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From International Socialism, No.70, Mid-June 1974, p.30.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
Fascism and Big Business
Daniel Guerin
Pathfinder, £1.40 (paperback)
AFTER HITLER CAME to power in 1933, and after the attempted fascist putsch on 6 February 1934 in Paris, Daniel Guerin took up his pen against fascism. His aim was to expose the real reasons for the fascist victory, to reveal unsparingly the failings of the defeated workers’ parties, and to convince his readers that fascism could not be combatted by grasping at the straw of bourgeois democracy, that they must choose between fascism and socialism. He succeeded in producing a most readable guide to the development of fascism in both Italy and Germany, and the publishers are to be congratulated on their timely re-issue of a book which has been out of print for far too long.
Drawing heavily on the writings of Leon Trotsky, Guerin shows how fascism was able to give coherence to the demands of what may broadly be called the ‘petty bourgeoisie’ and how at the same time it was always forced and indeed inclined to support the demands of big business. In a lucid and dynamic analysis of class movements in a volatile situation, he shows how the traditional middle classes (the small traders, shopkeepers, etc.) found themselves joined by the new middle classes (the functionaries employed to run industry, the banks etc.) and how the fascists were able to exploit the middle classes’ anti-capitalist instincts and their fear of being driven down into the ranks of the working class.
In his chapter on Fascist Demagogy, Guerin shows how akin to socialist platforms many of the fascist policies were, how they gave limited support to strike calls, and how they transformed the slogan ‘All power to the Soviets’ into ‘All power to the fascists’. It is in the early chapters of his book, as he shows how vigorously the fascists fulfilled and presented their policies, that we can see that the real subject of his book is socialism, that we can see how the shadows of socialism permeate every page as he explains that fascism is nothing but the direct product of the failure to achieve socialism.
When the fascists come to power, whilst continually conceding to the demands of big business, their need for a social base necessitated the continuance of their anti-capitalist rhetoric which first brought them to power. Lower-class, plebeian elements were given places in the state machinery and leftist elements were continually purged in the name of the national interest.
What is perhaps contentious in his book is his basic thesis that big business supported fascism while the owners of light industry were opposed to it. He argues, correctly, that the capitalist class presents a face of granite to general threats against its class interests, but that in less crucial matters the rock betrays deep fissures. Fascism, in Italy and Germany alike, was subsidised by the magnates of heavy industry (iron and steel, mining) and by big bankers with a stake in heavy industry. The chiefs of the steel and mining enterprises were notorious for their authoritarian attitudes, their ‘tough boss’ psychology. The ratio of ‘fixed capital’ (invested in plant, raw materials, etc) to Variable capital’ (i.e. wages) is much higher in heavy than in light industry, and thus the limits within which production is profitable are much narrower. If the economic crisis sharpens, the bosses of heavy industry are unable to cut their fixed costs and thus can only reduce their wages bill. For them brutal wage cuts are an imperious necessity.
The light industrialists, on the other hand, have less fixed costs, their arrogance is less overpowering and, further, they produce goods for consumption by the masses – thus they fear that the very brutal measures of deflation demanded by heavy industry in a crisis will have a disastrous effect on the purchasing power of the masses, their consumers.
Thus heavy industry wanted to pursue the class struggle until the proletariat was crushed, light industry still believed everything could be patched up by ‘industrial peace’ and political horse-trading. While there is much truth in this, it is also perhaps more significant that the representatives of light industry controlled the state, Guerin shows, the state functionaries gave heavy industry unqualified support all along the line.
It did not at first occur to big business to launch fascism toward the conquest of power. It used its hired fascist gangs for nothing more than anti-labour militia. But once a serious economic crisis threatened to destroy its profits and a strong state alone seemed able to make its enterprises profitable again, big business decided on the further step and launched its fascist troops to the conquest of state power.
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