Fascism (transliteration of Latin fasces) originally refers to a kind of "binding stick" with an axe in the middle, which is a symbol of the power of law enforcement officials in ancient Rome. The original slogan was "unity is strength", and the most typical summary is: "Individuals obey the collective and the collective obeys the leader." The phenomenon of power, violence, terrorist rule and foreign aggression and plunder is an extreme dictatorship in capitalist countries. [ 1]
Later, the Italian fascist party, which pursued dictatorship, was taken as the symbol of the party. Fascism gradually became a nationalist political movement, which spread throughout most parts of Europe during World War II from 1939 to 1945. Germany under Hitler from 1933 to 1945, Italy under Mussolini from 1922 to 1943, and so on, are all fascists.
Etymological editing
Fascism; (English: FASSISM German: Faschismus), whose original meaning is "wooden stick bundle", is an axe surrounded by many wooden sticks tied together, which was a symbol of power and prestige in ancient Rome.
There was no king or dictatorship in ancient Rome, and the consul was in charge of state affairs. The consul has no salary, which is the highest honor of the country. When the consul performed his duties, he wore a purple robe with a dark red edge and sat on the ivory throne, escorted by a guard of honor. The consul went out with 12 escort. Each bodyguard carries a bundle of sticks on his shoulder with an axe in the middle, which symbolizes the supreme power of the country's supreme chief. This symbolic gang, which symbolizes the highest violence and power, is called "fasces" in Latin.
This is an instrument of torture used to execute people. If someone commits a felony, the consul will pronounce a loud sentence: "execute him with fascism." The guards immediately untied the "fascist" from his shoulders and severely beat the sinner until he was knocked to the ground, then pulled him down and knelt on the ground, pulled out an axe from the "fascist" and cut off his head on the spot.
Derivative meaning editing
Naming party
In ancient Rome, Italy was called a huge empire across Europe, Asia and Africa through external expansion, which had a far-reaching impact on Italy. It aroused the "patriotism" of Italians, United to strive for national reunification, and also incited their "militancy". Mussolini took advantage of the duality of Italian nationalism, in which positive factors and negative factors coexist. In the 1920s, Italian Mussolini, with Caesar's plot, chose to name his political party after the ancient Roman name "Fascist", and all the customs and habits followed the legacy of ancient Rome. They used black shirts as uniforms and ancient Roman designs as party emblem. And put forward a political program with the slogan of "restoring the brilliant achievements of ancient Rome", which laid the foundation for fascism to win the broad support of the people. Mussolini's use of this extreme nationalist enthusiasm is also manifested in party emblem-the "tie bar" used by the fascist party, which is the symbol used by the ancient Roman senior consul when exercising his power. He also stipulated that Roman salute should be used to replace the traditional handshake ceremony in the West at that time. Mussolini once wrote: "Roman tradition is a concept of power. In fascist theory, empire is not only a manifestation of territory or military affairs and trade, but also a manifestation of spirit or morality. "
1965438+On March 23rd, 2009, Italy established the "Anti-Italian Fascism", which is mainly composed of a group of veterans with strong nationalist sentiments. Mussolini said at the inaugural meeting of fascism: "Imperialism is the survival foundation of all nations with economic and spiritual expansion." "We have the right to claim a place in the world." Fascism, while facing the vigorous development of the proletariat and mass movements, vigorously advocated national chauvinism and martial spirit, and advocated the establishment of "Greater Italy". The author of "From Disaster to Death-A History of Fascism" wrote: "Italians are very dissatisfied with the terms in the peace agreement. They felt betrayed by their allies at the peace agreement table, and Italy's victory was scattered. " They advocate "taking all kinds of ways including outward expansion by force" to occupy the so-called "living space", especially to seize the territory promised by the London Treaty. Mussolini even shouted, "Either amend the Treaty of Versailles or start a new war". Extreme nationalism began to spread in Italy.
