Extreme Ideologies - Fascism and Socialism

This ideology emerged post-WWI, having had roots in the late nineteenth century with the Italian Futurist movement - based around corruption, barbarism and militarism

FIRST WAVE - interwar fascism - this involved rejecting the old order and proposing an anti-Left counterrevolution - led by the German Free Corps, promoting a 'new world order', the "Trench Comunity" of the war and the "SPIRIT OF 1914"; egalitarianism under a hierarchy, with an authoritarian leader - a fraternity; alternative to liberalism/socialism

- Meinecke - 'the history of the degeneration of German mankind'; Germany's post-war socialist revolution failed, and as such fascism took hold, opposing the 'Socialist-Jewish Conspiracy' and promoting the Volksgemeinschaft (national community)

SECOND WAVE - 1930s fascism - set in the context of the Great Depression where many LOST HOPE, this was a transnational movement that rejected capitalism and offered a violent and radical alternative - Michael Wildt, suggested fascism had 'an uncompromising will'

- Based around totalitarianism (Arendt); described by communists like Dimitroff as 'reactionary, chauvinist, imperialist elements of finance capital'

- CULT OF LEADERSHIP - this was crucial as it was used to STRUCTURE SOCIETY

- NATIONAL COMMUNITY - possibly the key feature; individuals that contribute to their National Community; more collectivist as this is at the CORE OF SOCIETY

- MOBILISATION - an expectation that individuals contribute to the N.C - through clubs (Kuhne); the N.C came first for Nazis - more racial in Germany than Italy, but the community always came first (Kershaw)

- EXPULSTION OF ENEMIES - all undesirables not part of the N.C were exterminated, as the community and its members must always be prioritised - Kuhne; Nazis talked of promoting 'productive' rather than 'gathering' capital (associated with Jews); was about DESTROYING THE PROLETARIAT

- All work focussed on nation-building, productivity and collaboration through militarism, violence and totalitarianism - this was anti-socialist and had no set principles; therefore, now used heuristically - not a set doctrine, but rather a SERIES OF ANTI-ISMS

Lack of doctrine = division? Nolte - Nazism as 'radical fascism', Italian much more pure

A lack of focus and intellectual basis made fascism ANTI-LIBERALISM, ANTI-CAPITALIST, ANTI-FEMINIST (favoured violent masculinty) and ANTI-SOCIALIST (all are equal, mental and physical labour - shouldn't glorify workers) - wanted a TRULY CLASSLESS SOCIETY where all were part of the N.C

- ANTI-SEMITISM - crucial feature especially in Germany - Jews 'gathered capital', were unproductive and operated for their own benefit, NOT for the community - argued that this collection of capital was unjust - wanted 'productive' technology and machinery

- REJUVENATION - linked to socialism, fascism looked to the FUTURE - wanted to breathe life into society; was not a CONSERVATIVE ideology, but forward-looking - spurred on YOUTH MOVEMENTS and CAMPS (Hitlerjunge, Hitler Boy Quex)

- Wanted to purify the Volksgemeinschaft of any foreign elements - no Jews, disabled people, gypsies etc; about VIOLENT PROMOTION of the VOLK

MASCULINITY - about the "Trench Community" as an ideal - this was all-male, and fascists wanted a STRONG, PRODUCTIVE MAN leading the N.C

- Violent men sen as the 'real core' of society that could 'liberate' the nation; alternatively, WOMEN were seen as something to BENEFIT the man - were of a lower class, and were often promoted for SEXUAL REASONS - the 'rejuvenation' idea was to be led by VIOLENT YOUNG MEN that could EMANCIPATE the feminised society

YOUTH - debate that fascism was a 'youth movement' - was a forward-looking idea, which challenged CLASS DOMINANCE - wanted the next-generation to promote this, so RADICALISED young people through camps, organisations, clubs to shape the way they ACTED and THOUGHT

- Children encouraged to put the NATION above all else - even above their parents; some were encouraged to TELL AUTHORITIES if they believed their parents had SOCIALIST TENDENCIES; 

- Not a CONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY - forward-looking, but favoured organisation and discipline to recreate the Trench Community - egalitarianism through hierarchy (leader + led)

COMMUNITY - The Trench Community was viewed as the IDEAL; promoted a classless, purified community featuring HIERARCHY, UNITY AND PARTICIPATION - all communities would be PRODUCTIVE and promote the N.C - could be done through rallies, indoctrination and working for your 'comrades' - Hitler: "no one will survive without working in this country"

