FASCISM AND SOCIAL REVOLUTION - CHAPTER XII

WHAT is the future of Fascism? What is the future of the fight against Fascism? Fascism is a historical phenomenon, arising in a concrete historical situation. It is useless to discuss abstractly as in a schoolroom alternative social forms of "Fascism," "Democracy," "Dictatorship," etc., without regard to the actual situation and general line of capitalism in the present period. Fascism is the outcome of modern capitalism in crisis, of capitalism passing into the period of the proletarian revolution, when it can no longer maintain its power by the old means, but is compelled to resort to ever more violent methods for the suppression of all working-class Organisation, and also for the attempted authoritarian economic unification and Organisation of its own anarchy, in a last desperate effort to maintain its existence and master the contradictions that are rending it. More specifically, Fascism is the consequence of the delay of the proletarian revolution in Western and Central Europe in the post-war period, when the whole objective situation calls for the proletarian revolution as the only final solution and ever more visibly raises the issue of the struggle for power, but when the working-class movement is not yet strong enough and ready owing to being disorganised and paralysed by reformism, and thus lets the initiative pass to capitalism. "Fascism," as Klara Zetkin declared in 1923, "is the punishment of the proletariat for failing to carry on the revolution begun in Russia." Fascism is the abortion consequent on a miscarriage of the proletarian revolution. But Fascism cannot solve the contradictions or prevent the collapse of capitalism. On the contrary, Fascism carries the contradictions, both within the capitalist world, and between the two worlds since 1917, the capitalist world and the socialist world, to the highest point; Fascism brings an extreme intensification of the class struggle and of the process of revolutionisation.

THE DIALECTICS OF FASCISM AND REVOLUTION 291

Fascist tendencies are not peculiar to the countries of completed Fascist dictatorship, to Germany, Austria and Italy, or to Poland, Hungary, etc. Fascist tendencies are common in greater or less degree to all modern capitalism, including Western Europe and America, wherever the process of decay and the advance of the class struggle have reached a certain point, and advance in proportion as working-class resistance is paralysed or weakened by reformism. I. The Dialectics of Fascism and Revolution. The victory of Fascism in Central Europe, and the advance of Fascist tendencies in Western Europe and America, in 1933-4, represents the highest point yet reached by the Counter- Revolution since the war. But this victory of the Counter- Revolution does not represent the growing strength of capitalism. On the contrary, it is the direct result of the extreme aggravation of the world crisis and of the instability of capitalism, of the shattering of Versailles and all the peace settlements, of the growth of social contradictions and mass discontent, bursting all peaceful and legal forms: that is to say, of the very advance of all the forces which finally make for the victory of the proletarian revolution, since the proletarian revolution alone can solve these contradictions, which Fascism can only intensify. Capitalism can no longer maintain its power by the old means. The crisis is driving the whole political situation at an accelerating pace. All social and international contradictions are brought to a new and greater sharpness by the successive developments of the crisis of capitalism. All strata of the population are affected by the crisis. The bourgeois regime is driven to ever more desperate expedients to prolong for a while longer its lease of life. For the decade and a half since the war the bourgeoisie has maintained its power mainly on the basis of Social Democracy as the governing instrument to hold in the workers and prevent the working-class revolution. In return for disciplining the workers and preaching myths about "democracy" and the "peaceful path to Socialism," Social Democracy has been given ministerial posts, patronage and pickings. This process of being drawn into the capitalist machine has been held up to the workers as evidence of the gradual, peaceful conquest of power" by the working class. How much this "power" was worth, when it came to the test, or rather, where the real power lay, has been abundantly shown by the event in Germany, Austria and elsewhere. But this system, or particular mechanism of capitalist rule in the post-war crisis, is not eternal-as the Labour leaders, on the flood-tide of Mondism and successive Labour Governments, have fondly hoped. The crisis drives to sharper political issues, to intensified class struggle, to the need of new forms of capitalist rule, to rapid and desperate emergency measures. The basis of widening social reforms and concessions, hastily granted in the post-war period to stave off revolution, and constituting the mechanism of Social Democratic influence and ascendancy in the working class in the Western Imperialist countries, breaks down under the strain of the economic crisis, and gives place to the withdrawal and cutting down of social reforms and increasing attacks upon the workers. With this process a new alignment of political forces develops. On the one hand, the hold of Social Democracy upon the workers begins to weaken, as shown in its declining numbers, its increasing use of Social Fascist disciplinary measures and violence, and in the growth of Communist influence. In the face of this growing revolutionisation of the workers, the bourgeoisie hastens to act, while there is yet time, before Communism has yet won its visibly approaching majority position in the working class, while the disorganisation of the workers by Social Democracy can still prevent successful resistance, and brings into play the dangerous hazard of Fascism to smash the advance of the working class. On the other hand, the working class, tied to capitalism by the reformist leadership inherited from the preceding period, is paralysed from being able to play its decisive role as political leader in the developing crisis and draw all the discontented strata of the population under its leadership for the overthrow of capitalism. On the contrary, since there is no standing still, the exact reverse process takes place in the early stages. As the crisis develops, the working class under reformist leadership appears to grow, not stronger, but weaker. The policy of coalition with capitalism has steadily demoralised and sapped the strength of the old working-class organisations, brought membership lower and lower every year to the lowest point since the war, and destroyed the confidence of the workers in their Organisation and leadership. The class struggle goes forward, but in disorganised forms , since the new fighting leadership has not yet won the majority of the working class, and has to fight simultaneously the forces of capitalism and the throttling stranglehold of the reformist machine. In consequence, the working-class forces are weakened and divided at the very moment of the heaviest capitalist attack, not because of the militant workers who remain true to the class struggle, but because of the alliance of the reformist machine with capitalism.