Subsequently, Germany and Japan successively established fascist political parties. Since then, the word "fascism" has become synonymous with extreme terror and dictatorship and has been notorious for thousands of years. [2]
Material meaning
According to Trotsky's theory, the essence of fascism is that fascism is the product of the serious institutional crisis of monopoly capitalism (imperialism). In this crisis, the normal capital appreciation under bourgeois parliamentary democracy is gradually being destroyed. At the same time when the economic and political institutions are in crisis, there are radical disaffected members in the social strata that have lost their social status, mainly among the petty bourgeoisie, and more and more of their organizations appear in new forms of mass organizations. At first, the activities of these organizations were spontaneous, and then they were gradually used by large enterprises in an attempt to undermine the trade union movement and split the working class.
Under the pressure of increasingly insurmountable social and economic class conflicts, a large part of the middle class has merged with other social classes mentioned above, that is, the quicksand of human nature so aptly described by Tolstoy, forming a powerful mass movement. This mass movement, hypnotized by charismatic leaders and provided with weapons by some bourgeoisie and its state institutions, was regarded as a vital thing to crush the working class movement through intimidation and bloody terrorist acts, which split the working class. [3]
The history of fascism is also the history of fascist theory. Appropriate fascist theory was, and still is, a prerequisite for effective anti-fascism (hereinafter sometimes called anti-fascism). Because, there is no other emerging modern social phenomenon, like fascism, its rise and its explanation are so surprisingly synchronized.
The reason for this coincidence is obvious. Fascism suddenly rose immediately; It first threatened and shattered the living conditions of thousands of people, and then threatened and shattered their lives. For countless people, historical destiny and personal destiny are suddenly combined. Understandably, people affected by this incident try to understand the fate that has befallen them. The first arson attack launched by fascists in Italy immediately triggered such a question: "What kind of fascism is this?" This problem has frightened the main thinkers, bourgeois intellectuals and historians of the working class movement for 70 years.
The victory of political counter-revolution in fascist and imperialist countries is as difficult to conceptualize as Stalinism in contemporary society, including Marxism. [4]
Based on this understanding, Trotsky drew the following social and political conclusion: under the increasing pressure of the increasingly insurmountable social-economic class conflict, a large part of the middle class merged with other social classes mentioned above, that is, the quicksand of human beings described so aptly by Tolstoy, forming a powerful mass movement. This mass movement, hypnotized by charismatic leaders and provided with weapons by some bourgeoisie and its state institutions, was regarded as a vital thing to crush the working class movement through intimidation and bloody terrorist acts, which split the working class. [5]
The ideology of fascism and its political group began at the moment when the middle class was annoyed and desperate after suffering between the power of monopoly capital and the power of trade unions, regardless of the immediate needs of the capitalist class. The relative independence of their thoughts is another matter. Racism is deeply rooted in the typical colonial imperialist ideology, although it is related to the remnants of prejudice before the birth of the bourgeoisie. )
In the initial stage, there were many such small groups, supporting their respective "heads of state" candidates and the competition was fierce. After a complicated screening process, a leader was born in this cockfighting competition in the bottom society. Those who can be elected are not only charming personalities, but also extremely immoral, and even have the ability to sacrifice their close allies.
When the petty bourgeoisie was hit hard by the structural crisis of late capitalism and became more and more desperate (inflation, bankruptcy of small enterprises, and unemployment of a large number of scholars, technicians and middle and senior civil servants), at least some people in this social class, inspired by a mixed emotion of ideological nostalgia and psychological resentment, would gradually adopt a somewhat wild view and engage in violence. Fascism is first and foremost a mass movement, in which the petty bourgeoisie becomes rampant. In this movement, we found that on the one hand, there is a combination of extreme nationalism, on the other hand, there is anti-capitalist incitement, but there is greater hatred for the trade union movement ("against Marxism", "against Bolshevism" and "against trade union leaders"). When the mass movement developed in this way began to use violence against workers and their actions and mass organizations, fascist political parties began. [6-7]
operating characteristic
Internally: the modern fascist dictatorship is an extremely autocratic terrorist rule practiced by the monopoly bourgeoisie at home. For example, the German political police "Gestapo" can arbitrarily put thousands of progressives into prison without legal procedures. The German fascist organizations "Reich Stormtroopers" and "SS" have created numerous public violent incidents of anti-Semitism and persecution of political enemies, searching for so-called "enemies of the country" and persecuting and controlling the people. Japanese fascist forces demanded the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in the name of the emperor, and they created a series of terrorist incidents such as assassinations and coups. [8] Replace democracy with dictatorship.