- The N.C promoted a sense of belonging through various events - Kuhne - argued that the HOLOCAUST promoted belonging amongst Germans; reinforcing the N.C and forming the collective identity based on anti-Semitism - these were 'Nazi morals' (Koonz); saw the SOLDIER as the "epitome of humanity"

VIOLENCE - this was celebrated as the means of forming the N.C and achieving a PERFECT SOCIETY - would use violence to recreate the world

- Violence was heroic, and should be the goal of all men - created a mental strength that went with all other processes of fascist indoctrination - Nazis used street fighting, violence, the Holocaust and anti-Semitism; spoke of 'bones trembling' and battle - linked to MILITARISM

Desire for SPACE among fascists - Nazis wanted 'LEBENSRAUM' and sought to expand, whilst Italians wanted to for a New Roman Empire - TO FURTHER THE NATIONAL COMMUNITY

Post-French Revolution, emerged - liberal capitalism was BRINGING INEQUALITY, and socialists wanted to provide egalitarianism in the age of capitalism through ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY and reforming the individual

- 'Economic democracy' - socialists viewed the workplace as an authoritarian world where exploitation ocurred - therefore, socialists favoured 'public ownership of the modes of production' to achieve egalitarianism

- Egalitarianism - similar to Hitler? VERY DIFFERENT methods of achieving this - opposed Hitlerism "as a matter of life and death" (Kunstler, SDP) - socialists were ANTI-DICTATORSHIP originally (Rosa Luxemburg)

SOCIALIST PHILOSOPHY - based around utopian socialism and a MORAL JUSTIFICATION for socialism originally - Owen, Saint-Simon - wanted moral equality, the development of human nature

- Influenced Marx; as did Smith, Ricardo and Hegel - however, the ORIGINAL VIEW of utopianists was of the intelligentsia leading change for the poorest - this developed over time into Marxist, Leninist, Stalinist and then global socialism

Marx - favoured a revolutionary outlook, and a SCIENTIFIC CRITIQUE of society - put the MAJORITY over the MINORITY, unlike other 'isms'; wanted a process of change which benefitted the PROLETARIAT

- DIALECTICAL change - believed in a THESIS, and ANTITHESIS and then SYNTHESIS (a change); opposite of Hegelian beliefs - the MATERIAL shapes the IDEATIONAL, and this was how society developed - through OPPRESSION; a negative outlook

- Das Kapital 1867 - workers have their ideas shaped through the theory of MATERIALISM - there is an economic base, which facilitates oppression, and this is contained within a superstructure of the state, laws etc - oppression contained within society; THE HISTORY OF ALL HITHERTO EXISTING SOCIETY IS THE HISTORY OF CLASS STRUGGLE

Engels - the working class were EXPLOITED and alienated from work; saw production as INHUMANE and a process of torment, which was anti-human nature and in favour of CASH above all else

- Historical materialism -the 'haves' and 'have nots' in conflicts of separate revolutions - key stages along the way, until socialism - in CAPITLALISM, bourgeoisie and proletariat - revolution to overthrow this as the WORKER KEEPS GETTING POORER due to capitalism

Revolution or evolution? Lassalle - DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM - should socialism strive to achieve equality through the PROLETARIAT engaging in democratic, parliamentary politics? German Social Democrats; legal democracy

- Initial success - supported by Bernstein, who favoured parliamentary socialist in Germany to generate a stronger working class; however, this was a WESTERN VIEW - the EAST remained more REVOLUTIONARY with Bolshevism and the Russian Revolution

- RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - the key event of socialism, but this led to BOLSHEVISM consuming Communism (Hobsbawm); all socialist thought therefore was CENTRED AROUND LENINISM, which curtailed the progress of Communism in the interwar period - no alternatives

- Rosa Luxemburg - criticised Lenin, as she saw bolshevism as promoting DESPOTISM and as anti-democratic - saw a need for INDUSTRIALISM and DEMOCRACY to bring about real freedom for all - she saw no need for what Lenin described as 'A VANGUARD PARTY'

- World War 2 - more unity against fascism - the Labour and Socialist International formed, and SOCIALISTS were winning everywhere - 32% in Belgium, 1936 - led to 'popular fronts' forming to ensure socialist governance, as in Spain

