"Fascism is corporatism"

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 6:18 PM 6/6/96, Rich Graves wrote:
>On Wed, 5 Jun 1996, Bruce Baugh, who usually knows better, wrote:
>
>> Fascism has no intrinsic link to genocide. It is a theory of economics,
>> basically, in which the state has ultimate authority over production and
>> distribution without (as in socialism) actually _owning_ the means of
>> production or distribution. This is generally accomplished through
>> cartelization, the creatin of industry-wide councils in which the
>> representatives of the most powerful firms set policy in conjunction with
>> the representatives of the government.
...
>Yes, I'm afraid these ahistorical myths are widespread. What _do_ they teach
>in these schools?
>
>Pick up anything by Renzo De Felice to gain a basic historical understanding
>of what fascism was about, from someone who was sympathetic to them.

Rich, I don't think it nearly so clear as you are claiming. The definition
of fascism, that is. Without resorting to the usual ploy of quoting
Webster's (a ploy I usually am not impressed by), let me cite an
"anti-fascist" radio personality, Dave Emory, who I have been listening to
nearly every week for several years.

Dave is undeniably anti-fascist, an unusual mixture of left-leaning views
and National Rifle Association sympathies, and he often quotes Mussolini's
famous "Fascism is corporatism" line. That is, a view more similar to Bruce
Baugh's point that fascism is primarily an economic theory, about the
organization and ownership of production systems, than about hatred of any
particular ethnic group.

It is certainly true that Italian and German fascism (and the important
variant of "national socialism") become intertwined with certain forms of
racism, with which we are all familiar, but I don't think Bruce is at all
wrong in his definition of fascism. That Hitler and his group combined
fascist economic theories with occultist views of racial superiority does
not mean the two viewpoints are identical.

("Fascism is corporatism" is of course not an overall indictment of all
corporations. "Corporatism" is basically a view that government should
identify key industries and corporations and then pick the winners and
support them while suppressing their competitors. This oversimplifies what
Mussolini, Emory, myself, etc. mean by "corporatism," but I hope this gives
at least a glimpse. And we could get off into discussions of "state
capitalism" and how the Soviet and Chinese forms of government were
essentially examples of "state capitalism," but this would be a long and
involved debate.)


>I'd also recommend a biography of the very influential and gifted American
>modernist poet Ezra Pound, who led the Italian fascist propaganda effort
>from 1941 to 1943 and spent six months in an American POW camp, followed by
>some time in mental hospitals as his rants against jewish conspiracies under
>every bed became increasingly incoherent, for his trouble. Like Orwell's
>very complicated views towards socialism and Stalinism (see Homage to
>Catalonia), e. e. cummings' anti-government pacifism, Whitman's queerness,
>and Byron's essential kookiness, this is something your high school english
>teacher probably failed to mention.

My high school teachers failed to mention much of anything, but this was
hardly surprising to me--I never expected them to. Fortunately, I knew how
to read, and so I learned all of these things. (Except for Pound, whom I
didn't encounter until my first year in college.)

--Tim May

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