Fascism Unmasked

by Stephen Fleischman

Defining Fascism is a little like describing an elephant in the dark. It depends on what part of the animal you’re touching. If you’re holding the trunk, you can say it’s a fat snake. If you’re holding the tail you can say it’s a whip.

There’s a rancid smell of fascism in the air lately and nobody is doing anything about it; like the apathy of the German people before the Reichstag fire in February of 1933. Political scientist, Dr. Lawrence W. Britt, published the results of his study of Fascism in Free Inquiry Magazine defining 14 of its characteristics, but he, too, describes the symptoms, not the cause.

Let’s go to the source—Benito Mussolini, strongman of Italy before World War II, who instituted Fascism and coined the word.

Mussolini defined Fascism as Corporatism. When corporations take over government by whatever means, by buying up politicians or getting their hands on the wheels of power, they are merging corporate power and government—that’s Fascism. All the other depredations of democracy follow.

It’s a dictatorship; it’s a loss of freedom; it’s condoning torture: it’s controlling mass media; it’s fraudulent elections. It can be all of those things.

Sound familiar? Where did Habeas Corpus go? Who’s violating the Geneva Conventions? Who’s surveilling American citizens without warrants? What is Guantanamo Bay? A concentration camp? Harboring enemy combatants at the moment, but being prepared for naughty, dissident American citizens one day, maybe?

In a democracy, officials of government who do these kinds of things are committing high crimes and misdemeanors. Impeachment is the constitutional weapon used to defend the Republic and remove those found guilty in the court of Congress. Our President and our Vice-President are both impeachable, according to these rules. So, what’s happening?

Well, some people are saying, Bush and Cheney’s terms end in 2009. Is it worth all the discombobulation if they’re going to be out in a year and a half? You’re damned right it is! People have to be accountable for their crimes!

Yet, our Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, says “impeachment is off the table”. Democratic members of the Senate and the House fuss and fume about the Iraq War while holding the purse in their hands. They have the power and the constitutional right to cut off funding for the war. But what do they do? They give Bush the money he wants to go on killing Americans and Iraqis. What is the war about? Corporate profits.

We all know what has to be done to end this shameful process.

Campaign finance reform is not good enough. We need campaign finance revolution. All campaign costs, for all candidates for all offices, are determined and paid for by the people—through their government. It would cost a lot less than a war. Make it a crime to show money to a candidate who is running for office.

Fat chance! That’s like asking politicians to vote themselves out of a job. They bought that spot with the campaign money that they raised and they think they own the seat. (Yes, in cahoots with their donors, the corporate, monied class.) We have to get them out. And we can do it.

Make every American citizen a voter. It’s a matter of education, as it always is. Educate and Organize. It’s going to be a tough job here because five or six corporate conglomerates control the mass media and just about everything we see, hear and read. And they’re always trying to tell us how to think.

We don’t have a democracy in this country. We have an oligarchy and it’s getting tighter. Nothing new about that. It goes back to ancient Greece. It derived from the Greek word, “Oligarkhia”,(a contraction of “few” and “rule”) a form of government where political power is in the hands of a small, elite segment of society, distinguished by wealth, family and military power. Karl Marx added to that list: “owners of the means of production”. As they gain increasing control over government, we get closer to Benito Mussolini’s definition of “Corporatism”.

We’re looking fascism right in the face. Let’s go back to some of the symptoms described by Dr. Britt, who studied the fascist regimes of Hitler’s Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, Suharto’s Indonesia and several Latin countries, and noted what they all had in common.

Dr. Britt found a powerful and continuous drive toward nationalism in Fascist regimes. They exploit patriotic mottos, slogans and symbols. Flags are seen everywhere, even on clothing and in public displays. (Do you wear a flag pin in your lapel to prove your patriotism?)

Create fear. The War on Terror. (A total anomaly) Terror is an emotion, not an enemy combatant. Fear of enemies, and the need for security, breeds the feeling that it’s okay to ignore the violation of human rights and give up a few of your own civil rights to attain it.

Dr. Britt points out that because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a Fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely or severely suppressed. (Look at the sorry state of our once powerful labor movement. Where is John L. Lewis now that we really need him?)

These are a few of Dr. Britt’s 14 points. Take them seriously. Don’t temporize. Organize!

Some people say we’re on the ragged edge of fascism. Some people say it’s already here. On a scale of one to ten, where do you think we stand?