Today capitalism is facing a new world economic crisis, similar to the 1930s. The capitalist class, through various forms of government, bourgeois and social democratic, is attempting to take back the gains of the post war period.
Although fascism destroyed the organizations of the working class, it placed state power completely in the hands of Nazi upstarts. The price the German bourgeoisie had to pay for crushing the proletariat was its political expropriation. The fascist mercenaries, with all the resources of the state at their disposal, could not be directly controlled by the ruling class. In the hands of the Nazis, the state apparatus became largely independent. Hitler became consumed with his own importance, and pursued policies which ultimately rebounded on the German capitalist class. The unsuccessful plot of July 1944, when a number of generals attempted to assassinate Hitler and stage a coup, reflected a belated attempt by a section of the old ruling class to reassert control. A megalomaniac, Hitler dreamed of a 1000-year old Reich. His refusal to come to a deal with the allied Anglo-American powers during the Second World War resulted in the collapse of the Third Reich and the loss of half of Germany to Stalinism. Whereas the ruling class was able to restore the situation in Italy by replacing Mussolini with Marshal Badoglio in 1943, in Germany, a similar attempt failed abysmally in the “Generals’ Plot” of 1944. Fascism proved a costly experiment. The bourgeoisie internationally learned a painful lesson which could not be repeated. It was also no accident that the rise of fascist barbarism in Germany was mirrored in the USSR by the consolidation of Stalinist totalitarianism. Both were products of the delayed world revolution.
Today, with a completely different international balance of forces, the basis for reaction has been largely undermined. The middle classes have largely become “proletarianized” with many white collar workers becoming drawn into the trade unions. The students, who were a bastion of reaction in the past, have now become radicalized and have moved to the left. In the postwar period, with the decline of the peasantry, the proletariat internationally has become the decisive force on the planet.
At the present time, the weak, fascist gangs, such as the Italian MSI, are kept in reserve as an auxiliary, to be used when required to help create the conditions for a military coup. They have long ago abandoned any hope of independent power themselves. The bourgeoisie also, having burned their fingers in Germany and Italy, now prefer the instrument of military-police dictatorship to carry through the programme of reaction. In turn, these regimes, as in Chile, attempt to ape the methods of fascism, while lacking its mass basis. The military officer caste, unlike the plebian fascist gangs, has far greater ties and links with the ruling class, and therefore are under much greater control.
In Britain and the advanced industrial countries, the basis for mass reaction does not exist. The general trend in society is towards the left. Over the next decade the crisis of capitalism will further radicalize the proletariat and middle classes and push them in the direction of socialist revolution. The proletariat will be given many chances to overthrow the capitalist system. Yet, if it fails repeatedly to take advantage of these opportunities and is held back by its leadership, then the resulting disillusionment, particularly amongst the middle class, will lay the basis for a ferocious capitalist reaction where millions would perish.
The present new generation of workers and youth must learn the lessons of Germany between 1918 and 1933, through the years of heroic revolution and bitter counter-revolution, in order to arm themselves for the titanic events that will unfold in Britain and internationally in the coming period.
In the words of George Santayana, “Those who do not learn from history will be doomed to repeat it.” The task that lies before us is to transform the labour organizations from top to bottom and rearm them with a Marxist programme and leadership, capable of grasping every favourable opportunity. We need a leadership capable of mobilizing the colossal power of the labour movement to put an end to capitalism and Stalinism once and for all – and with it the system that gave birth to the monstrous fascist regimes of the interwar period.
Rob Sewell
October 1988