction in the wage per worker. It may be noted that the
total return from the tax on wages, which reached 65 million
marks for the monthly average in 1932, fell to 61.3 millions in
July 1933) and 59.6 millions in August 1933-the very period of
the supposed "increase"
232 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
(Jahrbucher fur Nationalokonomie und Statistik, December
1933). A correspondent in the Manchester Guardian reports: Wages
fell considerably in Germany in 1932, and there was a further
fall last year. At present the average hourly wage is about 20
per cent. lower than in 1931. The fall in wages has been
accompanied by a great increase in the deductions for income
tax, unemployment insurance, sickness insurance, etc., which
have more than doubled. In 1932 these deductions amounted to
between 12 and 13 per cent. of the wages. They now amount to
nearly 27 per cent., including "voluntary" contributions . . .
which are voluntary only in name. According to calculations made
by a very competent statistician, the net average wage of
workmen employed in German industry last September was 2 1.65
marks a week. . . . If agricultural workers were included, the
average net wage would be much lower. The "real wages"
(purchasing power) of the German industrial workers have fallen
since April rather more than the money wages, as general prices,
which in the first four months of last year were lower than the
average of 1932, have risen about 3 per cent. since April, and
prices of primary necessities have risen about 10 per cent. The
average real wage in September 1933, was about 3 1 per cent.
lower than in 1900.- (Manchester Guardian Weekly, January 12,
1934.) On April 9 Dr. Ley, head of the "Labour Front," declared
in a speech at Cologne that the German worker "to some extent
was being paid starvation wages in the interest of the
reconstruction of the nation," but that he must, while the State
"was finding bread and work for 7,000,000 unemployed, renounce
wage increases and such like things."(Times, April 10, 1934.)
This is already before the Labour Code, with its abrogation of
all existing collective contracts, came into force on May I,
1934. It is sufficiently clear that the economic process of
Fascism in Germany goes the same path as in Italy, the path of
the extreme depression of the standards of the workers and
intensification of exploitation. The lesson of facts in Italy
and Germany should put all on their guard against the empty
economic promises and programmes of Fascism before power in
Britain and other countries. 5. Fascism and War. Fascism
believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual
peace. . . . War alone brings up to its highest tension all
FASCISM AND WAR 233
human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples
who have the courage to meet it. (Mussolini, The Political and
Social Doctrine of Fascism.) In eternal warfare mankind has
become great-in eternal peace mankind would be ruined.- (Hitler,
Mein Kampf, p. 149.) The chauvinistic warlike character of
Fascism is its most obvious external characteristic. The
war-role of Fascism can, however, only be correctly understood
in relation to its general social role as the expression of the
extreme stage of imperialism in break-up. On the question of
Fascism and war very much nonsense has been written. On the one
hand, bourgeois critics of Fascism in Western Europe and America
express their shocked indignation as if Fascist Germany and
Fascist Italy were the first and only countries to go in for
jingoism, wholesale war-incitement and war-preparation, and as
if England, France and the United States were innocent angels of
peace. On the other hand, supporters of Fascism in these
countries endeavour to accept at face-value the transparently
hypocritical "peace speeches" occasionally turned out by the
Fascist leaders for foreign consumption, in open and glaring
contradiction to their main utterances, and seek to soothe an
alarmed public with fanciful reassurances, as if Fascism were
really a doctrine of world peace. Both these lines of treatment
are an absurd flying in the face of facts. Because Fascism is
the leading expression of modern imperialism, of capitalism in
decay, of the most violent policies of capitalism in crisis,
therefore necessarily Fascism means war. Fascism, with its
violent suppression of all socialist, pacifist and
internationalist agitation, with its militarisation of labour
and centralised dictatorship, as well as with its ceaseless
sabre-rattling agitation, is a direct part of capitalist war
preparation. Its methods and policies reproduce the conditions
of a country at war, as seen in all the belligerent countries in
the last war, but already in the pre-war period. In the same way
the final outcome of all the policies of Fascism, of all its
chauvinist, nationally exclusive, aggressive and
dominationseeking policies, can only be war, as indeed its
leaders in all
234 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
their principal and most authoritative utterances to their
own followers openly declare. But these tendencies are not