 This weakening of the workers' forces in the face of the Fascist attack is the price of the path of bourgeois "democracy," of Social Democracy. At the same time as the organised working-class forces are thus temporarily weakened, the way is opened for alternative forces, which could otherwise play only a subordinate part, to come to the front. The mixed intermediate strata or so-called middle classes, who can play no independent political role, but can only act in practice as the ally of either the working class or capital, come to the front, in proportion as the active role of the working class is weakened. They are sharply affected by the crisis and by all the operations of finance-capital. Their lower strata are the natural ally of the working class in the war on finance-capital. But they see from their point of view the modern parliamentary state as a coalition of Big Capital ("international financiers") and Labour bosses, with themselves left out, and feel themselves squeezed by ever-increasing taxation for the benefit of big business and the system of social services to the workers, that is, the system of social reformism. Nor can the reformist Labour propaganda, which dare not touch the roots of finance-capital, expose to them the real reasons of their plight, or give them the revolutionary lead for which they are groping, to mobilise them against their real enemy. Thus they become easy prey for the demagogic propaganda of finance-capital to give them a sham "revolutionary" lead, exploiting to the full the weaknesses and corruption of Labourism or Social Democracy, and organise them as a counter- force against the working class, in contradiction to their own interests. Capital is able for the first time to organise, no longer a mere mercenary army for its support, but a mass movement, built on disgust with Reformism, built out of those intermediate strata and unstable, discontented, disillusioned, working-class elements, against the organised working class. From the ruins and discredit of Reformism Fascism springs. The old liberal parliamentary-democratic method of maintaining bourgeois rule on a basis of social reforms increasingly breaks down before the realities of the crisis and the sharpening of the class struggle. On all sides the bankruptcy of the old social, economic and political system becomes recognised, and the demand for a complete change of the social system replaces the old cry for reforms. Capitalism has to meet this new situation in which its whole regime begins to be questioned and denounced, no longer only by the few, but by the overwhelming majority of the population, and the call for "socialism" and "revolution" sounds on all sides. An extreme example of this process is revealed in Germany on the eve of Fascism, where in the elections of the summer of 1932 no less than 74 per cent. of the voters gave their votes for parties proclaiming the aim of "socialism," and all the parties which declared their support of capitalism could not win more than a quarter of the electors. In this situation capitalism is only able to save its power for one further lease by the final desperate expedient of staging a sham "revolution" with the nominal aim of "socialism," but in fact designed to maintain its power-the "National Socialist Revolution" or Fascism. The poison, from the point of view of capitalism, of the "revolutionary" and "socialist" propaganda which can to-day alone win a mass hearing, is skilfully rendered harmless by the antidote of the "national" idea. Thus the final mask of this ultimate masquerade of capitalism staging a "socialist" "revolution" to maintain its power becomes the old "national" label. What is the significance of this ? Does it mean that the "national" appeal is in fact stronger to the masses than the socialist? Not at all. The Nationalist Party in Germany, on the basis of the pure "national" appeal, could only win two million votes, where, by the skilful addition of "socialism," the "National Socialist" Party could win thirteen millions. But the "national" label becomes the final device for distorting and defeating the meaning of socialism, when the defence of capitalism can no longer be openly proclaimed. The whole drive of the present situation, as all are increasingly compelled to recognise, is towards the necessity and inevitability of collective social organisation, that is, towards socialism. The "national" principle, on the other hand, represents in reality the rule of a given capitalist grouping, in opposition to other capitalist groupings. But the "national" principle is falsely presented to appear as the expression of the collective, social principle against private egoism, individualism, capitalism. In this way the historical movement towards collective social organisation, when it becomes too strong to be any longer directly resisted, is attempted to be distorted from its common, human basis into an exclusive group-assertive basis, which becomes in fact the cover for the maintenance of the rule of the capital class. This is the significance of "National Socialism" or Fascism. But what is the historical outcome of this process? The advance to Fascism as the final defence means the destruction of legality, not by the revolutionaries, but by the bourgeoisie, and the laying bare to all of the class struggle as a direct conflict of force. In order to hold off the revolution, the