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Social fascism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International (Comintern) during the late 1920s and early 1930s, which stated that social democracy is a form of fascism. At the time, the leaders of the Comintern, such as Joseph Stalin and Rajani Palme Dutt, argued that capitalist society had entered the "Third Period" in which a working class revolution was imminent, but could be prevented by social democrats and other fascist forces. Conflict that this theory caused was particularly evident in Germany.
At the Sixth Congress of the Commitern in 1928 end of capitalist stability and the beginning of the "Third Period" was proclaimed. The end of capitalism, accompanied with a working class revolution, was expected, and social democracy (democratic socialism) was identified as the main enemy of the Communists. This Commitern's theory had roots in Grigory Zinoviev's argument that international social democracy is a wing of fascism. This view was accepted by Joseph Stalin who described fascism and social democracy as "twin brothers", arguing that fascism depends on the active support of the social democracy and that the social democracy depends on the active support of fascism. After it was declared at the Sixth Congress, the theory of social fascism became accepted as official by the world Communist movement.[1]
At the same time, Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), under leadership of German chancellor Hermann Müller, agreed with anti-communist parties that "red equals brown".[2] This led to mutual hostility between social democrats and communists, which were additionally intensified in 1929 when Berlin's police, under control of the SPD government, shot down communist workers demonstrating on May Day (Berlin's Bloody May). This, and the repressive legislation against the communists that followed, served as further evidence to communists that social democrats were indeed "social fascists".[3] In 1931 in Prussia, the most significant state of Germany, Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which referred to the Nazis as "working people's comrades", united with them in unsuccessful attempt to bring down the state government of SPD.[4] German Communists continued to deny any essential difference between Nazism and Social Democracy even after elections in 1933. KPD, under leadership of Ernst Thälmann, coined slogan "After Hitler, our turn!" – strongly believing that united front against Nazis wasn't needed, and that the workers will change their opinion and recognize that Nazism, unlike Communism, doesn't offer a true way out of Germany's difficulties.[5]
After Adolf Hitler's Nazis came to power in Germany, KPD was outlawed and thousands of its members, including Thälmann, were arrested. Following these events, the Comintern did a complete turn on the question of alliance with social democrats, and the theory of "social fascism" was abandoned. At the Seventh Congress of the Comintern in 1935, Georgi Dimitrov outlined the new policy of the "popular front" in his address, "For the Unity of the Working Class Against Fascism." The "popular front" period ended in 1939 with the conclusion of the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
Leon Trotsky argued against the accusations of "Social Fascism". In the Bulletin of the Opposition of March 1932 he declared:
- "Worker-Communists, you are hundreds of thousands, millions; you cannot leave for anyplace; there are not enough passports for you. Should fascism come to power, it will ride over your skulls and spines like a terrific tank. Your salvation lies in merciless struggle. And only a fighting unity with the Social Democratic workers can bring victory. Make haste, worker-Communists, you have very little time left!"
- For a Workers' United Front Against Fascism B.O. No. 32
Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the KPD, denounced Trotsky's position as the worst kind of "social fascism":
- "In his pamphlet on the question, How will National Socialism be Defeated?, Trotsky gives always but one reply: 'The German Communist Party must make a bloc with the social democracy...' In framing this bloc, Trotsky sees the only way for completely saving the German working class against fascism. Either the Communist Party will make a bloc with the social democracy or the German working class is lost for 10-20 years. This is the theory of a completely ruined fascist and counter revolutionary. This theory is the worst theory, the most dangerous theory and the most criminal that Trotsky has constructed in the last years of his counter revolutionary propaganda."
- ^ Klaus Hildebrand, The Third Reich, Routledge (1984), ISBN 041507861X, p. 106
- ^ Adelheid von Saldern, The Challenge of Modernity: German Social and Cultural Studies, 1890-1960, University of Michigan Press (2002), ISBN 0472109863, p. 78
- ^ Martin Kitchen, A History Of Modern Germany 1800-2000, Blackwell Publishing (2006), ISBN 1405100400, p. 245
- ^ Rob Sewell, Germany: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution, Fortress Books (1988), ISBN 1870958047, Chapter 7
- ^ Jane Degras, The Communist International 1919-1943: documents. 3. 1929-1943, Routledge (UK), ISBN 0714615560, p. 121