# Terms and definitions * Fascism is a hallmark of the modern world. It should be rescued from confusion, not abandoned because of it * In American discourse, liberal includes everything from moderate democrats to the far left. In Europe, liberal refers to advocates of laissez-faire capitalism like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Even fascism isn’t that confusing # "Revolutionary" ideology * Trump's 2022 [call](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-rebuked-for-call-to-terminate-constitution-over-2020-election-results) to terminate parts of the constitution * Paxton argues that Fascism was not so revolutionary in practice as it was rhetorically. "At most, they replaced market forces with state economic management, but, in the trough of the Great Depression, most businessmen initially approved of that." ([p. 11](https://files.libcom.org/files/Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf)) # Authoritarianism * Contrasted with liberalism which offers freedom for citizens and contenting political parties to influence the composition of government through elections (p. 77) # Violence * "Fascist violence was neither random nor indiscriminate" * Calculated to show that communist violence was on the rise and that the liberal state couldn't deal with it * It was essential for fascists to persuade law-and-order conservatives that fascist violence was necessary in the face of left wing threats * Murder of a communist in Silesia by 5 SA men in 1932 * Commuted death sentences under Nazi pressure * Alfred Rosenberg highlighted the difference between "bourgeois justice" where "one Polish Communist has the same weighting as five Germans, front-soldiers" (p. 84) * The "beauty" of violence * "It was the genius of fascism to wager that many an orderly bourgeois would take some vicarious satisfaction in a carefully selective violence, directed only against 'terrorists' and 'enemies of the people.'" # Nationalism * Late-19th century proto-fascists "found in the nation the kind of mobilising myth that the proletarian revolution was failing to provide." (p. 48) # Populism * "Unlike conservatives and cautious liberals, fascists never wanted to keep the masses out of politics" (p. 43) * Charles Maurras * Anti-Dreyfus figure from Action Francaise, "the first authentic fascism" * Described the forged document used to incriminate Dreyfus as a "patriotic forgery" (p. 46) * "Experts in nothing except the manipulation of crowds and the fanning of resentments" (p. 51) * Hitler, failed art student ; Mussolini, schoolteacher; Goebbels, jobless college graduate with literary ambitions; Hermann Goering, drifting WWI fighter ace; Himmler, agronomy student who failed at selling fertiliser and raising chickens * Disdain for experts etc. * "The propagandistic manipulation of public opinion replaced debate about complicated issues among a small group of legislators who were supposed to be better informed..." (p. 79) # Relation to science and health * [Paxton](https://files.libcom.org/files/Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf): "Nazi 'racial cleansing' built upon the purifying impulses of twentieth-century medicine and public health, the eugenicists' eagerness to weed out the unfit and the unclean, an aesthetic of the perfect body, and a scientific rationality that rejected moral criteria as irrelevant." (p. 13) * Biological purification * Nazi mass euthanasia contrasted with relative disinterest in Italy, where nationalism was more political * Hegseth and RFK on testosterone / sperm count # Relation to business * Nazis as "socialists" or a "private anticommunist army" * "Close scrutiny of business archives shows that most German businessmen hedged their bets, contributing to all the non-socialistic electoral formations that showed any signs of success at keeping the Marxists out of power. Though some German firms contributed some money to the Nazis, they always contributed more to traditional conservatives." (p. 66) * Fritz Thyssen, steel manufacturer, supported Hitler until his break and exile after 1939 * Emil Kirdorf, coal magnate, joined the party in 1927, only to leave a year later over Nazi attacks on the coal syndicate * Late 1932: Nazis sponsored legislation to abolish all trusts and cooperated with communists in a transport workers' strike in Berlin * Important share of Nazi funds instead came from entry fees at rallies, pamphlet and merch sales, and small donations # France, 1924-40 * 1924: Centre-left coalition, Cartel des Gauches wins the election * Georges Valois founds the Faisceau "whose name and behaviour were borrowed straight from Mussolini" * 1932: Centre-left majority renewed * The coalition would soon become tarnished by