bourgeoisie is compelled to play at revolution, and to seek to "outbid the revolution." They are compelled to preach to the masses contempt for peace and legality, which were formerly their best protection. To prevent the working-class revolution, they are compelled to stage their masquerade revolution, and even to dub it a "socialist revolution." The junkers, barons and industrial magnates, in order to maintain their power, are compelled to place themselves at the head of bandit hordes with cries of "Down with Interest-Capital!" "Down with Unearned Income!" "Nationalisation of the Trusts!" "Nationalisation of the Banks!" "Socialisation of all enterprises ripe for socialisation!" etc. The modern Black Hundreds have to proclaim themselves "socialists" and enemies of "capitalism" in order to win a hearing and save capitalism. Such is the measure of the strength of capitalism revealed in the temporary victory of the Fascist Counter-Revolution. It is manifest that we have here not a strengthening, but in reality and in the final outcome, an extreme weakening of capitalism. The further examination of the development of the fight against Fascism will reveal the inevitable final working out of the dialectics of this process.

2. The Fight Against Fascism. What, then, of the future of the fight against Fascism? Fascism, it is evident from the above analysis, develops out of the decay of bourgeois democracy and reformism in the conditions of the capitalist crisis. Indeed, Fascism develops in the first place in and through the forms of bourgeois democracy, step by step strengthening the state coercive apparatus and emergency powers and restricting the rights of the workers, in proportion as the workers' resistance is paralysed by reformism and trust in constitutionalism; and only when the ground has been thus fully prepared within the shell of "democracy," and the workers' forces disorganised to the maximum, only then the final blow is struck and the complete and open Fascist dictatorship is established. Germany and Austria are the outstanding examples of this process, where all the preliminary stages for the victory of Fascism were carried through by a Bruning or a Dollfuss in the name of the defence of "the constitution" and with the support of the Social Democratic leadership on this basis. In consequence, the fight against Fascism cannot be conducted on the basis of trusting to bourgeois "democracy" as the defence against Fascism. To do this means to invite and to guarantee the victory of Fascism. The fight against Fascism can only be conducted on the basis of the united class fight of the workers (leading all the exploited strata) against all the attacks of finance- capital, whether these attacks are conducted through nominal "democratic" forms or through open Fascist forms. The stronger the fight of the workers in the early stages, within the still nominally maintained "democratic" forms, the less easy becomes the advance of the bourgeoisie to the further stages, to the open Fascist forms. Hence the importance of the united working-class front. The strength of the working-class fight is also decisive for winning the wavering petit- bourgeois sections. The bourgeois democrats and reformists argue that Fascism is the consequence of Communism. "The fear of the dictatorship of the working class has evoked the iron dictatorship of Capitalism and Nationalism. Reaction on the 'Right' has bred reaction on the 'Left.' Reaction of the 'Left' is displaced by triumphant reaction of the 'Right' " (Labour Manifesto on "Democracy versus Dictatorship," March 1933). From

this they draw the conclusion, expressed in many Labour speeches: "To defeat Fascism, root out Communism." This line is expressed in the abstract slogan "Democracy versus Dictatorship," presented without reference to class-relations: that is, in practice, defence of the existing capitalist state (with its increasing Fascist tendencies) against the working-class revolution, under cover of the plea of defence against the Fascist danger. This line of the Labour Party is also the line of the big bourgeoisie in its present propaganda. Thus the Conservative leader, Baldwin, declared in a speech at Glasgow on June 24, 1932. In Europe you find these Communistic methods were tried in Italy. What was the result? Something very near civil war, when the Right beat the Left, and you got a dictatorship, not of the Left, but of the Right. . . . I say that a dictatorship of no kind will we have in this country, either of the Right or of the Left, at any time. What is important here is not the glaring travesty of the actual facts: namely, that in Italy the Communists were in a minority, that the Reformist Socialists in Italy were defeated, not because they adopted Communist methods, but because they specifically refused to adopt Communist methods, because they refused to seize power in 1920 when by the admission of all it was theirs !or the taking, because they clung to passive parliamentary and industrial strike tactics, and therefore Fascism conquered; and that, finally, the only country where the working class has adopted Communist methods, the Soviet Union, is the only country where Fascism has not been able to show its face. All this has been long demonstrated by history; and the Conservative-plus- Labour propagandists are only hoping to play on the ignorance of their hearers when they thus endeavour to conceal the real facts. But what is here important is the exact unity, even to a literal identity of phrasing, revealed between the line of the Labour Party and the line of the Conservative Party, that is, of the ruling party of the bourgeoisie. This identity should already awaken the alertness of any workingclass supporter of the Labour Party to the fact that the line here expressed represents no defence of working-class interests or real fight against Fascism. The whole dialectics of revolution and counter-revolution, of vital importance for the understanding of the present period,