Externally: Fascist regime is crazy about aggression and expansion and obsessed with building a huge empire. [9]
Develop and expand
After the First World War, the world experienced a serious economic crisis, and western capitalism suffered a heavy blow. Fascism, characterized by totalitarianism and extreme nationalism, took the opportunity to rise in Germany, Italy and Japan. Fascist leaders Hitler and Mussolini came to power in Germany and Italy respectively, and Japan established the military fascist dictatorship of the emperor system. They practice dictatorship at home, expand and invade abroad and seek world hegemony. Unwilling to be punished and bound after the defeat of World War I, Germany secretly quickly recovered its national strength and rearmed. 1936 joined forces with Italy to send troops to Spain, 1938 annexed Austria and dismembered Czechoslovakia. Italy was dissatisfied with the distribution of spoils after World War I. After annexing Ethiopia in 1935, it invaded Albania in 1939. At the "Oriental Conference" in 1927, Japan established an aggressive program of occupying China, conquering Asia and dominating the world by force, then invaded northeast China in 193 1 and launched a full-scale war of aggression against China in July 1937. [ 10]
Based on the same purpose and demand, Germany and Japan colluded with each other in their aggression and expansion, forming the notorious fascist axis alliance. From 65438 to 0936, Germany and Italy signed the Berlin Agreement, forming the Berlin-Rome Axis. In the same year, Germany and Japan signed an international anti-production alliance, and Italy joined the agreement the following year, thus marking the initial formation of the fascist aggression group of the three countries. 1940 On September 27th, Germany, Japan and Italy signed a military alliance treaty in Berlin, formally forming a military alliance. These three countries also include Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and other countries that have joined the Axis Alliance.
The crazy aggression of Germany, Japan and Italy forced the world anti-fascist forces to unite gradually. Before the outbreak of World War II, Britain, France and the United States connived at German, Japanese and Italian aggression, engaged in the Munich crisis and pursued the policy of appeasement. However, blindly surrendering can't satisfy the aggressor's aggressive ambition. The Japanese first launched the war of aggression against China. China people rose up against Japan and opened a large-scale anti-fascist battlefield in Asia. 1939 In September, Germany attacked Poland and war broke out. Britain and France hastily declared war on Germany. 1941June, Germany tore up the German-Soviet non-aggression treaty and attacked the Soviet Union on a large scale. Soviet territory became the main battlefield of the world anti-fascist war.
After the outbreak of the European War, the United States adopted neutrality. With the fall of northern Europe, the defeat of France and the retreat of Britain to the British Isles, the United States felt the threat of fascism, and began to intervene in the European war in the form of aid in September of 194 1, and began to provide military assistance to the Soviet Union, and jointly formulated the Atlantic Charter with Britain, which showed its anti-aggression stance. 194 1 1 In February, 2008, Japan raided Pearl Harbor, the US and Britain were forced to declare war on Japan, and Germany and the US declared war on each other. At this point, the major countries in the world have been involved in the whirlpool of war.
In order to fight against fascist aggression, 26 countries, including China, the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain, gathered in Washington on 1942 10 and signed the United Nations Declaration, thus formally forming the world anti-fascist alliance. Since then, the major allies have held many summits to discuss the anti-fascist war and made great contributions to the victory of the world anti-fascist war. [ 10]