What Makes Fascism?

[Bostana]

Can you guys give me an outline on a Fascist Government? And how to tell when a government is fascist and/or heading towards Fascism?

[Comrade Samuel]

This could be of help to you

http://www.revleft.com/wiki/index.php/Fascism

[The Young Pioneer]

What Makes Fascism?

Bring the indoctrination sauce to a boil. Drop in the sheep. Stir in nationalism to taste. Add a dash of Hitler mustache. Bring down to a simmer. Sprinkle with eugenics and corporatism. Also add imperialist rhetoric if desired. Best served cold.

Makes two dozen.

[Manic Impressive]

Know your enemy

Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace. It thus repudiates the doctrine of Pacifism -- born of a renunciation of the struggle and an act of cowardice in the face of sacrifice. War alone brings up to its highest tension all human energy and puts the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have courage to meet it. All other trials are substitutes, which never really put men into the position where they have to make the great decision -- the alternative of life or death....
...The Fascist accepts life and loves it, knowing nothing of and despising suicide: he rather conceives of life as duty and struggle and conquest, but above all for others -- those who are at hand and those who are far distant, contemporaries, and those who will come after...
...Fascism [is] the complete opposite of…Marxian Socialism, the materialist conception of history of human civilization can be explained simply through the conflict of interests among the various social groups and by the change and development in the means and instruments of production.... Fascism, now and always, believes in holiness and in heroism; that is to say, in actions influenced by no economic motive, direct or indirect. And if the economic conception of history be denied, according to which theory men are no more than puppets, carried to and fro by the waves of chance, while the real directing forces are quite out of their control, it follows that the existence of an unchangeable and unchanging class-war is also denied - the natural progeny of the economic conception of history. And above all Fascism denies that class-war can be the preponderant force in the transformation of society....
After Socialism, Fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application. Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial, and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage....
...Fascism denies, in democracy, the absur[d] conventional untruth of political equality dressed out in the garb of collective irresponsibility, and the myth of "happiness" and indefinite progress....
...even that the nineteenth century was the century of Socialism, of Liberalism, and of Democracy, it does not necessarily follow that the twentieth century must also be a century of Socialism, Liberalism and Democracy: political doctrines pass, but humanity remains, and it may rather be expected that this will be a century of authority...a century of Fascism. For if the nineteenth century was a century of individualism it may be expected that this will be the century of collectivism and hence the century of the State....
The foundation of Fascism is the conception of the State, its character, its duty, and its aim. Fascism conceives of the State as an absolute, in comparison with which all individuals or groups are relative, only to be conceived of in their relation to the State. The conception of the Liberal State is not that of a directing force, guiding the play and development, both material and spiritual, of a collective body, but merely a force limited to the function of recording results: on the other hand, the Fascist State is itself conscious and has itself a will and a personality -- thus it may be called the "ethic" State....
...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone....
...For Fascism, the growth of empire, that is to say the expansion of the nation, is an essential manifestation of vitality, and its opposite a sign of decadence. Peoples which are rising, or rising again after a period of decadence, are always imperialist; and renunciation is a sign of decay and of death. Fascism is the doctrine best adapted to represent the tendencies and the aspirations of a people, like the people of Italy, who are rising again after many centuries of abasement and foreign servitude. But empire demands discipline, the coordination of all forces and a deeply felt sense of duty and sacrifice: this fact explains many aspects of the practical working of the regime, the character of many forces in the State, and the necessarily severe measures which must be taken against those who would oppose this spontaneous and inevitable movement of Italy in the twentieth century, and would oppose it by recalling the outworn ideology of the nineteenth century - repudiated wheresoever there has been the courage to undertake great experiments of social and political transformation; for never before has the nation stood more in need of authority, of direction and order. If every age has its own characteristic doctrine, there are a thousand signs which point to Fascism as the characteristic doctrine of our time. For if a doctrine must be a living thing, this is proved by the fact that Fascism has created a living faith; and that this faith is very powerful in the minds of men is demonstrated by those who have suffered and died for it.

[Ostrinski]

I think it's more of an insane ideology that can be useful to the bourgeoisie in certain circumstances than an actual system of government.

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

I don´t think it´s useful to write some abstract blueprint of a fascist government or make a checklist. It will not correspond accurately to real social conditions.

[Brosip Tito]

Whether you like Trotsky, or not, Fascism: What it is and how to fight it (http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1944/1944-fas.htm) would be informative.

[Georwell]

Fascism revolves around the state dominating the corporations. Fascist rulers usually climb to power upon the wings of bigotry and chauvinistic pomp, such as Mussolini's "New Rome" or Hitler's "1000 Year Reich". In order to cement (I am once again going to use the word because it is so fitting) chauvinistic nationalism, the ruling regime will create an enemy of the state. Communists, Jews, homosexuals, Romani, Intelligentsia... The list goes on and on. Hitler used the Jews in order to rally 'pure' cultural coalescence of a fictitious race against the 'untermensch'—those seen as polluting the already-sullied blood of the aryan nation. The 'enemy of the state' is an absolutely enormous concept when studying Nazism and Fascism. Just look at Orwell's Emmanuel Goldstein, or Osama Bin Laden. Fascism supports bigoted solidarity and must never be allowed to rise again. To defeat Fascism is to save egalitarianism.

[MEGAMANTROTSKY]

I highly recommend Daniel Guerin's Fascism and Big Business. I think it's the most comprehensive Marxist analysis of Fascism currently available.

[Registered User]

Class collaboration,social Darwinism,imperialism,corporatism,and a splash of asshole

[Firebrand]

My understanding is that facism is an ideology used by the ruling class in times of crisis to deflect working class anger and stem the tide of revolutionary ideas.
In other words it exists to try and unite the working classes with the ruling classes behind a flag, a national anthem, and a leadership cult. Generally with a sauce of nationalism, racism, and marching around waving your right arm in the air.
This is supposed to stop workers seeing the fundamental conflict between their interests and thos eof their bosses. It generally gains power in times of economic crisis because of political polarisation, and the fact that the working classes are more desparate at these times.