lies concealed and distorted behind this treatment. The conception of Communism as the cause of Fascism is as shallow in understanding of the real working of social forces as it is illusory in fact. The growth of the working-class revolution (Communism), and the growth of violent capitalist repression, are in reality both equally the consequence and outcome and expression of the growing crisis and break-up of capitalism. They develop as parallel parts of the single process of the gathering revolutionary crisis. To find in one symptom the cause of the other symptom is worthy of the shallowest quack. In fact the example of Austria, where the Communist Party was still very weak and where Social Democracy boasted of the completeness of its control of the working class, has shown how little the bourgeoisie has need of the pretext of Communism to advance to the Fascist dictatorship. "Before the war," declared Lenin (speech to the All-Russian Conference of the Bolshevik Party in May 19 17), "England was the freest country in the world. There was freedom in England because there was no revolutionary movement there." Does this mean that the masses in pre-war England were fortunate because they bad no revolutionary movement? On the contrary. The formal "freedom" was only the mirror, the counterpart, of the real subjection. The "freedom" was conditional on the masses accepting passively their servitude and looking only for the crumbs of reforms. But so soon as the workers begin to stir against their servitude and to fight consciously for their liberation, the "freedom" rapidly disappears and gives place to the whip. And that is the meaning of Fascism. Fascism marks the extreme intensification of the capitalist dictatorship and offensive against the working class; but it marks thereby at the same time the growth of capitalist contradictions and the growth of the revolutionary awakening of the working class. If to-day in England and the other Western countries the traditional "freedoms" are being steadily eaten into and cut down, if police expenditure is trebled since the war and the police are being centralised and militarised, if freedom of agitation and assembly and demonstration is being more and more cut away, if the trade union machine on top is absorbed into unity with capitalism and the State, and the price of criticism of Labour leaders is assessed at seven thousand pounds

by the capitalist courts, all this is only a measure of the awakening of the working class. The awakening of the working class pricks the myth of "freedom" and lays bare the lash of the despot. The degree of violence, the degree of coercion and restriction of rights, the variation of methods between open complete Fascism and partial developing forms of Fascism beneath a decaying "democratic" cover, corresponds to the degree of development of the working class and of the relations of the class struggle. When the British and French labour leaders boast of the supposed immunity of their countries from Fascism (actually, slower development of Fascism), they are only paying tribute to the backwardness of their own movements. But this backwardness is rapidly disappearing. Does this mean that, so long as the forms of bourgeois democracy remain, bourgeois democracy provides the best defence of the workers against Fascism? On the contrary. The workers fight, and need to fight, tenaciously for every democratic right of organisation and of agitation within the existing regime; but they cannot afford for one moment to be blind to the fact that bourgeois democracy is only a cover for the capitalist dictatorship, and that within its forms the advance to Fascism is steadily pushed forward. Bourgeois democracy breeds Fascism. Fascism grows organically out of bourgeois democracy. At what point did Dollfuss, "champion of democracy in Europe," become Dollfuss, champion of Fascism? The process developed through such a series of stages that up to the very last Social Democracy was offering alliance to Dollfuss to "save the constitution," at the same time as Dollfuss was proclaiming the complete principles of Fascism and preparing to turn his guns upon the workers. The more the workers place their trust in legalism, in constitutionalism, in bourgeois democracy, the more they make sacrifices to save the existing regime as the "lesser evil" against the menace of Fascism, the heavier become the capitalist attacks and the more rapid the advance to Fascism. To preach confidence in legalism, in constitutionalism, in bourgeois democracy, that is, in the capitalist state, means to invite and to guarantee the victory of Fascism. That is the lesson of Germany and of Austria. And this is the reality which blows to smithereens the deceitful and disastrous slogan of "Democracy versus Dictatorship."

