Table Of ContentMarxists in face of Fascism
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WRITINGS BY MARXISTS ON FASCISM
FROM THE INTER-WAR PERIOD
David Beetham
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Manchester
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University Press
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Published by Manchester UD iversity Press,
Oxford Road, Manchester Ml3 9PL
Introduction, Sdcction, Notes, and(acq,t articles 1, 7, 8, 14, 21, 25-29, 45)
English Translation,
o David Bcctbam 198 3 I
British Lilw11,y Cllllllot,•;,,& ;,, P"'1lit111in Dllla
Bcctbam, David
Marxists in face of fascism.
1. Fascism-History
I. Tide
3 3J '.6'09042 JC48 l
ISBN 0-7190-107 3-X (cased)
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Northern Phototypesetting Co, Bolton
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Abbttviations
page ix
Preface and Admowlcdgcmcnts vw•••
Introduction 1
Chronological Table 64
I Fascism in Italy, 1921-8 82
1 On Fascism, 19 21 ('Italy and Spain', 'Elemental
Forces', 'The Two Fascisms') Antonio Gra111s,i 82
2 Towards a Definition of Fascism (1922) Gio11a,mi
Zibordi 88
3 Rome Theses ( 19 22) A111adlo Bord,ga and U1 11/,,rto
Tmaani 96
4 Capital's Offcnsive(l922) Karl .Radl, 99
z,,,;,,
5 The Struggle against Fascism (1923) Klara 102
6 The Nature and Historical Significance of Fascism
(1923) Gy"la Sas 113
7 Democracy and Fascism (1924) Antonio Gra111sa 121
8 The International Situation and the Struggle
against Fascism (1926) Antonio Gra111sa 124
9 The Contradictions of Fascism in Power (1926)
Pa l111iro Togliatti 12 7
10 The Hegemony of the Working Class in the Anti-
Fascist Struggle (1928) Pal111iro Togliatti 132
11 On the Question of Fascism ( 19 2 8) Pa l111iro Togliatti 136
.
II The Cornrn oist International: From 'Social-Faecim,'
11
Popa,Jar Front 149
to
12 The Victory of Fascism over the November
Republic ( 19 2 3) Gm,,an C-,mmMnist Party 149
13 Resolution on Fascism ( 19 2 4) Fifth W orlJ Congress
of the C a111in1,, n 1 52
14 The Period of Bourgeois-Democratic 'Pacifism'
(1924) Joseph Stalin l 5 3
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vi Contents
15 Theses on the International Situation ( 1929)
Exe&#tive of the C0 111intern 1 5 5
16 On Fascism ( 19 31) D111itrii Man#ils/ti 1 57
17 The Revolutionary Way Out and the KPD ( 19 32 )
Ernst Thalmann 161
18 On the Ger•a•an Situation (1933) Pal111iro To1,lilllli 168
19 Resolution adopted by the National Conference,
July 1934 Frm,h Comm#nist Party 171
20 The Socialist-Comm11nist Pact ( 19 34) Lion Bl"m 17 4
21 The Working Class Against Fascism ( 19 3 5) Georgi
Dimitrov 179
III Communists in Opposition, 19 28-3 7 18 7
2 2 On Fascism ( 19 28 ) A"g,ut Thalhei111er 18 7
2 3 So-called Social-Fascism ( 1929) A"&"'t Thalhei111er l 9 5
m·
24 The Development of Fascism Germany (1930)
A"g"st Thalheimer 197
2 5 Th_e Danger of Fascism in Ge1111a.ny ( 19 30) Leon
Trotslr:, 20 4
26 For a Worker's United Front against Fascism
( 19 31) Leon Trotslr:, 208
27 Lessons of the Italian Experience (1932) Leon
T rotslr:, 211
28 Bonapartism and Fascism (1934) Leon Trots/o 214
29 Against the 'People's Front' (1935) Leon Trots/o 222
30 The Spanish Revolution, The Comm11nist Party
and the Opposition ( 19 3 2) AnJris Nin 2 2 5
31 The Political Situation and Tasks of the Proletariat
(1937) AnJris Nin 229
32 What is Fascism? (1934) Ig,unjo Silone 236
. .