corruption * After 33, the Nazis dismantled the Versailles safeguards * New radical Right "leagues" form in France * 1934: Street demonstrations, Feb 6th * Failed attempt to storm the Chamber of Deputies results in 16 dead * 1936: Popular Front coalition wins elections in May * Coalition made up of socialists, Radicals, and communists * Prime Minister Léon Blum banns paramilitary leagues in June (German chancellor Bruning failed to do so 4 years earlier) * 1937: Jacques Le Roy Ladurie starts a a farmers' lobby * French Farmer's Federation (FNEA) and other conservative organisations, as well as farmer coops ensured a level of influence over the state that rendered the Greenshirts redundant (p. 72) * 1938: Some stability regained * Edouard Daladier, centre-left prime minister * All right movements barring the PSF (the most moderate one) lost ground (p. 71) * 1940: French defeat * "it was the traditional Right, and not the fascist Right, that established and ran the collaborationist Vichy government" * How prominent was fascism? * Movements that more closely tried to imitate Hitler or Mussolini's model were less successful * Colonel Francois de La Rocque's Parti Social Francais came close to catch-all party status between 1936 and 1940, but tried to look moderate and "republican" (p. 69) * La Rocque * Took over the Croix de Feu in 1931 - a small veterans' association - and developed it into a political movement * Drew support from denouncing the weak and corrupt parliament, warning against Bolshevism, advocating for corporatism, and for an authoritarian state * Forces stood aside in the 1934 march, opting for an image of discipline and order (p. 70) * Rejected anti-Semitism, though his branches in Alsace and Algeria were anti-Semitic * Replaced with an electoral party, Parti Social Francais (PSF), after being banned in 1936 - pushed for national reconciliation and a strong, elected leader (a move to the centre) * Why the failure? * French tradition of Republicanism as a factor, but "cannot be overestimated" * Less severe impact of the Depression than in more industrially concentrated Germany * No deadlock or paralysis meant mainstream conservatives didn't have as much need for Fascists to help them * The Greenshirts * Farmers' movement in north-western France in the 1930s * Led by Henry Dorgéres who openly praised Fascist Italy in 1933 and 34 and adopted some fascist mannerisms: coloured shirt, inflamed oratory, nationalism, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism (p. 72) * Capitalised on farmers' frustration over the collapse of prices * 1936-37 - Po Valley similarities * Massive rural strikes met by volunteering efforts from Greenshirts * Dealt with much more aggressively by the state (even under Blum) than the *squadristi* had been * Sidelined by the FNEA and other orgs, suggesting that fascists struggle in political systems that are "functioning tolerably well" (p. 73) # Common enemies * Paxton notes the swell of potential enemies that were used by fascists as scapegoats for modern problems e.g. swell of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe (p. 36)... "of course the enemy does not have to be Jewish" (p. 37) # Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 1928-33 * The only German state to give the Nazis an absolute majority in a free a election (51% in July 1932) - Fascism failed during the first postwar crisis of 1918-23 - it succeeded through the Depression (p. 64) * Elections of 1924 and 1928 were run with an urban strategy, after which they moved to the farmers and found much more success * Schleswig-Holstein * Cattle-raising countryside near the Danish border * Traditionally supported Conservative Nationalists (DNVP) * Turned to a violent peasant league called the Landbund after the collapse of farm prices in 1928 * 64% of rural vote went to the Nazis in July 1932, but support already started to fade in the November election * The Nazis were "the first party in Germany to target different occupations with tailor-made appeals, paying little heed if one contradicted another." (p. 66) # Mussolini * [Birth](https://files.libcom.org/files/Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf) of Fascism in 1919 (p. 4-5) * Coined the term *fascismo*, applied to his movement *"Fasci di Combattimento"*, roughly meaning "fraternities of combat" * Initial program called for: * Expansionist aims in the Balkans and around the Mediterranean * Women's suffrage and the vote at age 18 * Abolition of the upper house, and a new constitution for Italy * 8-hour workday and worker participation in "the technical management of industry" * "Partial expropriation of all kinds of wealth" through progressive tax, seizure of Church properties, and