Yet in face of the deadly lessons of Germany and of Austria the British Labour Party leadership and Social Democracy in Western Europe are to-day repeating to the last detail the fatal line of German Social Democracy. All that German Social Democracy and the German trade unions preached and practised, the British Labour Party and the British trade unions are preaching and practising to-day. How then can they expect the same policy to lead to a different outcome? They preach up and down the country in favour of democracy and constitutionalism and legality. So did German Social Democracy. They denounce Communism; they refuse the united front; they expel all militant workers; they set up a network of discipline to maintain the safety of their organisations for capitalism. So did German Social Democracy. They are faithful pillars of capitalism and of imperialism. So was German Social Democracy. They are treading the same road. Only the action of the workers, learning the lessons in time, refusing to follow their teaching, breaking their bans and building up the common front against capitalism, can change the outcome. What have they to offer the workers if their policy leads to the same outcome as confronted German Social Democracy? Nothing. What is their answer? They have no answer. Citrine, leader of British trade unionism, speaking of the Trades Union Congress in September 1933, on the situation that confronted German Social Democracy, could only say: "I hope to God we are never put into a similar position. I hope we never have to face that position." And again, with regard to the growth of mass unemployment as the visible "common factor" both in Britain and in Germany. If that gets worse, I cannot answer for the consequences. "Hope to God." "Cannot answer." Such is the final lead of British Labourism in the face of Fascism. Of one thing only Citrine is sure. It is impossible to fight. If it comes to a fight, the workers will be beaten. If we go in for the method of force, we shall be badly beaten. And again: If we try to organise by force of arms, we shall be beaten. "We shall be beaten." "We shall be badly beaten." Such is the litany of defeat before the battle, by which the reformist leaders seek to drill into the workers the sense of their own  impotence. This is the open invitation to capitalism to launch the attack on the workers' organisations; the workers are defenceless and cannot resist; Social Democracy, as the Chairman of the Trades Union Congress declared on the same occasion, is "peaceful, law-abiding, and shrinks from fratricidal conflict," and therefore is inevitably, as he finds, at the mercy of its bloodthirsty enemies: One of the tragic lessons of events in Germany was that the enemies of democracy were willing to shed blood to destroy liberty, and did not shrink from murder, arson and lawless action; but Social Democracy was peaceful, law-abiding, and shrank from fratricidal strife. The very heart of reformism is here laid bare. Capitalism is all- powerful. The workers are powerless against it. The workers must only hope to get what capitalism permits them through the legal forms capitalism permits. Let us cling to what capitalism may grant us through the forms of "democracy" (which were in fact only won by violent struggle) and "hope to God" that, if we are docile, capitalism may not strike us further. Such is the voice of the beaten, trembling slave, which expresses itself as the philosophy of reformism. Does, then, the advance of Fascism mean the end of all things, that there is no hope for the working-class movement, that there is no hope for the victory of socialism? On the contrary. The poet, William Morris, in his imaginative picture already quoted of the path of the socialist revolution in England (in the chapter "How the Change Came," of News from Nowhere), describes how the Government proclaimed martial law and appointed a well-known general who with modern artillery carried through a terrible massacre of thousands of unarmed workers. The following dialogue then ensues between the narrator and his informant, old Hammond: I wondered that he should have got so elated about a mere massacre, and I said: "How fearful! And I suppose that this massacre put an end to the whole revolution for that time?" "No, no," cried old Hammond, "it began it.... That massacre began the civil war." "It began the civil war." It destroyed the myths and illusions of legality and passive slavery, and laid bare the civil war which, once began, could only finally end with the victory of the masses. And that above all is the significance of Fascism. The old poet is a hundred times right against the trembling modern reformists, who solemnly declare that modern artillery and technique have made revolution impossible. Once the myths and illusions of legality and pacifism have fallen, once the united mass of the workers enter into the struggle, with the scales fallen from their eyes, there is no question of the ultimate outcome. The exploiters know this well; hence their anxiety to build up the final rampart of a national-fascist ideology of deception in the masses, alongside the direct violence and coercion; and hence also the importance, on the workers' side, of carrying through the ideological-political fight of exposure against Fascism alongside the direct preparation of the mass struggle and final armed struggle. The example of Austria has shown how much even a courageous minority of the workers, shackled and held back at every point by their reformist leaders, when all the previous favourable opportunities had been squandered and the enemy had been allowed to entrench himself over the whole field before the struggle began, when the great part of the mass organisations of the workers