On Fascism: Its Definition in its Historical Context, for 2023, Part 2
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August, 2018)
National Socialist League 1975. So, you thought that U.S. Nazism was just pre-WWII?
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Jack Fritscher) Details Source DMCA
Introductory Note: This is one of my periodic columns on fascism, its definition(s) and history. (You will find links for some of the previous ones in the body of the text. As some of you know, in 1996 I published my first, and very extensive, text on the subject, "The 15% solution: How the Republican Religious Right Took Control of the U.S., 1981-2022." The 3rd Version was published in 2013. It is available on Amazon(as advertised on OpEdNews.com). This column, for 2023, is quite long. Thus, I have divided it into two parts, this one being Part 2.
The Role of a Nation's Ruling Class in a Fascist Takeover: What Happened in the Early Days of the Assumption of the German Chancellorship by Adolf Hitler (Feb. 1933)
As an example of the role of a capitalist ruling class in the 20th century enabling/abetting/engineering the fascist overthrow of either a monarchical state (Hungary [20th century], Italy), or a liberal-capitalist-democratic one (Germany, Spain), I am reproducing here an excerpt from an earlier column of mine on "Der Anschluss" (the takeover of Austria by Nazi Germany in March, 1938) which deals with an example of how a capitalist ruling class endorsed/enabled a fascist takeover of a formerly democratic country by a minority party
"So why," you might ask, and probably have, "why would I use a story about Der Anschluss, and quite a lengthy one at that, to introduce a column on the U.S. ruling class and the potential advent of full-blown Republo-fascism in this country?" (For a review of some of my more recent writings on this latter subject, seemy column here on Op-Ed News: "The U.S. Ruling Class and the Republo-fascist Party.")
Good question. Here's the answer.
"In 2018 the English translation of a book by a French author, Eric Vuillard, entitled 'The Order of the Day,' was published. In its original French, published in 2017, it was a prize-winner. The main text is a brief and entirely gripping description of the events that immediately preceded Der Anschluss itself. But for our purposes here, it is the book's 'Introduction' which is the most important part. For, as the Publishers Weekly entry for the book says, it begins with a brief description of '. . . a fateful February 1933 meeting of 24 German business leaders with Hitler that led to their funding the Nazis' campaign(s) [emphasis added]. . .'. This meeting occurred after the controversial appointment by the German Weimar Republic's President von Hindenburg of Hitler as German Chancellor on January 30, 1933, but before the fateful Reichstag Fire of February 27, 1933, which, as it was used by the Nazis, then led directly to the establishment of the Hitler Dictatorship under 'The Enabling Act ' of March 23, 1933.
"One can only speculate at this point, but it is highly unlikely that Hitler and the Nazi Party would have been able to move ahead as they did without that meeting and the endorsement that occurred at it. It happened that the attendees' list included virtually all the major German 'Captains of Industry,' names still well known to anyone who knows anything about German industry even today, e.g., Krupp, Schacht, Thyssen [who recruited as an early U.S. supporter of the German Nazi Party {1923}, one George Herbert Walker], von Siemens, Opel, Quandt, Reuter, as well as major corporate elements of German industry and finance, such as BASF, Bayer, Agfa, I.G. Farben, Allianz, and Telefunken. The assembly was first addressed by Hermann Goering, and then by the man himself, Adolf Hitler. There were 24 of them, the crème-de-la-crime [if I may use a slight modification of the French term] of the German ruling class.
"Hitler came to ask them for their approval, in general terms to be sure, of what he was planning to do. Not in detail, of course, because he had given countless speeches since becoming head of the then-burgeoning Nazi Party in the early 1920s. And, as is well-known, in 1926 he had published a very detailed book on his program and plans, called 'My Struggle' (which may be more familiar as Mein Kampf). At that meeting in 1933, the assembled throng gave their support and approval to Hitler, apparently unanimously. The Reichstag Fire, purposely set [by Goering and an S.A. team] and with no evidence blamed on the Communists (who were totally surprised by the event) came quickly, followed by a rigged election ripe with voter intimidation [sound familiar?] on March 5. In the Reichstag [the German Parliament], it was then on to the Enabling Act on March 23, which established the Hitler dictatorship [the passage of which happened to have been finally enabled in the Reichstag by the Catholic Center Party, in return for certain guarantees of Catholic independence]."
And we know what happened then, over the next 12 years.
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Finally (phew[!]), an ADDENDUM dealing with the once-upon-a-time-Left-wing of the German Nazi Party, and Government
In terms of the policies of President Biden, I have seen him (rarely to be sure) referred to as a fascist.
