Anti-Fascism and Left-Communism

So I realized that left-communist organizations have a rather strange attitude towards anti-fascism.

Anti-fascist resistance during WWII is described as "taking side in an imperialist war". I think this is an insane, and being a German, quiet offending position to take. It effectively means that one should tolerate the holocaust and the Nazi crimes to avoid taking sides with the allies.

So is it seriously a left-communist position that all anti-fascist, proletarian resistance during WWII is being reactionary?

Left communists are obviously completely against fascism.

However, being against fascism does not mean siding with democratic fractions of the bourgeoisie or supporting other murderous imperialist states. I don't think this in any way means that one should tolerate the holocaust and the Nazi crimes to avoid taking sides with the allies - the allies were not interested in preventing the holocaust or other Nazi camps to begin with. Indeed, it was them who 'tolerated' all those, it was the democratic industrial bourgeoisie that made the fascists come to power and so forth. Left communists and some other internationalists during the war called for turning the imperialist war into civil war and they did this while they were being shot by the Nazis or dying in concentration camps. I don't think it is in any way fair to call this 'tolerating the Nazi crimes'.

Marx-Lenin-Luxemburg Front in Holland, for example, declared:

"How to struggle?
With Germany? No!
With England? No!
Third front, socialist proletariat!
Against national socialism and
Against national bolshevism:
International class war!"

The leaders of the organization, were shot, not shouting "with dignity for the freedom of the country" (as the popular front slogan was) but shouting "long live the world revolution". Was supporting powers who had just until recently helped, promoted, or supported fascists or who were just recently allied with fascists the way to oppose fascism, or was the only way of really opposing fascism, opposing capitalism and imperialism completely? Was the way to struggle against fascism cooperating with democratic, liberal, nationalist and Stalinists bourgeois factions? Should the working class have supported the powers such as the USSR who made the workers scab for its national interests while the miners and dockers in Germany were striking in 1931?

There was, as limited as it was, some class struggle near the end of the war, such as the strikes in Turin in Italy and of course left communists were involved with those struggles, and it lead to their considerable growth in Italy. That is something else though, something which was never really in the agenda of the resistance.

Okay, thanx for clarifying, Leo. I was under the impression that some left-communists are declaring all anti-fascist resistance during WWII as reactionary, as it would effectively mean to side with an imperialist power. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

I can certainly understand the left-communist approach on this, and it's the "ideological correct" one I guess. But anyway, when I would have the choice to kill a Nazi thug with a weapon provided by either the allies or the USSR, or do nothing, I would certainly choose to accept the support of one of those "imperialist powers" and kill that bastard. In times of fascism and world war and holocaust it's quiet a luxury to ask who is providing you your weapons and logistical support.

Being a German, I do see both the red army, and the allies as liberators. Certainly I do prefer the liberal/social bourgeois democracy I'm living in now over living in a fascist regime, just like I would have preferred to live in the DDR instead of the "third reich".

Okay, thanx for clarifying, Leo. I was under the impression that some left-communists are declaring all anti-fascist resistance during WWII as reactionary, as it would effectively mean to side with an imperialist power. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

I can certainly understand the left-communist approach on this, and it's the "ideological correct" one I guess. But anyway, when I would have the choice to kill a Nazi thug with a weapon provided by either the allies or the USSR, or do nothing, I would certainly choose to accept the support of one of those "imperialist powers" and kill that bastard. In times of fascism and world war and holocaust it's quiet a luxury to ask who is providing you your weapons and logistical support.

Being a German, I do see both the red army, and the allies as liberators. Certainly I do prefer the liberal/social bourgeois democracy I'm living in now over living in a fascist regime, just like I would have preferred to live in the DDR instead of the "third reich".

Perhaps it is necessary to further clarify this a bit. For left communists, the question wasn't fascism or democracy but the bourgeoisie against the working class. Left communists opposed the tactics of popular anti-fascist fronts and united fronts, because those were tactics of class collaboration. They also did not support the "Resistance" as it is known as it was lead by Stalinists, liberals and nationalists. They also opposed the slogan of anti-fascism, not because they were not against fascism - quite the contrary, they were completely against fascism, they were operating in countries like Italy, Austria-Germany, France, Holland, Greece, Belgium and as I said they were imprisoned, they were put into concentration camps, they were shot, and so forth. However, they opposed fascism in a very different, and perhaps a much more dangerous way: they did not do sabotages, they did not carry guns, but they spread their ideas. For example, the French left communists in Marseilles are said to have covered the walls of the entire city with small stickers, informing local workers about what the Nazis have been doing in concentration camps. It is important to note that at this point, non of the big imperialist bourgeois powers were talking about this, as they themselves had been promoting anti-semitism for quite a long time by then. Against the Italian left communists, the fascist agents wrote: "The only independent paper. Ideologically the most interesting and prepared. Against any compromise, defends a pure communism ... Fights against the war in all aspects: democratic, fascist or Stalinist." Left communists saw the war as a war which lead to workers slaughtering each other. They saw their task as trying to make the locals turn their guns towards their bosses rather than their class brothers. They encouraged class struggle against the Nazis and completely supported the strikes there. They were also for class struggle against the USSR and USA and UK. They argued for the fraternalization of all workers. In the end only fraternization of all workers can destroy fascism.