were directly held back from the struggle by their chiefs, could nevertheless accomplish to shake and bring to a critical position the whole Fascist regime and awaken an answering spirit of struggle throughout the whole world. The bands of hundreds of Schutzbundler who fought their way to freedom across the frontier, are reported to have cried out as they reached the other side: "Long live the Soviet Union!" and some "Long live the Communist International!" Their lesson was learned. How much more will the final outcome of the struggle be certain, when the whole working class will fight as a united force under revolutionary leadership, when Fascism will be weakened and disorganised by its own internal contradictions and by the fiasco of its regime and of its promises, and when disillusionment and discontent and rising sympathy with their fighting working-class brothers will spread through the lower Fascist ranks. Tsarism also fell despite all its machinery of repression. Far more certainly and rapidly will the card- castles of the modern Fascist dictatorships fall, when the time comes. The laying bare of the civil war at the root of class-society, the explosion of all the illusions of peace and legality-that is, above all, the historical role of Fascism. Fascism attempts to organise society on the basis of permanent civil war, no longer merely with the old state forces, police and military, of repression, but with permanent special armed legions of class-war to hold down the workers. That fact is the most complete expression of the final bankruptcy of capitalism and of the certainty of its collapse. The eyes of all are being opened to the realities of class society and to the real character of the war confronting the working class. The necessity of the workers' dictatorship as the sole means to crush the counter-revolution is becoming understood. The crisis within the post-war Second International since Fascism in Germany is only the expression of this process. As we enter more and more directly into a period of revolutionary conditions, when the working-class movement can only be carried forward by revolutionary methods and under illegal conditions or go under, the will-o'-the-wisp lights of so-called "democratic socialism," that is, of "socialism by permission of the bourgeoisie," inevitably go into eclipse and leave the workers in the bog; only the clear light of revolutionary socialism burns stronger than ever and shows the path forward. The issue becomes more and more clearly no longer even in appearance a question of two tendencies, of two paths for the working-class struggle; in the sight of all, the Communist International alone leads the working-class struggle. In this situation even the Second International is compelled hypocritically to recognise the necessity of "revolutionary" methods and the "error" of its past policies. German Social Democracy in its latest Executive Manifesto of January 1934, proclaims the "error" of its path in 1918: The political transformation of 1918 ended up in a counter- revolutionary development. . . . The Social Democratic Party . . . took over control of the State without opposition, sharing it as a matter of course with the bourgeois parties, the old bureaucracy and even with the reorganised military forces. That it should have taken over the old machinery of government virtually unchanged was the great historical error committed by a German Labour Movement which had lost its sense of direction during the war. ("The Battle of Revolutionary Socialism and its Objective": Manifesto of the Executive of the German Social Democratic Party, published in the Karlsbad Neuer Vorwarts, January 28, 1934.)

"The great historical error." Fifteen years ago the centre of controversy of the Second and Third Internationals, expressed in the controversy of Kautsky and Lenin, turned precisely on this point, when Lenin, with Marx, declared that it was necessary for the workers' revolution, not to take over, but to smash the existing capitalist state machine and establish its own dictatorship instead, and the Second International denied this. Now fifteen years too late, after the harm is done, after the German working class is reduced to the uttermost limit of subjection by their methods, the Second International blandly proclaims that its policy was an "error"-and then proceeds again in fact to recommend the path of bourgeois democracy, "the new Organisation of the State on the basis of freedom by the convening of a National Assembly elected by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage." Once again, despite all the attempts to make a show of a great "change of heart," this is in reality the old Weimar path. But the German workers have had their experience of the Weimar path and its outcome and have no intention to repeat it. Similarly, the Second International in its Paris Resolution of August 1933, on "The Strategy and Tactics of the International Labour Movement during the Period of Fascist Reaction," admits the necessity of "revolutionary struggle" after Fascism: Where the bourgeoisie has renounced democracy in order to throw itself into the arms of Fascism and has deprived the working class of the democratic means of struggle, the only means of emancipation left is that of the revolutionary struggle. . . . In the countries in which Fascism has prevailed, the dictatorship can only be overthrown by a revolution of the people. When they have gained their victory over Fascism, the revolutionary forces will not confine themselves to breaking its power; they will destroy the great capitalist and landowning forces which are its economic foundation. By this declaration the whole line of the 1918 Revolution, of Weimar democracy, is implicitly condemned. In