confiscation of 85% of war profits * Characterised by violence, anti-intellectualism, rejection of compromise and contempt for established society * Violence * Soon after the founding, a group of Mussolini's friends stormed the daily socialist newspaper, *Avanti*, offices (for which he had been editor from 1912-1914) ; four people killed and 39 injured (p. 11) * Adaptation * Anti-socialist, anti-bourgeois "antiparty" program in Milan, 1919 only won 4,796 votes out of 315,165 (p. 53) * José Antonio Primo de Rivera of Falange Espanola tried to keep his anti-materialist position (in favour of idealism through the Nation and Church) pure, though he was executed in 1936 * "It turned out in practice that fascists' anticapitalism was highly selective... Above all, it was by offering an effective remedy against socialist revolution that fascism turned out in practice to find a space." (p. 56) * "The first idea to disappear was the first Fascism's rejection of war and imperialism" (p. 63), the Fascist Party of Nov 1921 asserted Italy's role as a "bulwark of Latin civilisation in the Mediterranean", and called for the development of Italy's colonies * Early proposals for nationalisation and high taxes watered down by 1920-1921 until they ultimately rejected "confiscatory taxation" as "fiscal demagoguery that discourages initiative" * From calling for the confiscation of all property owned by religious congregations in 1919, to claiming in 1921 that "Catholicism represents 'the Latin and imperial tradition of Rome'" (p. 63) * From describing the monarchy as a failure in 1919, Mussolini moved to an agnostic position on republicanism in 1920 and then in 1922 to denying any intention to question the monarchy * By 1921-22, the "Fascist revolution" meant a revolution against socialism and liberalism "while leaving property intact" (p. 63) * Bourgeois politics * Hitler and Mussolini "shared none of the purists' qualms about competing in bourgeois elections" - Mussolini lost followers in 1921 after deciding to form a party (p. 57) * Early NSDAP members called it "the movement", so as to say it wasn't like the other parties * Fascism posed as "antipolitics" and was effective with people "whose main political motivation was scorn for politics" (p. 58) * Po Valley, 1920-22 * New tactic of *squadrismo* - strong-arm squads of former soldiers used to attack internal enemies of Italy * Gabriele D'Annunzio * Rival of Mussolini; more popular in 1919-20; known for bombastic plays, poems, as well as for leading air raids over Austrian territory in WWI * 1919: Let a band of nationalists into Fiume, which had been handed to Yugoslavia at Versailles - declared the "Republic of Carnaro" - ultimately a humiliation for Italy resulting in the loss of conservative backers * Prime Minister Giovanni Giolitti settled with Yuggoslavia in Nov 1920 to make Fiume an international city, dispersing D'Annunzio's volunteers with the navy * Public theatrics later adopted by Mussolini: daily balcony speeches, uniforms and parades, the "Roman Salute", and even reclaimed Fiume in 1924 (p. 59) * Ultimately, Mussolini succeeded in part through compromise with centrist politicians - a willingness to dilute purity for power (p. 60) * Italian socialists * Won the first post-war election in Nov 1919 and established de facto control over agricultural wage labour * In Po Valley, every farmer who needed to hire would have to visit the socialist Labour Exchange - farmers consequently forced to hire year-round and with better wages * Po Valley landowners couldn't get help from the laissez-faire liberal Prime Minister to break strikes - instead they turned to Blackshirts * Nov 1920 - Fascists attack the Bologna city hall, killing 6, and the movement spread through the agricultural area * Attackers would administer castor oil to their victims and shave off half of their moustaches * Hundreds of locations attacked within 6 months and over 100 killed * Blackshirts, establishing their own monopoly over farm labour, offered land to some peasants, persuading them to abandon the unions - long term goal of collectivisation was also unpopular to the rural poor * Fascists also took support from local police, army commanders, as well as landowners * Many early fascists opposed the *squadristi*'s formation into "strong-arm agents of the big landowners" - purists either left or were pushed out - D'Annunzio described Mussolini's fascism as "agrarian slavery" (p. 62) # Hungary * WWI * Treaty of Trianon, June 4th 1920 * Dissolution of Austro-Hungarian Empire * 70% of pre-war territory and almost 2/3 of population severed * Arrow Cross * Szalasi refused to run for office again after two defeats, "and preferred nebulous philosophising to maneuvers