Massively important article explains how US is/is becoming fascist

It's the "f-word" again. But this time, instead of just comparing how our government is doing the same thing that the Nazis did (using slave/prison labor, invading sovereign countries for no reason, stifling dissent, etc.), this one explains the economic underpinnings of tying corporate to government power in both fascist Germany and Italy, and the parallels to what we are seeing today. This country needs to WAKE UP, and fast, about what the consequences of concentration of wealth really mean.

This is the most important article I've seen on this topic.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&call_pageid=971358637177&c=Article&cid=1132960211791

quotes:

Hitler attended to the reduction of taxes applicable to large businesses while simultaneously increasing the same taxes as they related to small business. Previous decrees establishing price ceilings were repealed such that the cost of living for the average family was increased. Hitler's economic policies hastened the destruction of Germany's middle class by decimating small business. Ironically, Hitler pandered to the middle class, and they provided some of his most enthusiastically violent supporters. The fact that he did this while simultaneously destroying them was a terrible achievement of Nazi propaganda.

Hitler also destroyed organized labour by making strikes illegal. Notwithstanding the socialist terms in which he appealed to the masses, Hitler's labour policy was the dream come true of the industrial cartels that supported him. Nazi law gave total control over wages and working conditions to the employer.

Compulsory (slave) labour was the crowning achievement of Nazi labour relations. Along with millions of people, organized labour died in the concentration camps. The camps were not only the most depraved of all human achievements, they were a part and parcel of Nazi economic policy. Hitler's Untermenschen, largely Jews, Poles and Russians, supplied slave labour to German industry. Surely this was a capitalist bonanza.

unquote

I note here with some concern that the US has its own untermenschen, who we lock up and then force to labor for big business. There have been several articles on prison labor being used for cheap manufacturing, US prisoners sewing jeans for Levi Strauss, etc. Is it less horrible that instead of linking slave labor directly to ethnicity as the Nazis did, that we use the war on drugs and a racially skewed justice system? Just asking.

quote:

Mussolini, the one-time socialist, went on to abolish the inheritance tax, a measure that favoured the wealthy. He decreed a series of massive subsidies to Italy's largest industrial businesses and repeatedly ordered wage reductions. Italy's poor were forced to subsidize the wealthy. In real terms, wages and living standards for the average Italian dropped precipitously under fascism.

...

Antitrust laws do not just protect the marketplace, they protect democracy.

...

Neo-liberals call relentlessly for tax cuts, which, in a previously progressive system, disproportionately favour the wealthy. Regarding the distribution of wealth, the neo-liberals have nothing to say. In the end, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. As in Weimar Germany, the function of the state is being reduced to that of a steward for the interests of the moneyed elite. All that would be required now for a more rapid descent into fascism are a few reasons for the average person to forget he is being ripped off. Hatred of Arabs, fundamentalist Christianity or an illusory sense of perpetual war may well be taking the place of Hitler's hatred for communists and Jews.

From some research I did a few years ago:

In actual fact, Nazism is the most reactionary and viscious form of capitalism that has ever existed... a form of capitalism that is virtually feudalistic in the safeguards granted to and preserved for the wealthy, as well as in the total servitude it demands of those who possess nothing but their hands and brains to work with. p 243 - 249

...Goering , himself, has become an economic royalist in the bountiful Nazi decade and receives his advice as to what measures must be adopted from several dozen boards, representing each big industry, and each board is made up of the men who live on profits from those industries.... The administrators of each Gruppe were the wealthiest capitalists in the particular industry it dealt with. In short, the wealthy were made supreme judges in their own case. p 247 - 253.

The existence of the kleinbuergertum, as reasonably independent economic elements, grew more precarious each year. The chain stores increased in power and became ubiquitous, Aryans enjoyed far more rigid monopolies in the retail trade than the hated Jews had ever exercised. Many little businesses were destroyed deliberately by economic decrees issued as part of Hitler's vast severe rationalization programme.... not only shopkeepers, but little industries suffered. p. 255

(Last Train from Berlin Howard K Smith 1943)

Does any of that sound familiar? I see shades of these quotes in Cheney's energy task force, the ubiquitous chain stores, lobbyists and insiders running departments and deregulating industries, and so many others. *sigh*

edit: typos

Just as Walmart finishes invading the last pristine communities in this country.

as waging all-out war on the middle and poor classes. I still can't fathom why they vote for a party which is intent on destroying them. I agree, this is an important article, and I thank you for posting it.

As far as fundamentalist Christianity, and the way Republicans use issues such as gay rights and abortion to keep people voting against their own self interests, I doubt much can be done. Some of those people are so closed minded that arguing with them is useless.