peculiar to Fascism. They are common, in greater or less degree,
to all imperialist states. They only receive their most extreme
expression in Fascism. Fascism in Britain, where there is no
such immediate easy basis for war agitation as Versailles
provided in Germany and also in Italy, and where mass anti-war
feeling is strong, endeavours to hide for the moment the
war-role of Fascism and even to put on a pacifist dress and
present Fascism as a doctrine of world peace. Thus Mosley
writes: Fascist organisation is the method of world peace among
nations bound together by the universal Fascism of the twentieth
century. (Mosley, Fascism in Britain, P. 7.) This blatant
attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the credulous is exposed by
the entire propaganda of Fascism. Mosley, who professes to
proclaim the aim of "world peace" through Fascism, will need to
fight it out with his masters, Mussolini and Hitler, who
denounce in round terms the whole conception of world peace as
incompatible with Fascism. "Fascism," proclaims Mussolini,
"believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of
perpetual peace." "In eternal peace," proclaims Hitler, "mankind
would be ruined." "Fascism issued from war," writes the Fascist,
Carli, "and in war it must find its outlet." This is the
dominant voice of Fascism. The temporary pretence of British
Fascism to put on a peace advocate's dress is only a typical
example of Fascist demagogy. International Fascism is a
contradiction in terms. The foreign policies of Fascist states
can only be the foreign policies of extreme aggressive
imperialist states, with all the consequent antagonisms
heightened to the most extreme point. The identity of counter-
revolutionary policy produces no identity of foreign policy.
This is strikingly illustrated, as soon as the first three fully
completed Fascist states, Germany, Italy and Austria have come
into existence, by the extreme tension immediately following,
even to the point of veiled war-threats , between Fascist
Germany and Fascist Italy over the body of Fascist Austria. The
conception of a Bloc of Fascist States on the basis of a common
policy of Fascism is a myth; an alliance between such States can
only be formed where an identity of
FASCISM AND WAR 235
immediate aims of the foreign policy of the imperialist
groupings concerned would have in any case made an alliance
possible, whatever the political form. But if the Fascist type
became generalised for all the leading imperialist Powers, this
would only mean an immediate accentuation of the antagonisms and
hastening of the advance to war. The extreme tensity of
war-preparations and inculcation of the war spirit in Fascist
Germany and Fascist Italy has been equally noted by observers of
all political colours. For the evidence of the developments in
Germany, especially, reference may be made to Wickham Steed's
Hitler: Whence and Whither?, to the American journalist Leland
Stowe's Nazi Germany Means War, and to Ernst Henri's Hitler Over
Europe. This does not mean that Fascist Germany, any more than
Fascist Italy, aims at immediate war. To this extent, and no
further, the peace speeches are sincere, in so far as they are
calculated to gain time and cover the necessary process of
re-armament. Unless the situation is precipitated by unexpected
events, a preliminary period is sought for the necessary heavy
war-preparations, as well as for the diplomatic preparation of a
favourable situation. The present balance of power is
unfavourable to Germany, and the position of Italy is also weak.
But there is no question of the goal to which policy is being
directed, As Hitler's Hein Kampf and Mussolini's speeches make
abundantly clear, the full aims of the Fascist programme of
territorial and colonial expansion can only be finally achieved
by war. England, France and the United States, whose statesmen
and publicists indulge in expressions of shocked surprise at the
militarism of Fascist Germany or of Japan, are in fact far more
heavily armed than Germany, Italy or Japan, spend more on
armaments, and have bigger records of plunder and armed violence
all over the world. But the difference in the present situation
of these two sets of Powers (which partly accounts also for the
more rapid development of Fascist forms in the latter group)
lies in the fact that England and France (the position of the
United States, owing to its special continental situation, is in
a category by itself and shares characteristics with both
groups) are relatively "sated" imperialist groups, gorged with
world- plunder and seeking above all to hold what they have,
therefore strongly interested in questions of
236 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
"security," while Germany, Italy and Japan are "hungry"
imperialist Powers, without an equivalent share in the partition
of the world proportionate to their strength or potential
strength, and therefore intent on an aggressive policy of
expansion. This is the working of the law of unequal capitalist
development which underlay the last war and drives to the next.
