So, were the Nazis socialists? That's not just the title of today's video, it's an ongoing discussion in public debate. The political right and left alike repeat the stubborn lie that equates fascism and communism as evil, totalitarian twins. Here I'll not only put that dumb idea to rest, I'll explain how capitalism itself leads to and supports fascism.
source: YouTube
Much of this post is inspired by Michael Parenti's brilliant book "Blackshirts And Reds", and I recommend you all read it. If you're not the reading kind, there's an audiobook version for you right here. Let me quote the first paragraph from the first chapter, just to let you in on the tone and direction of the book:
While walking through New York s Little Italy, I passed a novelty shop that displayed posters and T-shirts of Benito Mussolini giving the fascist salute. When I entered the shop and asked the clerk why such items were being offered, he replied, “Well, some people like them. And, you know, maybe we need someone like Mussolini in this country.” His comment was a reminder that fascism survives as something more than a historical curiosity.
In the 1970s in Italy many books and articles appeared claiming that Mussolini simply made the country work. One thing these books and articles, as well as academic studies, had little to say on was the class policies of fascist Italy under Mussolini and Nazi Germany under Hitler. You see, relentless anti-communist western propaganda has rendered "class" a non-issue in the minds of the citizens of the global north. After the fall of the U.S.S.R. and the Berlin Wall, capitalism's victory was complete, the struggle between competing systems done. Francis Fukuyama titled his 1992 book "The End of History" for a reason: the global free market is here to stay. What you see is what you are going to get, now and always. This time the class struggle is definitely over...
If you indeed believe that the class struggle is over, you've fallen for the brainwashing of the corporate-owned mainstream media lies. Throughout history, ruling elites have portrayed themselves as the natural leaders in the social order, and they all had their own narrative to sustain their position at the top. From "Divine Right" to "Meritocracy", they're all the same: myths to make the 99 percent accept without question the rule of the 1 percent. The biggest lie in modern history, if not in all of history, is the idea that western democracies, the United States in particular, have fought for freedom and democracy around the globe. Here's what Parenti has to say about this:
In fact, U.S. leaders have been dedicated above all to making the world safe for global corporate investment and the private profit system. Pursuant of this goal, they have used fascism to protect capitalism, while claiming to be saving democracy from communism.
In those two sentences the true relationship between capitalism, fascism and communism is revealed. Whenever capitalism is in crisis, whenever the spectre of class-consciousness rears its populous head, capitalists turn to autocrats to restore the "natural" order. In my post Gospel Of Hate a couple of days ago, I briefly mentioned how Henry Ford, from Ford automobile fame, was a great admirer of Nazi Germany, but he was not alone: many western politicians and business leaders backed and funded the Nazis throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Allied bombers were given instructions to not aim at the Ford factories in Germany; these facilities were even used as safe shelters by Germans. This is in fact what Mussolini meant when he described fascism as the state of affairs when government and industry become one and the same: not some socialist nationalization of industry, but private industry protected and subsidized by government through taxation of the general public and the removal of workers' rights.
This is what really happened in Nazi Germany and fascist Italy. Fascism is as anti-socialist and anti-communist as it gets. I'll repeat once again that not the Jews, but the communists were the first to be murdered and locked up in concentration camps. The famous 1946 post-war poem "First they came ..." opens with "First they came for the Communists" for a reason. Here's the entire poem:
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
Let that poem be a warning for all Americans and other westerners who vote for that right wing fake populist leader who promises to use his strong hand to restore order, to return to the "good old days" when everyone knew their place; you're flirting with fascism. You're helping to make your country safe for more corporate power and private profits, and that's against your own interest and against the interest of a better environment, better wages, better working-conditions, better healthcare and so on. In fact you're voting against democracy itself, as was so blatantly displayed during and after the 2020 general elections in the United States. When it comes down to it, plutocrats choose autocrats; Parenti lists an impressively long list of socialist and communist popular uprisings that have been struck down by the American military and secret agencies around the world, and the totalitarian leaders installed by them who safeguard the interests of multinationals.
Capitalism inevitably leads to unsolvable class-conflicts and crises, and when it does it uses violence to restore its "natural" order. That's the TL;DR of it and modern history is full of examples of this fact. Whenever and wherever people start to recognize that this is not "The End of History", when opposing ideologies threaten to gain ground, plutocrats use autocrats to obliterate this opposition, and this is when scapegoats are put forward to take the blame for the economic and social crises caused by capitalism itself. It's a brilliant and effective scheme, because the discussion over whether the Nazis were socialists still rages on...
Were The Nazis Socialist?
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