Russian Revolution brough Lenin to power - anti-capitalism in Russia following the failures of the liberal Provisional Government and Tsarist autocracy - was also anti-War and anti 'bourgeois revolution'; Lenin believed in world revolution through the use of 'professional revolutionaries' like Otto Braun, an Austrian who participated in the Chinese Long March

- After initial exile, he led the more centralised, autocratic Bolsheviks in Russian against the larger Mensheviks, and gained support through popular phrases like 'peace, bread and land'; HOWEVER, Lenin had to drive revolution in an AGRARIAN SOCIETY with a much smaller proletariat - how?

- Lenin favoured dictatorship and centralisation as opposed to turning to the peasants - he took over Russia with the 600,000 strong party as a 'vanguard of the revolution'; was opposed by Rosa Luxemburg, who saw the party as DICTATING WITHOUT TRAINING THE MASSES - argued that revolution would lead to DESPOTISM and rule by decree - overall, Bolshevism would lead to 'THE BRUTALISATION OF PUBLIC LIFE'

- Stalinism - this was terror, centralisation and mass killing - fulfilled Luxemburg's prophecy - had the benefit of driving economic development which opposed capitalism and Leninist 'WORLD REVOLUTION' - favoured socialism in the USSR with collectivisation, FYP, NEP etc

Four key examples of this - MAO in China; KIM IL-SUNG in North Korea; CASTRO in Cuba and HO CHI MINH in Vietnam - showed how socialism could be applied on a global scale

- Extra-European - however, was inspired by Western socialism through the global auspices of Soviet communism - organisations like Comintern; but also, more IDEOLOGICALLY - shared the desire for EQUALITY at a basic level - there was little prescriptive content

- Followed the Leninist model of revolution until the 1950s - a 'vanguard party' which forcefully carried out a revolution - use of military to do so; HOWEVER - also utilised GUERILLA WARFARE

- Communism as a response to WWI - interwar radicalism with Saad Zaghlul in Egypt - by 1945, there were MANY COMMUNIST NATIONS; this led to the RED SCARE as nations such as China, Yugoslavia and East Germany turned communist post WW2; by 1950s and 60s - violent uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and other nations (particularly in 1968)

IMPERIALISM - viewed by Lenin as the 'highest form of capitalism' - this provided a basis for MANY SOCIALIST UPRISINGS - promoted by Sartre and Fanon - colonialism leading to socialist ideals, with the 'native' as the revolutionary class 

SIMILARITIES: 1) TOTALITARIANISM - proposed by Arendt, both ideologies always seem to lead to authoritarian rule and dominance in all aspects of life - view of Friedrich and Arendt

2) EGALITARIANISM - both sought for the same end goal - classlessness, with all being equal - privileged a certain part of society to drive this equality - either the VIOLENT MALE/WORKER

3) ORIGINS - both were alternatives to liberalism and grew following WWI, both violently opposed capitalism and both saw a need for REJUVENATION - contemporaneous; also used SIMILAR LINGUISTIC DEVICES - spoke of 'community', work and 'comrades' in both

DIFFERENCES: 1) MILITARISM - fascism glorified the military more than socialism, which wasn't afraid to use military might at time of war, but did not promote a 'Trench Community' and a militaristic view of a violent society

2) PURIFICATION - socialism was concerned with class and promoting the ideas of the proletarian majority, whereas FASCISM was more concerned with a RACIAL COMMUNITY and purifying this - led to the Holocaust - not the objective of socialism

3) FOCUS - Marxism looks at a small subsection of society (workers), whereas fasicsm looks at a much broader NATIONAL COMMUNITY - different drivers of change

SOCIALISM: Owen, Saint-Simon, Luxemburg, Kunstler, Lassalle, Bernstein, Hobsbawm, Sartre, Fanon, Smith + Ricardo, Marx, Engels, Lenin, O.Braun, Mao, Castro, Kim Il-Sung, Ho Chi Minh, S.Zaghlul

FASCISM: Meinecke, Wildt, Arendt, Dimitroff, Kershaw, Kuhne, Koonz, Kershaw, Nolte, Himmler, Hitler, Kunstler (comparison)

- Also key Fascist examples: Hitler Boy Quex, Winter Aid (charity and community), and statistic about TEACHER TRAINING CAMPS