Fascism

In The Coming Struggle for Power, Strachey also writes about the important role of fascism associated with end stage capitalism. He explains how declining profits and growth will result in reduced wages, poorer working conditions and a claw back of social welfare benefits enacted during more productive periods. This, in turn, leads to more conflict between workers and capitalists, at the same time that capitalist controlled governments are experiencing increasing conflict with foreign capitalist controlled governments.

According to Strachey, ensuring that production continues during a period of heavy stagnation necessitates the rise of fascism – in which the capitalists themselves organize workers to install governments which enact laws unfavorable to working people.

Where Did the Tea Party Come From?

The Astroturf (fake grassroots) origin of the reactionary Tea Party is an excellent example of corporate elites organizing working people around a right wing political agenda harmful to their own economic interests (for example, that opposes minimum wage increases, extensions of unemployment benefits and regulations enforcing workplace health and safety). I did several blogs in June exploring why blue collar workers are susceptible to this type of psychological manipulation. See my posts on The Mass Psychology of Fascism at http://tinyurl.com/2vftjrh

Paul Krugman explores the origin of the Tea Party in the April 12, 2009 New York Times. He points out that the public was deceived by the media spin that early Tea Party events occurred as were spontaneous popular uprisings. They were actually organized and paid for by Freedom Works, a group organized by former Republican majority leader Richard Armey, with generous support from right wing billionaires. (See http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/13/opinion/13krugman.html).

In The Coming Struggle for Power, Strachey shows how these so-called “populist” mass organizations are used to justify a stricter, more totalitarian government regime that suppresses worker freedoms and dissent (for example, authorizing warrantless searches, covert break-ins, wiretaps and electronic eavesdropping and suppressing habeas corpus and freedom of the press – sound familiar?). In his view fascism is always a transitional state, as right wing popular movements are unpredictable and difficult to manage. He asserts that reactionary forces either use fascism to create totalitarian dictatorships (as occurred in Nazi Germany), or the fascist movement dissolves as economic conditions improve.

What is Fascism?

There is a lot of disagreement over the precise definition of fascism. The Italian fascist dictator Mussolini defined it as a merging of corporate and government power. Strachey defines it as a political environment where workers no longer sell their labor as free agents – but are physically (as opposed to economically) compelled to work.

I’m not totally comfortable with Strachey’s definition. I question whether it’s humanly possible to force someone to work. I’m aware that third world dictators sometimes  “terrorize” people into working by assassinating and disappearing union leaders and workers who complain about wages and working conditions. However, especially in the case of skilled work, it’s virtually impossible to get someone to put out high quality work at satisfactory rate – if he or she is determined not to do so.

In fact I believe innate stubbornness, a nearly universal human trait, may be the root cause of the collapse of the totalitarian Soviet regime. “Free market” capitalism and state capitalism (which Marx and Lenin view as a necessary transition between free market capitalism and true communism) only operate effectively if workers are satisfied that two basic requirements are met: 1) that working will enable them to meet their families’ fundamental needs and 2) that their government might skim a little off the top but will ultimately act in their best interest.

Otherwise people have absolutely no reason to go to turn up everyday to a job they hate that pays them a little less than they need to live on.

In the 1980s the Soviet people lost faith, deciding they were prepared to risk their jobs and live out of garbage cans, rather than continuing to put out for political system that was totally indifferent to their needs and promised no future for themselves and their families. Productivity (quantity and quality of work) dropped to the point the Soviet economy ceased to be sustainable, leading to the collapse of the entire political infrastructure.

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The Most Revolutionary Act on radio:

Gorilla Radio – Chris Cook, Victoria British Columbia

(click on link)

Chris and I discuss how I was first targeted, following my decision to support the occupation (of an abandoned school)  that led to the formation of Seattle’s first African American Heritage Museum – as an alternative to the crack cocaine epidemic among the city’s African American teenagers. We also talk about my research into HIV AIDS, my hospitalization and the Veterans Administration psychologist I worked with who also helped GIs illegally stationed in Cambodia in the sixties and seventies (and terrorized into keeping quiet about it).

XZone Interview with Rob McConnell begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting

(click on link  – show is syndicated – fast forward the music to hear interview)

Rob and I discuss the phone harassment, break-ins, attempts to run me down – and my psychiatric hospitalization. We also talk about the political activities that seemed to lead the government to target me – including my research into HIV AIDS – and my inability to get help from the Seattle police. Then we cover the whole area of conspiracies in general, which are more accurately called State Crimes Against Democracy (SCADS).

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