IV Social Democracy and Fascism 24 5
3 3 Force and Demoaacy ( 19 2 7) KArl KA#ls/o 2 4 5
34 Speech to the SPD Conference (1927) R.tUiolf
Hilferding 250
3 5 In the Danger Zone ( 19 30) R.wlolf Hilferding 2 54
36 Between the Decisions (1933) R.tUiolf Hilferding 259
37 No to 'Toleration' ( 19 30) Max S,yd"'1il\ 26 4
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Contents
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38 The Mission of the Socialist Workers' Party
(1932) Max S9dewirt 267
39 Some Causes and Consequences of Ger,11an
National-Socialism ( 19 3 3) KArl KA•tslr:, 270
40 Methods and Aims of the Struggle against Fascism
( 19 3 3) KArl KA•tslr:, 272
41 Revolutionary Socialism ( 19 34) Rwlolf Hilftrding 274
42 Revolutionary Social Dcmoaacy (1934)
Akxllnd,, S,bifrin 276
43 The Only Route to Power (1934) Max S,ydewift 281
44 The Struggle for State Power (Tjnz Programme,
19 26) Social D1111ocrati, W ork_ers Party of A#Stria 283
4 5 Austrian Democracy U ndcr Fire ( 19 34) Otto Ba,m- 284
46 Fascism (1936) Otto Ba•er 294
47 The Unification of Socialism (1936) Otto Baa,r 297
48 The Origins of Fascism (1935) Richard Liwffllbal 301
V The Fascist State, the Economy, and War 309
49 The Proletariat, Fascism, and the Italian
-
... .
...
Economy (1927) Angelo Tasca 309
50 Fascist Italy, Hotbed of War (1927) Pal111iro
TogJiatti 314
51 The Corporations and State Capitalism (1934)
Ig,urrjo Silo,u 319
52 The Fascist State and Monopoly Capitalism
( 19 35 ) Richard Lowmtbal _ 325
5 3 The 'Controlled' Economy (1936) Otto B""" 340
54 Fascism and War (1938) Otto Ba"" 346
Biographical Notes 366
374
Notes and ljst ofs ources
Inda
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Prefa ce and acknowledgements
The large majority of texts included in this vol11m~ have not appeared
in English before, though some of them arc well known to
Continental readers. Where translations already exist, I have used
them, though I have re-translated some pieces where it seemed
appropriate. In order to make the collection as representative as
possible within the space available, I have found it necessary to
exclude passages from many of the sdcctcd texts. On each occasion I
have tried to be as faithful as possible to the D1ain thrust of the writer's
argument. These omissions arc indicated in the text by an appropriate
sign( ...) .
Permission to translate the following items has been kindly given
by the copyright holders: articles 32, 51, by Europa V erlag, Zurich;
48, 52 , by Professor Richard Lowenthal. Grateful acknowledgement
is made for permission to use the following translations: articles 1, 7,
8, English translations c Q,aintin Hoare 197 8, reprinted by
permission of Q11intin Hoare and Lawrence & Wishart; articles
2 5-9, English translations c Pathfinder Press Inc., 19 71, reprinted
by permission.
I am grateful to Christine Phillips for her translations from
Spanish, and to Margaret Atack, Raffaclla Ferrari and Ken Knight
for advice on points of translation from French, Italian and Gcrraaan
respectively. D. E. Devreese and V. Kahan of the International
Institute of Social History, Amsterdam, provided invaluable
biographical information on some of the authors. I am indebted to
Colin Barker, Norman Geras, David Howell, Tim Mason, John
Schwarzmantcl and the late Peter Sedgwick for their comm~ts on an
early draft of the Introduction and on the shape of the collection as a
whole. Responsibility for the finished work is of course my own.
Finally, I should like to express my gratitude to J c-aone Bcllovics for
typing the manuscript and to my family for their forbearance.