I raised, to a well-educated left-wing friend of mine, that what is to my knowledge and understanding of the history and definition of fascism as it existed in the 20th century, that such an appellation is an oddity, indeed a complete mis-use of the definition. He wrote back: "historically fascism also attacked some corporate sectors and even imperialism/capitalism."
As it happens, that is quite correct, for Germany. Although not for Nazi Germany. (I am not familiar with any similar occurrences in other nations defined as "fascist," although they may well have occurred.) As it happens further, the abbreviation "Nazi" stands for the formal name of the party of Hitler, which translates as the "National Socialist German Workers Party" (a very clever naming, to be sure). Before Jan. 30, 1933, the date, as you may recall, on which Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg, it did have a "left-"wing, headed by two Strassers, the brothers Otto and Gregor.
On the night of Jan. 30, 1933, using the Nazis' private army, Die Sturmabteilung (the S.A., the "Storm Division," the "Storm Troopers"), without any legislative authorization (at that time Germany was, on paper, still a constitutional republic under the "Weimar Constitution") arbitrary round-ups of members of both the Communist (KPD) and the Socialist (SPD) parties began. They were put into a new kind of facility, designed by the Nazis. They were called "concentration camps," because the prisoners --- as many Communists (KPD), Socialists (SPD), trade union leaders, and left-wing journalists, who they could arrest quickly --- were packed into the camps as physically tightly as possible. The first one, built quickly, was just outside of a leafy German village called Dachau, near Hitler's home base at Munich.
(Some time ago, I flew into Munich (in Southern Germany) on my way to a health-and-wellness-promotion meeting in Western Austria. I took a car from the airport to my destination in Austria. On the road, quiet, peaceful, and indeed leafy, we passed a road sign designating the village of Dachau. So doing literally took my breath away.)
As it happened that date, Jan. 30, 1933 also marked the end of any "left" in the Nazi Party. But before then, under the leadership of the Strasser Brothers, there was a real Nazi Left (although it may have been just for show). It was called "Strasserism."
" 'Strasserism' (German: Strasserismus or Straßerismus) is a strand of Nazism that calls for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of Nazism hostile to Jews not from a racial, cultural, or religious perspective, but from an anti-capitalist basis to achieve a national rebirth. It derives its name from Gregor and Otto Strasser, two brothers initially associated with this position."
So, what happened to them, and "Left-wing Nazism?" Well, Otto had left the Party and Germany in 1930. (He somehow managed to survive the War [partly in Canada{!}] and he returned to Germany in 1954). Gregor remained a Nazi through the early days of the Hitler Dictatorship, while still promoting his "left-wing" views. On what came to be called "The Night of the Long Knives" (June 30, 1934), in which many of Hitler's enemies both within and outside if the Party, but still right-wingers, were murdered, Gergor was too. Also killed was Ernst Roehm, the Commander of Hitler's private army, the Sturmabteilung, which had fought street battles for him from the early 1920's, as well as Count Kurt von Schleicher, a "moderate" right-winger close to President Hindenburg who had promised him to "keep an eye on Hitler," should Hindenburg appoint him as Chancellor.
These murders, and numerous others, were carried out in part as the price to be paid by a variety of Nazi supporters in return for the continued support of Hitler by the Military and the German ruling class. Most important was the dissolution of the Sturmabteilung, the S.A. Remember, it was a private army, directly loyal to Hitler. Its elimination was demanded by the German armed forces as the price of their full support for Hitler and his dictatorship. And so, along with more important objectives for Hitler, that night the "leftie" Gregor Strasser, a Hitler supporter from the early days in the 1920's, was murdered.
"Left Nazism?" Really a joke. Just as any sort of "Left Trumpism" would be. For, to repeat, here-and-now we face the potential advent of full-blown Republo-fascism, led by Trump and his supporters, first in the ruling class, and then on the streets. For a review of some of my more recent writings on this subject, see my column here on Op-Ed News: "The U.S. Ruling Class and the Republo-fascist Party.'"
We must hope that it never happens here. But much more than hope will be needed to prevent the destruction of U.S. Constitutional Democracy by Republo-fascism. The former is surely far from perfect. But it is surely far better than any form of the latter that can be contemplated. And any takeover by Republo-fascism will surely eliminate for the foreseeable future the chances of making any of the needed reforms in U.S. Constitutional Democracy that present themselves today. And any self-deluded supporters of Trump and his Republo-fascism will be done away with very quickly, along with the true leftists who will be rounded up with them.