What, however, is conspicuous in the present international
situation is the relative complacency and even conciliatory
attitude with which England, the United States, and even to
some extent France, treat the question of the rearmament of
Germany. Where before the slightest diffident requests of Weimar
Germany were met with angry refusals and threats of sanctions,
the open violation of Versailles and blustering demands for
re-armament by Fascist Germany are met with anxiously polite and
sympathetic consideration. The only question becomes, not
whether re-armament shall be agreed, but how far and to what
point re-armament shall be agreed. The "Disarmament" Conference
dissolves into negotiations for re-armament. At the same time
the simultaneous anxiety of the Western Powers, lest German re-
armament go too far, reveals the profoundly contradictory
character of the present situation of imperialism. What
underlies this change of attitude on the part of the Western
Powers, which might at first sight seem contrary to the
interests of British and French Imperialism, and which indeed
arouses criticism from strong sections of opinion within these?
Two dominating factors can be traced. The first is the
recognition of Fascism as the bulwark against social revolution,
and the anxiety not to weaken in any way the position of Fascism
and thereby open the way to the fall of the Hitler Government
and to the proletarian revolution in Germany. This fear, as a
study of the French semi-official Press makes clear, paralyses
the French desire to make use of the threat of sanctions or of a
"preventive war" in order to strangle the re-emergence of the
full armed strength of Germany. As Lloyd George frankly declared
in his speech on September 22, 1933: If the powers succeeded in
overthrowing Nazism in Germany, what would follow? Not a
Conservative, Socialist or Liberal regime, but extreme
Communism. Surely that could not be their objective. A Communist
Germany would be infinitely more formid
FASCISM AND WAR 237
able than a Communist Russia. The Germans would know how to
run their Communism effectively. That was why every Communist in
the world from Russia to America was praying that the Western
nations should bully Germany into a Communist revolution. He
would entreat the Government to proceed cautiously. (Times,
September 23, 1933.) The National Government needed no such
entreaties, but has acted throughout as the broker for Fascist
Germany. The second factor is the widespread hope of imperialist
circles, especially in Britain, to use a re-armed Fascist
Germany, in unity with Japan, for war on the Soviet Union. The
objective of an expansionist war to the East, directed against
the Soviet Union, and with the support, if possible, of Britain,
France and Poland, is continuously expressed in all official
statements of Nazi foreign policy, notably in Hitler's Mein
Kampf, in the writings of Rosenberg, the official chief of the
Nazi foreign political department, whose line is fully and
openly set out in his book The Future Path of a German Foreign
Policy (Der Zukunftsweg einer Deutschen A ussenpolitik), and
also in the formerly withdrawn Hugenberg memorandum. Hitler
writes: For Germany the only possibility for the carrying out of
a sound territorial policy lay in the winning of new land in
Europe itself. . . . When one would have territory and land in
Europe, this could in general only happen at the cost of Russia.
(Mein Kempf, PP. 153-4.) We stop the eternal march to the south
and west of Europe and turn our eyes towards the land in the
East.... If we speak of land in Europe to-day we can only think
in the first instance of Russia, and her border States.-Mein
Kampf, P. 743.) The American publicist, Calvin Hoover, reports
the following as his impression of the prevailing tendencies in
the event of a possible agreement between Western Europe and
Fascist Germany: In such a case the Western European Powers
might be glad to allow Germany a free band in the Slavic East
and South for the satisfaction of any further expansionist aims.
. . . There is evidence that the idea of the "reorganisation and
restoration of Russia" under German tutelage is again very much
to the fore. (Hoover, Germany Enters the Third Reich, pp.
226-7.)
238 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
British imperialism above all encourages up to the present
with moral and material support both Germany and Japan, and
influential circles hope for a combined attack of both Powers on
the Soviet Union. At the same time German-Japanese relations are
drawn extremely close. It is unnecessary here to discuss the
powerful resistance which such an attempt would meet, not only
from the Soviet Union, but from the whole international working
class, leading to the unloosing of revolutionary struggle and
civil war above all in Germany itself. just this prospect leads
the imperialist and Fascist forces still to hesitate. The final
direction of Fascist war still lies in the womb of events. What
is already manifest is that the advance of Fascism has
enormously accelerated the advance to war on every side. 6.