It's a shame that so many in this country are so poorly educated that they either can't or won't take the time to become familiar with the issues that confront us. Even as they slide deeper into poverty, some conservatives will refuse to accept a life line to save them, if it comes from a party that is tolerant of other people's private lives.

it posits that the concentration of power in the hands of the wealthy corporate class/loss of power of the individual leads to, or at least is attendent with, all of the other things we normally associate with fascism: violence, invasion, propaganda, war, etc. It's a very interesting juxtaposition of two phenomena that are always presented as separate.

is that we don't hate Arabs, or Jews, or any other group. I can develop an intense hatred, or dislike, of individuals, like Bush and his cronies, but I understand why Arabs might not trust us, or why they see us as a corrupting influence. I don't want to invade other countries, or to persecute any religious group, or to make others obey my wishes.

I would prefer an America which is open to other ideas, which relishes the diversity that other cultures can offer, and which uses it's status as superpower to do good in the world. I have never had the opportunity to travel, and since I am now in my sixties, I don't anticipate that I ever will.

When people like Bush display absolutely no curiosity of other cultures, or nations, I get really furious, wondering why it is that some people, blessed with inherited wealth, remain so closed to at least studying other people, and ideas, through travel. Fascism is the ultimate shut door, the ultimate desire to cater to the corporations, to control the populace through religion and nationalism, and to use force to bend others to it's will.

Of course the individual loses power in a fascist state, because it calls for absolute obedience to the military/corporate/religious power of the elite. Some of us would rather live in relative poverty, and retain our freedom of speech and thought, than succumb to the hive mentality of fascism.

I can't get into the hate either. And I'm suspicious of people in power.

If you haven't read Lewis Lapham's essay on the subject of American fascism, please do so.

Can't find it, obviously, and I never get to a newstand. Thanks for the recommendation, I've heard it's a great article.

Several sites appear to have posted the commentary. Here's a link to one of them.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/harpers101205.cfm

without any commentary.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10710.htm

on the middle class and the "untermenschen" (underclass). The term "Neo-Liberal" is another word for DLC. This faction of the Democratic Party is as pro-corporate interest, pro-taxcuts for the rich, pro-wealth for the "monied elite" as the Republican Party.

A lot has been said here about supporting the candidate and his/her issues, without regard for his/her membership in the DLC. To that, I say BULLSH*T!

Katrina changed my heart on that matter forever. Just as I no longer believe there is any such thing as a "good" Republican (anyone who remains in that Party, supporting them with votes -- even occasionally -- is a monster), I say there is no such thing as a good DLC member. Their position on the issues, their opinion of the base of the Democratic Party, their position on war, their views on wealth for the wealthy and corporate interst above all is virtually the same as that of the Republicans. Just as we cannot allow ourselves a vote for even the most "moderate" of Republicans any longer, I say we must resist with every fiber of our beings, even the most "moderate" of DLC-ers (even those who come to us in "Liberal" clothing.) If their names appear on the DLC roster, they should be VERBOTEN. Each and every one of them. Period. End of story. For, as long as they are a member, they are bound to the promotion of the DLC within the Democratic Party, they are abetting the DLC's eventual take-over of the Democratic Party from within. They are recipients of the corporate money that flows to DLC candidates. (It is no surprise that the top money-raisers for 2008, at this moment in time are Clinton, Bayh, and Warner. DLC, each and every one.)

Resist the DLC, and all their candidates, for ANYTHING... I don't care if it's for dog-catcher of your town! NO TO THE DLC! A vote for them is against YOUR BEST INTEREST, and the best interests of the poor, minorities, women, and your draft-age children.

TC

this party is intent on destroying the very people who support it = the repubs.

The best example I can give would be the receptionist at my office. She was a real bible-thumper; would sit in the lunch room and start reading out of the bible at lunch time. Just to make sure us "sinners" would be OK. She was a real fundamentalist, and when she left on vacation, her computer had a huge screensaver photo of Bush that sat there, for an entire 2 weeks.

She didn't make much money, neither did her young husband. But BUSH was their guy. I wondered how she felt about everyone's standard of living going down during those years.

These people were not wealthy. Why would they support him? Answer = their church told them to, and they did everything they were told.

Interestingly enough, this couple was from Alabama. I wondered how their families fared in the Gulf, after Hurricane Katrina. After Bush was on vacation, and when he cut McCain's birthday cake, while people were drowning and dying down there.

Did they finally figure out they were duped? I don't know.

I've tried to point this out before and was looked at like I had grown not just one but two extra heads. Now I have more info to back me up!!

I think I'll send both of these links to my brother who is still in the state of delusion that our country couldn't be better off. And who thinks I am crazy when I try to explain things to him to the contrary.

Good links ProfessorPlum and Grasswire. :thumbsup: