From the Classics: What is Fascism?

 Georgi Dimitrov



Main Report of Georgi Dimitrov at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist
International
August 2, 1935



I.  Fascism and the Working Class
The Class Character of Fascism
Comrades, fascism in power was correctly described by the Thirteenth Plenum of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International as the open terrorist
dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist
elements of finance capital.
The most reactionary variety of fascism is the German type of fascism. It has
the effrontery to call itself National Socialism, though it has nothing in
common with socialism. German fascism is not only bourgeois nationalism, it is
fiendish chauvinism. It is a government system of political gangsterism, a
system of provocation and torture practised upon the working class and the
revolutionary elements of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the
intelligentsia. It is medieval barbarity and bestiality, it is unbridled
aggression in relation to other nations.
German fascism is acting as the spearhead of international counter-revolution,
as the chief instigator of imperialist war, as the initiator of a crusade
against the Soviet Union, the great fatherland of the working people of the
whole world.
Fascism is not a form of state power “standing above both classes — the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie,” as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It
is not “the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of
the state,” as the British Socialist Brailsford declares.
No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty
bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power
of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against
the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and
intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form,
fomenting bestial hatred of other nations.
This, the true character of fascism, must be particularly stressed because in a
number of countries, under cover of social demagogy, fascism has managed to gain
the following of the mass of the petty bourgeoisie that has been dislocated by
the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most backward strata of the
proletariat. These would never have supported fascism if they had understood its
real character and its true nature.
The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume
different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and
economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international
position of the given country.
In certain countries, principally those in which fascism has no broad mass basis
and in which the struggle of the various groups within the camp of the fascist
bourgeoisie itself is rather acute, fascism does not immediately venture to
abolish parliament, but allows the other bourgeois parties, as well as the
Social-Democratic Parties, to retain a modicum of legality.
In other countries, where the ruling bourgeoisie fears an early outbreak of
revolution, fascism establishes its unrestricted political monopoly, either
immediately or by intensifying its reign of terror against and persecution of
all rival parties and groups. This does not prevent fascism, when its position
becomes particularly acute, from trying to extend its basis and, without
altering its class nature, trying to combine open terrorist dictatorship with a
crude sham of parliamentarism.
The accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one bourgeois
government by another, but a substitution of one state form of class domination
of the bourgeoisie — bourgeois democracy — by another form — open terrorist
dictatorship. It would be a serious mistake to ignore this distinction, a
mistake liable to prevent the revolutionary proletariat from mobilizing the
widest strata of the working people of town and country for the struggle against
the menace of the seizure of power by the fascists, and from taking advantage of
the contradictions which exist in the camp of the bourgeoisie itself.
But it is a mistake, no less serious and dangerous, to underrate the importance,
for the establishment of fascist dictatorship, of the reactionary measures of
the bourgeoisie at present increasingly developing in bourgeois-democratic
countries — measures which suppress the democratic liberties of the working
people, falsify and curtail the rights of parliament and intensify the
repression of the revolutionary movement.
Comrades, the accession to power of fascism must not be conceived of in so
simplified and smooth a form, as though some committee or other of finance
capital decided on a certain date to set up a fascist dictatorship. In reality,
fascism usually comes to power in the course of a mutual, and at times severe,
struggle against the old bourgeois parties, or a definite section of these
parties, in the course of a struggle even within the fascist camp itself — a
struggle which at times leads to armed clashes, as we have witnessed in the case
of Germany, Austria and other countries.
All this, however, does not make less important the fact that, before the
establishment of a fascist dictatorship, bourgeois governments usually pass
through a number of preliminary stages and adopt a number of reactionary
measures which directly facilitate the accession to power of fascism. Whoever
does not fight the reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie and the growth of
fascism at these preparatory stages is not in a position to prevent the victory
of fascism, but, on the contrary, facilitates that victory.
The Social-Democratic leaders glossed over and concealed from the masses the
true class nature of fascism, and did not call them to the struggle against the
increasingly reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie. They bear great historical
responsibility for the fact that, at the decisive moment of the fascist
offensive, a large section of the working people of Germany and of a number of
other fascist countries failed to recognize in fascism the most bloodthirsty
monster of finance capital, their most vicious enemy, and that these masses were
not prepared to resist it.
What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able
to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent
needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply
ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses,
on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions.
Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie and mortal enemies
of socialism, represent themselves to the masses as “Socialists,” and depict
their accession to power as a “revolution”? Because they try to exploit the
faith in revolution and the urge towards socialism that lives in the hearts of
the mass of working people in Germany.
Fascism acts in the interests of the extreme imperialists, but it presents
itself to the masses in the guise of champion of an ill-treated nation, and
appeals to outraged national sentiments, as German fascism did, for instance,
when it won the support of the masses of the petty bourgeoisie by the slogan
“Down with the Versailles Treaty.”
Fascism aims at the most unbridled exploitation of the masses but it approaches
them with the most artful anti-capitalist demagogy, taking advantage of the deep
hatred of the working people against the plundering bourgeoisie, the banks,
trusts and financial magnates, and advancing those slogans which at the given
moment are most alluring to the politically immature masses.
In Germany — “The general welfare is higher than the welfare of the individual,”
in Italy — “Our state is not a capitalist, but a corporate state,” in Japan —
“For Japan without exploitation,” in the United States — “Share the wealth,” and
so forth.
Fascism delivers up the people to be devoured by the most corrupt and venal
elements, but comes before them with the demand for “an honest and incorruptible
government.” Speculating on the profound disillusionment of the masses in
bourgeois-democratic governments, fascism hypocritically denounces corruption.
It is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that
fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois parties.
But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks on the bourgeois
governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the old bourgeois parties.
Surpassing in its cynicism and hypocrisy all other varieties of bourgeois
reaction, fascism adapts its demagogy to the national peculiarities of each
country, and even to the peculiarities of the various social strata in one and
the same country. And the mass of the petty bourgeoisie and even a section of
the workers, reduced to despair by want, unemployment and the insecurity of
their existence, fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism.
Fascism comes to power as a party of attack on the revolutionary movement of the
proletariat, on the mass of the people who are in a state of unrest; yet it
stages its accession to power as a “revolutionary” movement against the
bourgeoisie on behalf of “the whole nation” and for the “salvation” of the
nation. One recalls Mussolini’s “march” on Rome, Pilsudski’s “march” on Warsaw,
Hitler’s National-Socialist “revolution” in Germany, and so forth.
But whatever the masks that fascism adopts, whatever the forms in which it
presents itself, whatever the ways by which it comes to power
  Fascism is a most ferocious attack by capital on the mass of the working
  people;
  Fascism is unbridled chauvinism and predatory war;
  Fascism is rabid reaction and counter-revolution;
  Fascism is the most vicious enemy of the working class and of all working
  people.