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Abbreviations
CNT National Confederation of Labour (Spain)
CPSU Comm11nist Party of the Soviet Union
ECCI
(EKKI) Executive Committee of the Comm11nist
International (C om intern)
KPD Ger,oao Comm11nist Party
KPO Comm11nist Party Opposition (Germany)
NSDAP National Socialist Party
PCE Spanish Comm11nist Party
PCF French Comm11ni§t Party
PCI Italian Comm11nist Party
POUM United Marxist Workers' Party (Spain)
PSI Italian Socialist Party
PSU United Socialist Party (Italy)
SAP Socialist Workers' Party (Germany)
SOAP Social Democratic Workers' Party (Austria)
SPD German Social Democratic Party
USPD Independent German Social Democratic Party
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Introduction
•
The purpose of this collection is to make available a wider range of
Marxist writing on fascism from the inter-war years than has
previously been accessible to readers of English. Over three-quarters
of the material here is translated for the first time. One consequence of
bringing it together under one cover should be to lay finally to rest the
idea that Marxism in this period can be simply equated with Stalinist
orthodoxy. That the latter came to exercise an exclusive dominance
over the Comm11nist parties after 192 8 is not in doubt; nor that its
definitions of fascism as the final stage of monopoly capitalism, and of
Social Democracy as fascism's left wing, contributed to the defeat of
the Ge:r 11,an working class in 19 3 3. Yet the extent of that dominan<:c
and the spectacular character of that defeat have served to obscure the
range and subtlety of analyses of fascism within the Comm11nist
movement before 192 8, and among Comm11oi~ts in opposition
thereafter. Of the latter, only Trotsky's work is fully available in
English, and even that is often treated as an isolated exception. On
the other side of the fence, the rejection by post-194 5 Social
Dcmoaacy of its Marxist past has allowed a rich vein of theoretical
analysis, particularly on the left of the German and Austrian parties,
to r~main buried. Again there arc individual exceptions, such as Otto
Bauer, though much of his work still remains to be translated. The
first purpose of this collection, then, is to recover the variety and
complexity of Marxist· work available from this period. 1
What counts as 'Marxist' is naturally not uncontentious. My
aiterion has been inclusive rather than exclusive: those writers arc
included who self-consciously saw themselves as working within a
Marxist tradition. That is to say, I do not use the term 'Marxist'
prescriptively, to exclude all work which fails to meet some
prcdcter11,incd test of v_~dity, whether of corr~ct socialist strategy or
of properly 'scientific' analysis. To adopt such a criterion not only
forecloses debate on what such a strategy should be; it also distorts
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2 Introduction
the historical record, and reinforces the illusion that the Marxist
method contains some infallible innoculation against error. Perhaps
this point needs no emphasis now that the idea of a single Marxist
orthodoxy has long since been abandoned. Yet such an idea still has
its hold on the history of Marxism, especially in the period of the
Third. International. As the writings here demonstrate, Marxism has
always been pluralistic.
What conclusions emerge from such a collection? First, there is the
necessity of a certain re-evaluation at the level of the history of ideas.
To recognise the existence of a more subtle analysis of fascism before
19 2 8 in certain sections of the Cominte1n, particularly in the PCI
under Gramsci and Togliatti, sets both the Stalinist orthodoxy after
19 2 8 and the criticisms of its opponents in a somewhat different
light. On the one hand, the Comintcin's 'third period' lin~ can be seen
to involve a conscious rejection of a level of undersranding of fascism
already available. On the other hand, the theories of its critics did not
emerge out of thin air, but represented a continuation and
development of an earlier analysis. This continuity was most clearly
embodied in those critics who were expelled from the PCI after 19 28
(e.g. Tasca, Silonc), but is also evident in the writings of Thalheimer
and Trotsky. Some of the typical features of this analysis were then
taken up by Social Demoaats who moved in a revolutionary
direction after 19 3 3, and revised their views of fascism as a result of
their defeat. This connection is missed by the conventional
historiography which treats the history of the Cominte1n and of
Social Demoaacy in separate compartments, or at least only as a
history of antagonism at the institutional level. On this level one can
sec a Comintcrn orthodoxy, which viewed fascism as the final stage of
capitalism on the road to collapse, cball~ged by a social-demoaatic
orthodoxy, which viewed fascism as an aberration in the peaceful
development of capitalism on the road to socialism. But this misses an
alternative and more complex tradition which can be located within
the PCI between 1924 and 1928, which was sustained after 1928
by Comm 1oists expelled from their national parties, and which was
1
then taken up by left Social Demoaats after 19 34. This collection is
as much concerned with this 'alternative' tradition as with the simple
orthodoxies.
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