Fascism and the Women's Question. In no direction does the
contrast of the two worlds of Fascism, or Capitalism in extreme
decay, and of Communism express itself more clearly and sharply
than in the status of women. The position of women has often
been referred to as one of the surest measures of the level of a
civilisation. By this measure Communism stands out as the first
fully-developed civilisation in history, where for the first
time men and women participate with full equality' while Fascism
is revealed in its most undisguised reactionary character. The
subjection of women has always been inseparably bound up with
class-society' and is one of the indispensable foundations
without which private-property society could not maintain
itself. Capitalism has taken over from the preceding period and
adapted to its own purposes the social institutions built on the
subjection of women. While revolutionising and organising
production and trade on a gigantic scale throughout the world,
it maintained, preserved and even intensified in a still more
limited and narrow form the primitive and anarchic basis of the
small-scale individual household, of the family and its ties,
and sought to make of this pre-capitalist institution its most
powerful conservative pillar of support.* Only on this basis
could capitalism, with its complete individualist cash-nexus
repudiation of all social obligations and ties, nevertheless
successfully maintain itself, and through the institution
FASCISM AND THE WOMEN'S QUESTION 239
of the family throw off its own shoulders all social
responsibility for the proper conditions of motherhood, of the
bringing up of children, of the support of the sick and the
aged, as well as the enormous volume of so-called "domestic
labour"-all socially necessary labour indispensable for the
maintenance of society, but offering no profit for capitalism to
organise, and thrown off as unpaid labour on to the shoulders of
the working-class wives and mothers to be performed in the
heaviest, dirtiest, most unproductive and wasteful pre-machine
conditions alongside highly organised large-scale machine
industry in the world outside. The consequent economic and
social institutions, involving the subjection of women and the
forcible compulsion of the majority of women to economic
dependence on marriage as their sole means of livelihood, are
bound up with the existence of private-property society, and can
only be ended with communist social Organisation. Nevertheless,
capitalism in its progressive phase performed also a progressive
role in relation to the position of women by offering for the
first time the possibilities and conditions of a new economic
form of Organisation. Capitalism in its search for ever more and
cheaper supplies of labour-power draws increasingly millions of
women and young persons into industry, until to-day about
one-third of the total labour force in modern capitalist states
consist of women and girls. Despite the brutal conditions of
exploitation, more heavy than for the male workers (an
inequality defended in the name of the sacred "family," on the
basis of the illusory theory that the average woman worker is
supposed to have no "dependents"), yet this means that millions
of women have for the first time the beginnings of possibility
of an independent economic existence and active citizenship, in
place of the compulsion of dependence on a male earner as their
sole possibility of livelihood and existence Marx discerned at
an early stage the significance of this process: However
terrible and disgusting the dissolution under the capitalist
system of the old family ties may appear, nevertheless, modern
industry, by assigning as it does an important part in the
process of production, outside the domestic sphere, to women, to
young persons and to children of both sexes, creates a new
economical foundation for a higher form of the family and of the
relation between the sexes. (Marx, Capital, 1., Ch. 15, para.
9.) The realisation of this possibility of emancipation, for
which
240 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
capitalism has thus laid the preliminary conditions, depends
on the advance to a Communist society: since the drawing of
women into industry, so long as the old property conditions and
burden of the individual household remain unreplaced by social
organisation, only in fact adds to the burden of women instead
of liberating them. Only by the full introduction of women into
equal partnership in social production, with the consequent
necessary equal education and training, and the destruction of
the old wasteful unorganised domestic economy inseparably
connected with the private property system, can the old position
of the economic dependence of women be ended, and their equality
and freedom be realised, not only in form, but in living
reality. This standpoint was expressed by Engels in his
wellknown declaration in the Origin of the Family: The
emancipation of women and their equality with men are
impossible, and remain so as long as women are excluded from
social production and restricted to domestic labour. The
emancipation of women becomes feasible only then when women are
enabled to take part extensively in social production. The
dependence of the solution of the women's question upon the
realisation of a Communist society was constantly emphasised by
Lenin: The full liberation of woman and her real equality with
man requires a communist economy, a common social organisation
of production and consumption and the participation of woman in
general production. Only through this will woman take the same
place in society as man. (Lenin, Speech to Moscow Conference of
Working Women.) The Soviet Union illustrates the advance towards
this position, where for the first time in the world's history
the real equality of women is being built up and established
among all the peoples in its territory. But capitalism in the
period of the general crisis begins to reverse the engines and
move in the opposite direction. It is no longer hunting for new
reserves of labour-power to exploit. On the contrary, it can no
longer find employment for the existing labour force. Hence the
cry begins to be sounded increasingly, always from the beginning
voiced by the clericalreactionary forces, but now increasingly
taken up by modern capitalism as a whole, to drive women out of
industry and thus assist to "solve" unemployment by increasing
the number of
FASCISM AND THE Women's QUESTION 241
dependents to be maintained on each wage (the process can be
observed in England in the operation of the Anomalies Act and of
the barbarous Family Means Test). This cry is taken up in its
sharpest and most undisguised form by Fascism, here as in every
sphere voicing the most reactionary tendencies of capitalism in
extreme decay. Back to the home! Back to economic dependence on
marriage as the sole career for women! Cut down women's
education! Expel women from employment and give the jobs to men
I Back to pots and pans! Produce more cannon-fodder for war!
