Social Fascism

[subham]

In the era of Stalin, one of the principal issues that had created a controversy in Left and democratic quarters was social fascism. Can anyone enlighten me by providing a standard definition of social fascism in the modern context?

[Hit The North]

There is no contemporary context. The label was employed by the Stalinists in order to describe the social democrats in Germany who, although nominally 'socialist', were opposed to the Communist movement. It was a disastrous policy which split the German labour movement and made Hitler's rise to power that bit much easier.

[subham]

Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comintern) (Comintern) during the late 1920s and early 1930s, which stated that social democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy) was a variant of fascism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fascism). At the time, the leaders of the Comintern, such as Joseph Stalin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin) and Rajani Palme Dutt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajani_Palme_Dutt), argued that capitalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism) society had entered the "Third Period (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Period)" in which a working class revolution was imminent, but could be prevented by social democrats and other fascist forces. The term "social fascist" was used pejoratively to describe social democratic parties, anti-Comintern socialist parties and dissenters within Comintern affiliates throughout the interwar period (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interwar_period).

At the Sixth Congress of the Commitern in 1928, the end of capitalist stability and the beginning of the "Third Period" was proclaimed. The end of capitalism, accompanied with a working class revolution, was expected, and social democracy was identified as the main enemy of the Communists. This Commitern's theory had roots in Grigory Zinoviev (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigory_Zinoviev)'s argument that international social democracy is a wing of fascism. This view was accepted by Joseph Stalin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin) who described fascism and social democracy as "twin brothers", arguing that fascism depends on the active support of the social democracy and that the social democracy depends on the active support of fascism. After it was declared at the Sixth Congress, the theory of social fascism became accepted by the world Communist movement.[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#cite_note-0)
At the same time, Social Democratic Party of Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) (SPD), under leadership of German chancellor (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor) Hermann Müller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_M%C3%BCller_%28politician%29), agreed with anti-communist parties that "red equals brown".[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#cite_note-1) This led to mutual hostility between social democrats and communists, which were additionally intensified in 1929 when Berlin's police, under control of the SPD government, shot down communist workers demonstrating on May Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day) (Berlin's Bloody May). This, and the repressive legislation against the communists that followed, served as further evidence to communists that social democrats were indeed "social fascists".[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#cite_note-2) In 1931 in Prussia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia), the largest state of Germany, Communist Party of Germany (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_Germany) (KPD), which referred to the Nazis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism) as "working people's comrades", united with them in unsuccessful attempt to bring down the state government of SPD.[4] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#cite_note-3) German Communists continued to deny any essential difference between Nazism and Social Democracy even after elections in 1933 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_election,_1933). The KPD, under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann), coined the slogan "After Hitler, our turn!" – strongly believing that united front against Nazis wasn't needed, and that the workers would change their opinion and recognize that Nazism, unlike Communism, didn't offer a true way out of Germany's difficulties.[5] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#cite_note-4)
After Adolf Hitler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler)'s Nazis came to power in Germany, the KPD was outlawed and thousands of its members, including Thälmann, were arrested. Following these events, the Comintern did a complete turn on the question of alliance with social democrats, and the theory of "social fascism" was abandoned. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern in 1935, Georgi Dimitrov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgi_Dimitrov) outlined the new policy of the "popular front (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_front)" in his address, "For the Unity of the Working Class Against Fascism." (http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1935/unity.htm) The "popular front" period ended in 1939 with the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet Pact (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi-Soviet_Pact).


This is the definition I have come across. But in India, the Maoists are considering CPI(M) as social fascist, although fail to provide a legitimate argument in favour of their claim. Do you agree with them?

[AGITprop]

To reiterate what Bob said.

The Comintern controlled the KPD at the time, who instead of allying themselves with the SPD to fight the rising Nazi party, grouped up WITH the Nazis to break up SPD meetings. Not only was it an act of sabotage by the Comintern, it was also due to the bankruptcy of the Communist Party in Germany.

They were SO bankrupt politically and theoretically, that they could not recognize that they were in a period of counter-revolution, and put forward the line; "After Hitler, Our turn!"

[ComradeOm]

It was a disastrous policy which split the German labour movement and made Hitler's rise to power that bit much easier.The policy of 'social fascism' was not introduced until 1929. At this point the SPD and KPD had been effectively at war for over a decade with thousands of workers and communists massacred by social-democrat controlled state authorities. The idea that Moscow somehow sabotaged or ruined a promising anti-fascist alliance, or otherwise "split the German labour movement", is pure fantasy

[avantgarde]

Anyone even with a superficial knowledge of Lenin’s writings, knows that the split in the working class was the result of imperialism creating a labour aristocracy, which was relatively privileged in relation to the mass of workers. Trotskyites like to criticize Stalin for putting forward the view that Social-Democracy and fascism are twins. Who can deny that when it comes to opposing revolution both reformism and fascism are twins? Not identical twins because they oppose the revolution in different ways.

The determination of the social-democracy to prevent a workers revolution for socialism can lead it becoming ‘objectively’ the moderate wing of fascism. The Lion’s share for the defeat of the German working class must be placed on German Social-Democracy. (Stalin’s statements on the matter should not be confused with the theory of social-fascism. Nor do Marxist-Leninists exclude the possibility of a section of Social-Democracy degenerating into social fascism) Their is nothing in Stalin’s writings to suggest that he supported the theory that social democracy was social fascism.

[Yehuda Stern]

The idea that Moscow somehow sabotaged or ruined a promising anti-fascist alliance, or otherwise "split the German labour movement", is pure fantasy

Not so. If the Bolsheviks could make a temporary military alliance with Kerensky against Kornilov, even though Kerensky persecuted them, certainly the KPD could've made some anti-fascist alliance with the SPD. The problem was that they were centrists, who were afraid of revolution, and stood in awe in the face of the fascist beast.

[Die Neue Zeit]

I invite the original poster and other posters to consider the these discussions about contemporary social fascism (which still renders the Comintern line to be shallow):

http://www.revleft.com/vb/non-reformist-reforms-t86845/index.html
http://www.revleft.com/vb/redefining-fascism-national-t86851/index.html
http://www.revleft.com/vb/redefining-fascism-national-t86851/index3.html
http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/newsletter/socialfascism.htm