for power." (p. 57) * Electoral success * Arrow Cross Party-Hungarist Movement won 750,000 out of 2 million votes in May 1939 * Government stayed in the hands of conservative military dictator Admiral Horthy who had no intention of sharing power (p. 73) # Romania * Legion of Archangel Michael running under "All for the Fatherland" * Third largest party in 1937, with 15% of the vote and 66/390 seats (p. 73) # Belgium * Rexist movement led by Léon Degrelle * 1935 campaign argued that traditional leaders (including the Catholics) were mired in corruption and routine that demanded dramatic change * Ran the May 1936 election with the symbol of a broom, suggesting they would sweep the old order away (p. 74) * Won 11% of the vote and 21/202 seats but the conservative establishment and Church leaders went against him # British Union of Fascists * Mosley * Junior minister in the 1929 Labour government; presented a plan to combat the Depression by making the empire a closed economic zone and spending on job creating public works * Formed the New Party in 1931 after his plans were rebuffed * British Union of Fascists * Founded in Oct 1932 with important converts e.g. Lord Rothermere * Night of the Long Knives in 1934 resulted in 90% of the BUF's 50,000 members to leave, including Rothermere * Public Order Act shortly after Cable Street in Oct 1936 outlawed political uniforms, depriving "the BUF of its public spectacles" * Grew to around 20,000 members campaigning against the war in 1939 (p. 75) # Comparing original movements * Role of intellectuals * Discrediting liberal regimes * Creating new poles outside of the left, which could mobilise anger and protest * Making fascist violence respectable * Important preconditions * Failing liberal order * Late industrialisation * Stressful cultural transition * Mapping fascism in the 20th century * Post-war defeat (or loss of territory/standing) * Attempts at - or fear of - Bolshevik revolution * Trotsky's "least-barricaded gate" * Can explain fascism's success against "weak or failed liberalisms" (p. 81) # Lack of program * Used to reject Trump's fascism on the grounds that he is so ideologically nebulous. Promises one thing and delivers another. And his supporters, in their loyalty, seem more than content to follow him on his confused journey, or at least to tolerate it. If MAGA is an ideology, it's the ideology of Trump. But then I realised that fascist leaders of the past did the same thing. * [Mussolini](https://files.libcom.org/files/Robert%20O.%20Paxton-The%20Anatomy%20of%20Fascism%20%20-Knopf%20(2004).pdf) in 1920: The Fasci di Combattimento "do not feel tied to any particular doctrinal form." ; "Mussolini liked to declare that he himself was the definition of Fascism." (p. 17) * Hannah Arendt: Mussolini "was probably the first party leader who consciously rejected a formal program and replaced it with inspired leadership and action alone." * Hitler's program (the 25 Points of Feb 1920) were largely ignored - seen as more of a signal that internal debate was over. In his first public address as chancellor, he ridiculed people saying "show us the details of your program. I have refused ever to step before this *Volk* and make cheap promises." * Unlike Communists, fascists felt no need to explain their programmatic changes on some theoretical basis * Fascism is "more plausibly linked to a set of 'mobilising passions'... than to a consistent and fully articulated philosophy" (p. 42) * A sense of overwhelming crisis that can't be resolved by traditional means * The primacy of the in-group * The belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies * Dread of the group's decline under the effects of liberalism or class conflict * The need for a purer community * The need for authority by natural leaders, culminating in a national chief who is alone capable of incarnating the group's destiny * The superiority of the leader's instincts over reason * The beauty of violence # Links https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WHtkq7o8PKQ&ra=m https://www.newsweek.com/robert-paxton-trump-fascist-1560652 https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/02/historian-richard-evans-says-trumps-america-isnt-exactly-like-the-third-reich-but-its-too-close-for-comfort.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/magazine/robert-paxton-facism.html # Bookmark Some Other Unsuccessful Fascisms, p. 86 76. “La dottrina del fascismo,” Enciclopedia italiana (1932), vol. XIV, pp. 847–51. An English version was given wide dissemination: Benito Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism (Florence: Vallecchi, 1935, and later editions). A recent English version is in Jeffrey T. Schnapp, ed., Primer, pp. 46–61