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From The Militant, Vol. VI No. 34, 8 July 1933, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The dictatorial power embodied within the Industrial Control Bill which is now a law has been called by many, including the Stalinists, a Fascist measure. The Stalinists are well known to mislabel everything they take hold of. In Germany the Stalinists called the Bruening government, the Von Papen government, the Von Schleicher government – Fascist dictatorships. And thereby, they helped to disarm the German workers when real Fascism did arrive.
The Industrial Control Bill is not a Fascist measure. Every capitalist government is a dictatorship and just because transitional steps from the democratic form to the dictatorial form are taking place as a reflection of the further concentration and centralization of capital, that in itself is no proof of Fascism or of steps toward Fascism. The concentration and centralization of capital carries with it the centralization of government. Dictatorial measures are only one of the features of Fascism. The common features between the Industrial Control Law and some of the measures of Italian Fascism lie in the fact that both contain forms of state capitalism. These common features can also be compared to some of the measures in Germany after 1918 when the social democracy introduced State capitalist forms.
As long as there is no serious working class pressure, as long as the working class of America do not threaten the capitalist rule, there will he no danger of governmental and state changes to Fascism. The Stalinist talk about the Hoover commission’s Fascist measures and the Fascist measures of today will only disarm the workers to the real danger confronting the working class. We cannot replace the Marxian analysis of the Industrial Control Bill or any other capitalist measure by giving these measures high sounding names. In America the real Fascist danger, if one wants to talk about it at present, lies outside of the governmental structure and in the embryonic Fascist organizations. They will grow with the increased pressure of the working class against capitalism, unless the Communists know how to oppose them effectively.
The best help that Stalinism could render capitalism at this stage is to continue mislabeling as social Fascism and Fascism movements for which they have no understanding and as a substitute for a Marxian analysis.
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Last updated: 24 October 2015