What is fascism without popular support? Can fascism ever even deal with the working class? Why was the worst nightmare of the Nazis a possible general strike? The internationalist position was to oppose the war, and the way to effectively oppose fascism in a manner than there would be no more fascism ever was, and still is to promote the destruction of capitalism and different bourgeois powers. Why? Because the countries who had promoted fascism in Italy and Germany before destroying did not stop doing this after the war. Maybe the Third Reich and the Fascist Italy was no more, but did those imperialist states not promote hundreds of fascist states and parties later on who played their part in massacres? Did fascism die with the second world war? Can we ever destroy it without destroying capitalism?

On a personal level, if a fascist attacked me I'd defend myself (and had to do it for many times at school). If there is a fascist at my workplace, I'd discuss with him and prove him why his politics are against his interests as a worker, and that the workers he is told hate have the same class interests with him.

If there is a fascist at my workplace, I'd discuss with him and prove him why his politics are against his interests as a worker, and that the workers he is told hate have the same class interests with him.

I'm just curious as to what you'd say exactly.

Leo, I basically agree fully with your analysis. I feel nothing but sympathy for that approach. In theory. But it is basically a struggle directly for communism during a state of fascism and total war. Those tactics might work, and might be the really only effective way to combat fascism and get rid of it entirely. But it's like an "all in" in a poker game when you have a shitty hand. I mean that strategy could work very well, just like you can always win with a shitty hand in a poker game, but it also could fail miserably, and the result we have is not Stalinism, or bourgeois democracy, it's a even more repressive, fascist regime.

I know you say the question wasn't "fascism or (bourgeois) democracy" for you, but that's exactly what I think it is, and what matters.

On class collaboration: I'm personally pretty split on this issue, but in Germany it's a quiet common tactic for the autonomous Antifa to collaborate with bourgeois associations, for example to prevent Nazi marches. Just this weekend for example that tactic once again did succeed, there where 3000 bourgeois demonstrators along with 1000 Antifa activists successfully blocking a Nazi march in Dresden. The mixture and indirect cooperation of those two groups is often something which the cops just can't handle. Most of the time there is no direct cooperation, and the militants are just using the bourgeois demonstrations as a tactical advantage, but still there is some sort of collaboration, if you want. Once again, if I would have to choose, to either let the march happen, or two indirectly collaborate with bourgeois forces, I would have to choose to collaborate.

I'm just curious as to what you'd say exactly.

Similar things to what you would say to any worker. I don't really see the fascists as being very different from the other bourgeois parties.

In the last election here the main fascist party took 14.3% of the vote, and 71 seats. Are we to ignore, or assault anyone who voted for them?

Devrim

Malte

Which is the more powerful ideology for the ruling class Fascism or Democracy? Is it Fascism or Democracy that strengthens and generates workers' illusions in the ability of the capitalist system to offer them some kind of future, some form of share and place in society? The answer to this question is the nub of this discussion. For the Communist Left democracy is by far the most powerful weapon for maintaining the dictatorship of capital. Fascism in Germany and Italy came to power on the back of democracies defeat of the proletarian struggles. Basically it finished the bloody counter-revolution that democracy had started. Anti-fascism was also the most powerful weapon for getting workers to line up behind the dictatorship of capital in the democracies against the dictatorship of capital in the fascist countries. Today anti-fascism is still a defense of democracy and thus in the end the dictatorship of capital. This is not to say that this is how you see it, but the logical conclusion of anti-fascism is the support of the bourgeois state against the fascist.
As for the question of the demonstration and stopping them by joining with other bourgeois forces, this does nothing to stop the main attacks on minorities, which are carried out by the state. The biggest generators of racism, and other ideologies that seek to divided up the class, to justify nationalism, war etc is the capitalist state and its media. In Britain it is not fascist thugs who dragged a Ghanian women receiving life saving kidney treatment from here hospital bed but the state immigration officials, nor is it the bone heads of the BNP that force thousands of so-called illegal immigrants and asylum seekers to live on the streets with no money it is the state. The enemy of the working class and humanity is the capitalist state in all its forms. The fascists are just one aspect of this state which carry out the role of making the rest look good.
To try and help take forwards this discussion and to try and take it to deeper level here are some articles that you may find interesting and which are able to give a more developed answer to your important questions that can be given here.
On the role of Left Communist faced with WW2, the following articles deals with the activity of Left Communists in Holland during the war: http://en.internationalism.org/books/dgcl/4/10_01.html
On the role of anti-fascism for capitalism: http://en.internationalism.org/ir/101_bilan.htm
http://en.internationalism.org/wr/254_lead.html
More articles on this question can be found in our collection of articles on this question at:http://en.internationalism.org/taxonomy/term/267