Source: Georgi Dimitrov, Selected Works Sofia Press, Sofia, Volume 2, 1972.
Text available in full online at Marxist Internet Archive <<www.marxists.org>>
In
ML TODAY
https://mltoday.com/from-the-classics-what-is-fascism-georgi-dimitrov/
Nov 6, 2018
From the Classics: What is Fascism?
 Georgi Dimitrov



Main Report of Georgi Dimitrov at the Seventh World Congress of the Communist
International
August 2, 1935



I.  Fascism and the Working Class
The Class Character of Fascism
Comrades, fascism in power was correctly described by the Thirteenth Plenum of
the Executive Committee of the Communist International as the open terrorist
dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist
elements of finance capital.
The most reactionary variety of fascism is the German type of fascism. It has
the effrontery to call itself National Socialism, though it has nothing in
common with socialism. German fascism is not only bourgeois nationalism, it is
fiendish chauvinism. It is a government system of political gangsterism, a
system of provocation and torture practised upon the working class and the
revolutionary elements of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the
intelligentsia. It is medieval barbarity and bestiality, it is unbridled
aggression in relation to other nations.
German fascism is acting as the spearhead of international counter-revolution,
as the chief instigator of imperialist war, as the initiator of a crusade
against the Soviet Union, the great fatherland of the working people of the
whole world.
Fascism is not a form of state power “standing above both classes — the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie,” as Otto Bauer, for instance, has asserted. It
is not “the revolt of the petty bourgeoisie which has captured the machinery of
the state,” as the British Socialist Brailsford declares.
No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty
bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power
of finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against
the working class and the revolutionary section of the peasantry and
intelligentsia. In foreign policy, fascism is jingoism in its most brutal form,
fomenting bestial hatred of other nations.
This, the true character of fascism, must be particularly stressed because in a
number of countries, under cover of social demagogy, fascism has managed to gain
the following of the mass of the petty bourgeoisie that has been dislocated by
the crisis, and even of certain sections of the most backward strata of the
proletariat. These would never have supported fascism if they had understood its
real character and its true nature.
The development of fascism, and the fascist dictatorship itself, assume
different forms in different countries, according to historical, social and
economic conditions and to the national peculiarities, and the international
position of the given country.
In certain countries, principally those in which fascism has no broad mass basis
and in which the struggle of the various groups within the camp of the fascist
bourgeoisie itself is rather acute, fascism does not immediately venture to
abolish parliament, but allows the other bourgeois parties, as well as the
Social-Democratic Parties, to retain a modicum of legality.
In other countries, where the ruling bourgeoisie fears an early outbreak of
revolution, fascism establishes its unrestricted political monopoly, either
immediately or by intensifying its reign of terror against and persecution of
all rival parties and groups. This does not prevent fascism, when its position
becomes particularly acute, from trying to extend its basis and, without
altering its class nature, trying to combine open terrorist dictatorship with a
crude sham of parliamentarism.
The accession to power of fascism is not an ordinary succession of one bourgeois
government by another, but a substitution of one state form of class domination
of the bourgeoisie — bourgeois democracy — by another form — open terrorist
dictatorship. It would be a serious mistake to ignore this distinction, a
mistake liable to prevent the revolutionary proletariat from mobilizing the
widest strata of the working people of town and country for the struggle against
the menace of the seizure of power by the fascists, and from taking advantage of
the contradictions which exist in the camp of the bourgeoisie itself.
But it is a mistake, no less serious and dangerous, to underrate the importance,
for the establishment of fascist dictatorship, of the reactionary measures of
the bourgeoisie at present increasingly developing in bourgeois-democratic
countries — measures which suppress the democratic liberties of the working
people, falsify and curtail the rights of parliament and intensify the
repression of the revolutionary movement.
Comrades, the accession to power of fascism must not be conceived of in so
simplified and smooth a form, as though some committee or other of finance
capital decided on a certain date to set up a fascist dictatorship. In reality,
fascism usually comes to power in the course of a mutual, and at times severe,
struggle against the old bourgeois parties, or a definite section of these
