Is the United States of America Fascist?
Wednesday, May 05 @ 17:04:43 UTC
|
 CONCERNING FASCISM: PAST AND PRESENT
By Franz J. T. Lee
05/05/04.
Are the United States of America Fascist?
In the last analysis, according to Samantha Power and Robert O. Paxton of the New York Times (May 2, 2004), and also the President of the United States, George W. Bush, the Arab "terrorists are the heirs to fascism.''
Now, let us briefly explain why we use the term "fascist" to determine the current quintessence of the USA, and of world corporate capitalism in its totality.
Firstly, historically, fascism appeared at a certain stage of European capital accumulation and imperialism, mainly before and during the Second World War, 1919-45. It was characterized as a politico-ideological mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe; its global venom also reached Western Europe, the United States, South Africa, Japan, Latin America, and the Middle East.
Secondly, in Italy, Benito Mussolini coined the concept "fascism", as name of his party, taken from Latin "fasces" which means a bundle of elm or birch rods, containing an axe, that originally was used as a symbol of penal authority in the Roman Empire.
Thirdly, to be able to classify the USA, we should note that the various fascist parties had multifarious differences, but all of them expressed certain common characteristics: an extreme military nationalism, a contempt for electoral democracy, human rights and civil liberties, political and cultural liberalism, furthermore, authoritarian, totalitarian rule of elites, corporatism, the belief in a natural, civilized, socialdarwinian hierarchy, social discrimination and racism, terrorism and genocide, anti-communism, and the strong desire to create a homeland, a Volksgemeinschaft, a people’s community, in which individual interests would be sacrificed to the well-being of the Volk, of the nation, but also in a World Empire, a Reich.
Finally, basically the contemporary USA qualifies for most, when not all, of these attributes, to be safely classified scientifically as fascist. By the way, although not exactly Corporate America, yet the general aim was to establish a large assembly of management-controlled corporations, or a "corporatist parliament," that would replace all independent organizations of workers and employers.
This "parliament" would then organize a Nazi "Strength Through Joy" workers’ program. Extensive corporatist legislation, patriot acts, created government-controlled unions and outlawed strikes. In reality, fascist corporatism was used to destroy the labour movements and to suppress political especially socialist and communist dissent. Later, even Croatian, Russian, Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean fascism had proposed corporatist solutions to labour-management strife.
Surely, quintessentially, fascism — as economic exploitation, political domination, social discrimination, genocidal militarism and dehumanizing alienation — is inherent in capitalism and imperialism in the era of their decay and transitional demise, certainly, it is not an accident, not the whim or caprice of "Führer", it is the real, true grimace of democracy, of the world system in agony.
|
|
| |
| Article Rating | Average Score: 5
Votes: 1
| |
|