the controversy of those days between Kautsky and Lenin, between the line that the revolutionary working class in the moment of victorious overthrow of the old regime must confine itself to setting up "pure" democracy and then await a majority in the Constituent Assembly or Parliament before proceeding further, and the line that the revolutionary working class in the moment of victory must at once use its power, without waiting for parliamentary majorities, to overthrow capitalism, the Second International is now compelled, fifteen years late, in a half -hidden unclear fashion, to admit that Lenin was right. The revolutionary working class, it is now declared, in the moment of overthrow of the old regime must at once, without waiting for Constituent Assemblies or parliamentary majorities, proceed to "destroy the great capitalist and landowning forces." Excellent. If this were seriously meant, it would mean the workers' dictatorship. But in fact this phrasethrown in as a sop because in relation to Germany to-day it would be impossible openly to advocate the return to the completely exposed Weimar democracy-is used as a fine-sounding phrase without any attempt to face what it practically involves, and is made completely meaningless by the rest of the resolution. Further-notable precaution-it is to be applied only to countries where Fascism has already conquered. What, therefore, does this line mean in practice? First, the working class must let itself be bull-dozed by Democracy, paralysed and divided by reformism, smashed and butchered by Fascism. Then, when their forces have been thus heavily broken up and weakened, when Fascism has completely organised and established without resistance its apparatus of armed pretorian guards over the disarmed workers, then the workers are graciously permitted by the Second International to carry through the socialist revolution (though if there were the slightest signs appearing of their succeeding in this, these gentlemen, as the Karlsbad Manifesto of German Social Democracy has made clear, would be the first to hurry forward to wave again the banner of "pure democracy" and thus endeavour again to save the bourgeoisie as in 1918). But where "democracy" still exists, the workers must still tread the fatal path of "pure democracy," abstaining from any revolutionary initiative, until Fascism has conquered them. Such are the final confusions and contortions of the leadership of the Second International in the present epoch. It is abundantly clear that Social Democracy by this line is in fact only disorganising the working-class fight against Fascism, and thus in practice still fulfils its role, also in the countries of open Fascist dictatorship, of the support of the bourgeoisie in the working class. Against this line the revolutionary working class line of communism declares: The workers' dictatorship is the only alternative to the capitalist dictatorship, which at present is increasingly passing from the older "democratic" to Fascist forms. The workers' dictatorship is the only guarantee against the victory of Fascism, against the victory of the capitalist counter-revolution and the unlimited subjection of the working class. The path of bourgeois democracy ends in Fascism. The battle for the workers' dictatorship must be fought, not merely after Fascism, but before Fascism, as the sole means to prevent Fascism. Social Democracy says: First Fascism, then Revolution. But Communism says: Revolution before Fascism, and preventing Fascism. Fascism is not inevitable. Fascism only becomes inevitable if the working class follows the line of reformism, of trust in the capitalist state, of refusal of the united front, and thus lets itself be struck down by the class enemy. But if the working class follows the line of the united front, of the rising mass struggle, of the building of its Communist Party and fighting mass Organisation to the final victory of the revolution and establishment of the workers' dictatorship, then the working class can defeat and crush Fascism and pass straight to the socialist order with no costly and shameful Fascist interlude. This is the path to defeat Fascism. Equally in those countries where the Fascist dictatorship has won the temporary upper hand, the only path forward and object of the workers' struggle requires to be, no longer the restoration of the old illusory "democracy" which only prepared the way for Fascism, but the workers' dictatorship and the establishment of the Soviet regime. The German workingClass revolution is not defeated, despite the temporary retreat of 1933 made inevitable by the whole role of Social Democracy. On the contrary, Germany is nearer to the final victory of the proletarian revolution than any country in the capitalist world. The fact that the German workers are going through the extremest hell of Fascism is the reflection of the fact, not that their movement is more backward, but that it is relatively more advanced and closer to the revolution. The liberals and reformists see only the surface completeness of the Fascist victory. They can never understand the dialectical process. They see the immediate victory of Fascism. But they do not see the negative side. They do not see the disintegration of all capitalist stability that that represents. They do

