A Study of the economics and Politics
of the Extreme Stages of Capitalism in Decay
by R. PALME DUTT
ΠProletarian Publishers Edition 1974 Second Printing
1976 Third Printing 1978
Proletarian Publishers P.O. Box 3566 Chicago IL 60654
"We say to the workers: 'You will
have to go through fifteen, twenty, fifty years of civil
wars and international wars, not only in order to change
existing conditions, but also in order to change
yourselves and fit yourselves for the exercise of
political power."'
MARX (On the Communist Trial at Cologne, 1851).
"The bourgeoisie sees in Bolshevism only one side . .
. insurrection, violence, terror; it endeavors,
therefore, to prepare itself especially for resistance
and opposition in that direction alone. It is possible
that in single cases, in single countries, for more or
less short periods, they will succeed. We must reckon
with such a possibility, and there is absolutely nothing
dreadful to us in the fact that the bourgeoisie might
succeed in this. Communism 'springs up' from Positively
all sides of social life, its sprouts are everywhere,
without exception-the 'contagion' (to use the favourite
and 'pleasantest' comparison of the bourgeoisie and the
bourgeois police) has very thoroughly penetrated into
the organism and has totally impregnated it. If one of
the 'vents' were to be stopped up with special care,
'contagion' would find another, sometimes most
unexpected. Life will assert itself. Let the bourgeoisie
rave, let it work itself into a frenzy, commit
stupidities, take vengeance in advance on the
Bolsheviks, and endeavour to exterminate in India,
Hungary, Germany, etc., more hundreds, thousands, and
hundreds of thousands of the Bolsheviks of yesterday or
those of to-morrow. Acting thus, the bourgeoisie acts as
did all classes condemned to death by history. The
Communists must know that the future at any rate is
theirs; therefore we can and must unite the intensest
passion in the great revolutionary struggle with the
coolest and soberest calculations of the mad ravings of
the bourgeoisie.... In all cases and in all countries
Communism grows; its roots are so deep that persecution
neither weakens, nor debilitates, but rather strengthens
it,"
LENIN ("Left-Wing" Communism, 1921),
CONTENTS
PREFACE TO
THE SECOND EDITION 7
INTRODUCTION 15
CHAPTER 1. TECHNIQUE AND REVOLUTION
21
I. The Growth
of the Productive Forces 23
2. The
Conflict of the Productive Forces Against Existing
Society
3.
Productivity and Unemployment 35
4. The
Alternative-Social Revolution or Destruction 44
II. THE END OF STABILISATION
46
I. The Last
Attempt to Restore Pre-War Capitalism 47
2. The
Collapse of the Illusions of the Stabilisation Period 52
3. After the
Collapse 57
III. THE NEW ECONOMICS AND
POLITICS 62
I. The
Destruction of the Productive Forces 63
2. The Revolt
Against the Machine 68
3. The Revolt
Against Science 74
4. The Revolt
Against "Democracy" and Parliament 78
5. "National
Self -Sufficiency 82
6. War as the
Final "Solution" 88
IV. WHAT IS FASCISM? 92
I. The
Class-Content of Fascism 93
2.
Middle-Class Revolution or Dictatorship of
Finance-Capital? 97
3. The Middle
Class and the Proletariat 103
4. The
Definition of Fascism 107
V. HOW FASCISM CAME IN ITALY
111
1. The
Priority of Italian Fascism 111
2. Socialism
in Italy 113
3. Was
Revolution Possible in Italy? 117
4. The Growth
and Victory of Fascism 120
VI. How FASCISM CAME IN GERMANY
127
1. The
Strangling of the 1918 Revolution 128
2. The Growth
of National Socialism 135
3. The
Crucial Question of the United Front 140
4. The Causes
of the Victory of Fascism 143
CONTENTS PAGE
VII. HOW FASCISM CAME IN AUSTRIA
153
I. The
Significance of the Austrian Experience 153
2. The
Betrayal of the Central-European Revolution 157
3. The
Fascist Dictatorship and the February Rising 162
VIII. SOCIAL DEMOCRACY AND
FASCISM 169
I. The
Capitalist View of Social Democracy and Fascism 170
2. The Germs
of Fascism in Social Democracy 176
3. How Social
Democracy Assists Fascism to Power 183
4. The
Question of the Split in the Working Class 186
5. The
Adaptation of Social Democracy to Fascism 191
IX. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF
FASCISM 197
I. Is There a
"Theory" of Fascism? 197
2. Demagogy
as a Science 204
3.
Capitalism, Socialism and the Corporate State 212
4. The
Outcome of Fascism in the Economic Sphere 225
5. Fascism
and War 232
6. Fascism
and the Women's Question 238
X. THE ESSENCE OF FASCISM-THE
ORGANISATION OF SOCIAL DECAY 243
XI. TENDENCIES To FASCISM IN
WESTERN EUROPE AND AMERICA 252
I. The Basis
for Fascism in Britain, the United States and France 254
2. The
Significance of the National Government in Britain 262
3. The
Roosevelt Emergency Regime 267
4. The
February Days and the National Concentration Government
in France 272
5. The
Beginnings of Fascist Movements 278
XII. FASCISM AND SOCIAL
REVOLUTION 290
1. The
Dialectics of Fascism and Revolution 291
2. The Fight
Against Fascism 296