parties, in the course of a struggle even within the fascist camp itself — a
struggle which at times leads to armed clashes, as we have witnessed in the case
of Germany, Austria and other countries.
All this, however, does not make less important the fact that, before the
establishment of a fascist dictatorship, bourgeois governments usually pass
through a number of preliminary stages and adopt a number of reactionary
measures which directly facilitate the accession to power of fascism. Whoever
does not fight the reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie and the growth of
fascism at these preparatory stages is not in a position to prevent the victory
of fascism, but, on the contrary, facilitates that victory.
The Social-Democratic leaders glossed over and concealed from the masses the
true class nature of fascism, and did not call them to the struggle against the
increasingly reactionary measures of the bourgeoisie. They bear great historical
responsibility for the fact that, at the decisive moment of the fascist
offensive, a large section of the working people of Germany and of a number of
other fascist countries failed to recognize in fascism the most bloodthirsty
monster of finance capital, their most vicious enemy, and that these masses were
not prepared to resist it.
What is the source of the influence of fascism over the masses? Fascism is able
to attract the masses because it demagogically appeals to their most urgent
needs and demands. Fascism not only inflames prejudices that are deeply
ingrained in the masses, but also plays on the better sentiments of the masses,
on their sense of justice and sometimes even on their revolutionary traditions.
Why do the German fascists, those lackeys of the bourgeoisie and mortal enemies
of socialism, represent themselves to the masses as “Socialists,” and depict
their accession to power as a “revolution”? Because they try to exploit the
faith in revolution and the urge towards socialism that lives in the hearts of
the mass of working people in Germany.
Fascism acts in the interests of the extreme imperialists, but it presents
itself to the masses in the guise of champion of an ill-treated nation, and
appeals to outraged national sentiments, as German fascism did, for instance,
when it won the support of the masses of the petty bourgeoisie by the slogan
“Down with the Versailles Treaty.”
Fascism aims at the most unbridled exploitation of the masses but it approaches
them with the most artful anti-capitalist demagogy, taking advantage of the deep
hatred of the working people against the plundering bourgeoisie, the banks,
trusts and financial magnates, and advancing those slogans which at the given
moment are most alluring to the politically immature masses.
In Germany — “The general welfare is higher than the welfare of the individual,”
in Italy — “Our state is not a capitalist, but a corporate state,” in Japan —
“For Japan without exploitation,” in the United States — “Share the wealth,” and
so forth.
Fascism delivers up the people to be devoured by the most corrupt and venal
elements, but comes before them with the demand for “an honest and incorruptible
government.” Speculating on the profound disillusionment of the masses in
bourgeois-democratic governments, fascism hypocritically denounces corruption.
It is in the interests of the most reactionary circles of the bourgeoisie that
fascism intercepts the disappointed masses who desert the old bourgeois parties.
But it impresses these masses by the vehemence of its attacks on the bourgeois
governments and its irreconcilable attitude to the old bourgeois parties.
Surpassing in its cynicism and hypocrisy all other varieties of bourgeois
reaction, fascism adapts its demagogy to the national peculiarities of each
country, and even to the peculiarities of the various social strata in one and
the same country. And the mass of the petty bourgeoisie and even a section of
the workers, reduced to despair by want, unemployment and the insecurity of
their existence, fall victim to the social and chauvinist demagogy of fascism.
Fascism comes to power as a party of attack on the revolutionary movement of the
proletariat, on the mass of the people who are in a state of unrest; yet it
stages its accession to power as a “revolutionary” movement against the
bourgeoisie on behalf of “the whole nation” and for the “salvation” of the
nation. One recalls Mussolini’s “march” on Rome, Pilsudski’s “march” on Warsaw,
Hitler’s National-Socialist “revolution” in Germany, and so forth.
But whatever the masks that fascism adopts, whatever the forms in which it
presents itself, whatever the ways by which it comes to power
  Fascism is a most ferocious attack by capital on the mass of the working
  people;
  Fascism is unbridled chauvinism and predatory war;
  Fascism is rabid reaction and counter-revolution;
  Fascism is the most vicious enemy of the working class and of all working
  people.

Source: Georgi Dimitrov, Selected Works Sofia Press, Sofia, Volume 2, 1972.
Text available in full online at Marxist Internet Archive <<www.marxists.org>>

In
ML TODAY
https://mltoday.com/from-the-classics-what-is-fascism-georgi-dimitrov/
Nov 6, 2018