Social fascism
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Social fascism was a theory developed by the Communist International (Comintern) in the early 1930s which saw social democracy as a moderate variant of fascism.[1]
The Comintern argued that capitalism had entered a Third Period in which proletarian revolution was imminent, but could be prevented by social democrats and other "fascist" forces.[1][2]
Overview
At the
The new direction was closely linked to the internal politics of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). After a faction fight inside that party following the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924, the victorious group around Stalin shifted decisively to the left by advocating the end of the mixed economy New Economic Policy and declaring an intensification of the class struggle inside the Soviet Union. An atmosphere of revolutionary fervour was created and saw any enemy of the ruling group around Stalin denounced as "wreckers" and "traitors", an attitude that was translated on to the international stage, where both social democrats and communist dissidents were denounced as fascists.[citation needed]
Joseph Stalin stated in a speech in 1924:
Fascism is not only a military-technical category. Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism. There is no ground for assuming that the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of Social-Democracy.[4]
At the same time, under leadership of
After
Criticism of the theory
By Trotsky
Leon Trotsky argued against the accusations of "social fascism". In the March 1932 Bulletin of the Opposition, he declared: "Should fascism come to power, it will ride over your skulls and spines like a terrific tank. [...] And only a fighting unity with the Social Democratic workers can bring victory". However, Trotsky also wrote in the same essay that any co-operation with the social democrats was only tactical and temporary and that in the final analysis social democracy would have to be defeated and subverted by the revolutionary faction:
The front must now be directed against fascism. And this common front of direct struggle against fascism, embracing the entire proletariat, must be utilized in the struggle against the Social Democracy, directed as a flank attack, but no less effective for all that. [...] No common platform with the Social Democracy, or with the leaders of the German trade unions, no common publications, banners, placards! March separately, but strike together! Agree only how to strike, whom to strike, and when to strike! Such an agreement can be concluded even with the devil himself. [...] No retraction of our criticism of the Social Democracy. No forgetting of all that has been. The whole historical reckoning, including the reckoning for
Social Revolutionaries for the baiting, calumny, imprisonment and murder of workers, soldiers, and peasants.[16]
Other historical criticism
In part of The Open Society And Its Enemies (1945), philosopher Karl Popper criticized what he saw as Communist inaction during the rise of fascism, stating that "there was never a 'communist danger' to the fascist conquest of power". Popper argued that some radical parties of the era welcomed or turned a blind eye to the weakening of democracy, or saw a dictatorship as a temporary stepping stone to a revolution.[17][18]
According to this assertion, not much could be lost and something would be gained if that hidden dictatorship became an open one, apparent to all; for this could only bring the revolution nearer. [Communists] even hoped that a totalitarian dictatorship in Central Europe would speed up matters [...] Accordingly, the Communists did not fight when the fascists seized power. (Nobody expected the Social Democrats to fight). For the Communists were sure that the proletarian revolution was overdue and that the fascist interlude, necessary for its speeding up, could not last longer than a few months.
In 1969, the ex-communist historian Theodore Draper argued that the Communists who proposed the theory of social fascism, "were chiefly concerned with drawing a line of blood between themselves and all others to the 'right' of them, including the most 'left-wing' of the Social-Democrats."[14]
See also
Footnotes
- ^ S2CID 146848013.
- ISBN 9783486711738.
- ISBN 0-415-07861-X.
- ^ "Concerning the International Situation". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
- ISBN 0-472-10986-3.
- ISBN 1-4051-0040-0.
- ISBN 3-7700-5083-5.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link - ^ Braunthal, Julius (1963). Geschichte der Internationale: 1914–1943 [History of the International: 1914–1943] (in German). Vol. 2. Dietz. p. 414.
- OCLC 169002787.
- ISBN 1-870958-04-7.
- ^ Dimitrov, Georgi (1972) [13 August 1935]. "For the Unity of the Working Class Against Fascism". Georgi Dimitrov: Selected Works. Vol. 2. Sofia: Sofia Press. pp. 86–119.
- ISBN 978-1-349-10618-9.
- ISBN 978-615-5053-53-5.
- ^ a b Draper, Theodore (February 1969). "The Ghost of Social-Fascism". Commentary: 29–42.
- Winner, David (3 October 2018). "How the left enabled fascism". New Statesman.
- ^ Trotsky, Leon (March 1932). "For a Workers' United Front Against Fascism". Bulletine of the Opposition. No. 27.
- ISBN 978-1-135-55256-5.
- JSTOR 3653940.
Further reading
- Browder, Earl (1933). The Meaning of Social-Fascism: Its Historical and Theoretical Background. New York: Workers Library Publishers.
- Draper, Theodore (February 1969). "The Ghost of Social-Fascism". Commentary. pp. 29-42.
- Lovestone, Jay (1937). The People's Front Illusion: From "Social Fascism" to the "People's Front". New York: Workers Age Publishers.
- Manuilsky, D. M. (1934). Social Democracy — Stepping Stone to Fascism: Or Otto Bauer's Latest Discovery. New York: Workers Library Publishers.