Back to kitchen slavery! This is the line of Fascism on the
women's question. Hitler writes: In the case of female education
the main stress should be laid on bodily training, and after
that on development of character and last of all, on intellect.
But the one absolute aim of female education must be with a view
to the future mother.-(Mein Kampf, p. 163.) It may be noted
that the new German Government regulations for cutting down
university education and establishing a rigidly limited student
quota for all forms of higher education (and that also dependent
on political "national reliability") restricts women to 10 per
cent. of the quota of 15,000-i.e., only 1,500 women for the
whole of Germany to be permitted in a given year to proceed to
any form of higher education, whether universities, technical
colleges or other institutions. In 1931 there were 19,700 women
students in Germany: taking an average three-year course as
basis, representing an average preFascist annual entry of 6,000
to 7,000 women students, this represents a cut by Fascism of
women's higher education by 75-80 per cent.* *The drastic
cutting down of university education, previously the pride and
greatest strength of German civilisation, is a typical
expression of the general cultural reaction of Fascism, equally
illustrated in the burning of the books, etc. The Berlin
correspondent of the Manchester Guardian reported in the
beginning of 1934: "Of the total number of matriculated students
in the whole of Germany only 15,000 are to be allowed to enter
universities, technical colleges or other institutes of higher
education in the coming year. . . . Some 23,000 matriculated
students will be unable to proceed to higher education in
consequence of the new regulations." At the same time the Soviet
Union educational authorities were reporting that the total
number of university and technical college students in the
Soviet Union in 1933 was 415,000 as against 203,000 in 1926-7,
and 130,000 under Tsarism. In the face of these facts even the
dullest should be able to see that Communism, with its basis in
science, is bound to conquer the world, while Fascism, with its
denial of science, is doomed to decay and death.
242 FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Spengler writes in his Years of Decision: Let German women
breed warrior men and take pleasure in breeding them. Woman is
to be neither comrade, nor beloved, but only mother. The
American observer, Calvin B. Hoover, reports the Nazi attitude
to the women's question: The attitude of the National Socialists
towards women is an integral part of their belief in the
desirability of a return to a system of life and morals
characteristic of an agricultural rather than an industrial
society. The Party is determined that the place of women shall
once more be in the home. . . . In a word, the National
Socialist conception of women in the scheme of things is that
they should bear many strong sons to serve the State in peace
and war. (Calvin B. Hoover, Germany Enters the Third Reich, p.
165.) It is an error to suppose that the reactionary Fascist
attitude to women is simply a reflection of a
religious-reactionary outlook and yearnings for a pre-industrial
type of civilisation. The fact that the policy of minute
bonuses (not in cash, but in orders on the large shops, and
repayable) for marriage, on the condition that the woman passes
out of industry, and the violent propaganda for more births, are
accompanied at the same time by the policy of wholesale
sterilisation of the alleged unfit or mentally weak (i.e., of
those likely to produce offspring unfit for military service or
of those politically unreliable), this latter practice being
extremely offensive to traditional religious sentiment, is
sufficient evidence that the policy as a whole is not simply the
policy of religious-reactionary romanticism, but the conscious
reactionary policy of modern capitalism in its most extreme
decay. Modern capitalism, while freely exploiting women in
industry at sweated rates so far as it has use for their labour,
kicks the remainder out of industry whom it cannot employ,
bidding them become dependent on male wage-earners and thus save
its total bill for wages or unemployment relief, and at the same
time calls on them to perform their service in producing plenty
of recruits for the increasing needs of the slaughterhouses of
imperialist war. This is the viewpoint of modern capitalism in
extreme decay, or Fascism, on the role of women. In this key
question of the role of women, as in its attitude to culture, or
in its use of torture and re-introduction of barbaric
beheadings, Fascism reveals typically its degraded social,
political and cultural level.