not see that the very ferocity of the capitalist attack is the measure of the growing revolutionary advance. They do not see the significance of the crushing exposure of the line of reformism and laying bare of the real battle. They do not see that the Communist Party of Germany-with unbroken ranks and organisation, and over one hundred thousand members active under the most extreme terror, a record without parallel in working-class history-is in reality stronger than it has ever been, closer to the winning of the unquestioned leadership of the majority of the working class, closer to the victory of the proletarian revolution. The mournful pessimists and fainthearts who see a long period of Fascist dictatorship and unshaken reaction in front do not understand the whole character of the present period of the destruction of capitalist stability, a period in which rapid changes throughout the world and gigantic revolutionary struggles are before us. The bourgeoisie dream through Fascism to exterminate Marxism, that is, to exterminate the independent workingclass movement and the fight for Socialism. The attempt is not a new one. A hundred years ago "all the Powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise the spectre of Communism: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies." The collapse of 1848 was heralded as the collapse of Socialism. In the decade after the Commune, on the basis of thirty thousand corpses, Thiers boasted that "we have heard the last of Socialism." In the following decade Bismarck set himself to stamp out Marxism in Germany with all the power of the most highly organised Prussian police and bureaucratic system, and after twelve years had to recognise that he had met his master. Down the long gallery of the years the ghosts of the past, Cavaignac and Gallifet, Thiers and Bismarck, Pobiedonostsev and Stolypin, Kornilov and Kolchak, the hangmen and butchers and jailers of bourgeois rule, may welcome with a spectral sneer the new accessions to their ranks, Hitler and Goering and Goebbels, taking their place alongside Horthy and Tsankov and Dyer and Chiang Kai-shek. But the older attempts were against a still early and newly rising movement. To-day the attempt is against a powerful and developed movement on the eve of power. That it will fail like every previous attempt and end in ignominious collapse requires no demonstration. whatever, in whatever shape, and under whatever conditions the class struggle obtains any consistency, it is but natural that members of our Association should stand in the foreground. The soil out of which it grows is modern society itself. It cannot be stamped out by any amount of carnage. To stamp it out, the Government would have to stamp out the despotism of capital over labour-the condition of their own parasitical existence. (Marx, Civil War in France.)

What is in question now is not the inevitable future collapse of Fascism. What matters now is the speed with which the international working class can gather its forces and drive back this offensive, before it has developed further, before it has developed to the point of world war and the direct attack on the Soviet Union, can prevent the enormous losses and sacrifices which a prolongation of this struggle will mean, and can rapidly transform the present situation into the revolutionary offensive. The issues which are confronting the world at the present moment are heavy issues. Fascism in Germany lays bare to all where capitalist civilisation is inevitably developing, if the workers' revolution is delayed. Germany is not a backward country. Germany is the most advanced, highly organised capitalist country in the world, the last word, which shows to other countries the picture of their future development. What is that picture of the future of capitalism thus revealed? Barbarism and the return of the Dark Ages; the systematic destruction of all science and culture; the enthronement of Catholic Christian, and even pre-Christian, obscurantism, racial persecution and torture systems; the return to a system of isolated, self-sufficient warring communities. This is the final working out of the most advanced capitalism, with the Pope conferring his blessing upon it and decorating the murderer Goering with his Gold Medal of the Holy Year. Marx and Engels long ago pointed out the inevitable working out of capitalism in barbarism and decay, if the working-class revolution should fail to conquer in time. Stage by stage, through imperialism and its world orgies of brutality and destruction, through the slaughter of the world war, and to-day through Fascism, we are tasting the first beginnings of this alternative.

THE FIGHT AGAINST FASCISM 309

It is time to end this chapter of human history, before we have to tread this path still further, and to open the new one throughout the world which has already begun over one-sixth of the world. Only the working-class revolution can save humanity, can carry humanity forward, can organise the enormous powers of production that lie ready to hand. The working-class movement in the first period after the war was not yet ready outside Russia for its world historic task. The organised working-class movement was still soaked with reformist and pacifist illusions, with opportunism and corruption in its upper strata. Fascism is not only the punishment of history for this weakness; Fascism is the weapon of history for purging and burning out this weakness. In the fires of Fascist !error and of the fight against Fascism the revolutionary working class is drawing close its ranks, steeled and hardened and clear-seeing, for the final struggle; and the revolutionary working class, thus steeled and strengthened, will rise to the height of its task, and win and save the world. Whatever the black hells of suffering and destruction that have still to be passed through, we face the future with the certainty and confidence of approaching power, with contempt for the barbarous antics of the doomed and decaying parasiteclass enemy and its final misshapen progeny of Fascism, with singing hearts and glowing confidence in the future. "The last fight let us face. The Internationale unites the human race."