60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEFEAT OF FASCISM IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

 Importance Of Anti-Fascist Struggle In The Current Juncture

Anil Biswas  

A painter's depiction of Red Army celebrating the victory in front of Reichstag building on April 30, 1945

THE 60th anniversary of the defeat of fascism and of the fascist axis in the Second World War is being observed throughout the world on May 9, 2005.  A perspective on the historic significance of this victory has assumed additional importance in the wake of the debacle of socialism in the Soviet Union and the east European countries, and in the backdrop of the rise of neo-imperialism.  The occasion must also be used to iterate and strongly, that Marxists-Leninists regard the political-ideological struggle against fascism as part of the class struggle itself.

WHAT IS FASCISM

The Comintern has defined fascism as the most reactionary, and the most vicious overt terrorist dictatorship of ultra-nationalism and imperialism. Dimitrov has defined fascism as the power of finance capital, as an instrument of terrorist revenge against the revolutionary party of the working class, peasantry, and intellectuals.

Fascism evolves out of the inherent crisis of capitalism.  The four factors helping accelerate the growth of fascism are: economic crisis of the capitalist system and the sharpening of class struggle; massive disillusionment about the parliamentary system (a weakness of the bourgeois system as Stalin put it); the pervasive influence of capitalism on a wide section of, the petty bourgeois and the proletariat, including the working class; and the lack of a class-conscious and revolutionary leadership of the working class.

The principal time-periods of the crisis of capitalism are: 1923-24; 1924-29 (when capitalism partially recovered); and 1929-33 when the deep crisis of capitalism affected the world.  During the last phase, employment fell, internal markets went on shrinking, wages went down, inflation impoverished the working class, export markets fractured and started shrinking, and finally the crisis of capitalism was sought to be resolved through waging imperialistic and fascist war.

In the circumstances, the forces of capitalism started to highlight USA as the new, crisis-free model of capitalism where the increasing profit-mongering had enhanced the standard of living in a big way.  It was the collapse of New York stock exchange in 1929 that exposed the hollowness of these claims.

FASCISM AND THE CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

Fascism entered the fray to combat and resolve the crisis of capitalism in a novel way.  To counter the crisis due to over production, destruction of produced goods was wantonly resorted to.  At the same time, a series of drives were undertaken by finance capital to raise feelings of ultra-nationalism.  Inter-imperialist rivalries increased and the process of capturing of world market started under the banners of autarchy, national-self-reliance, and national defence.

At the same time, war efforts continued to increase. By 1934, the total volume of armaments around the world accounted for £2500 million.  It went on increasing in the days to come. In a large number of countries, the crisis of capitalism increased the contradiction between capital and labour. Between 1929 and 1935, there were 18,794 strikes in 15 capitalist countries and nearly 8.6 million workers took part in the strike actions. 

To stem the tide of workers’ struggles, the fascists would put in place a ‘corporate state’ where the workers would have no rights at all. The fascists put forward a claim to be the alternative to both capitalism and communism through talk of ‘national socialism.’  The fascists were anti-communist before finance capital and posed to be anti-capitalist before the workers.

To understand the socio-economic basis and features of terrorist dictatorship, one has to realise that finance capital was able, in the hour of the crisis of capitalism, to mobilise the economically hurt and desperate middle class, the jobless, the retrenched workers, and the out-of-work professionals and create the reserve force of fascism.  In this backdrop, the forces of finance capital went about destroying the structure of parliamentary democracy by strengthening the forces of fascism.  Recall the composition of the supreme economic council (Oberster Wirtschaftlicher Council) during the time the Nazis were in power: it comprised Kropp and von Boehelen, the armaments tsars, Fritz Thyssen, the steel baron, and Siemens, the controller of the power industry.  Each contributed millions of deutschmarks to the Nazi funds.

One has to understand that as the income of the population per se went down due to the crisis of capitalism, the precepts of fascism – with its aggressive philosophy centred around locating the ‘enemy’ and exterminating it – found a ready response among the financially depressed, and not merely the poor. The depletion of savings and the mounting cost of living were developments on which fascism thrived.

FASCISM IN ITALY, GERMANY

In Italy, the prototype fascism raised its head following the embryo forms of it in Finland, Hungary, Poland, and later Germany. There was a revolutionary insurrection of the people in Italy in the wake of the First World War. The bourgeois wanted to stop the progress towards the proletarian revolution. They used fascism to smash the working class. The reformists within helped the bourgeois and the fascists put down the revolutionary insurrection.  Mussolini who assumed power in October of 1922 led the forces of fascism, which came in a new form but in the continuum of the bourgeois tradition.

The Versailles treaty was regarded as a diktat or forced peace by a large number of Germans. The burden of reparation caused immensity of misery to affect the national economic life of Germany, which also lost the industrial provinces to France.  There arose at the same time a tide of revolution.  The bourgeois acting in close cooperation of the social democrats brought down a white terror in Germany and targeted the party of the working class and its leadership for murder and mayhem.  Leaders like Karl Leibenicht and Rosa Luxemburg were murdered. The seeds of fascism were then sown in the country as the ‘alternative to capitalism and socialism’ (Alternative zu Kommunismus und Kapitalismus.)  The working class itself was cleft asunder.

In the series of elections that followed to the parliament’s two houses, the Nazis (national socialists or Nationale Sozialisten) gradually overtook both the social democrats and the communists.  However, the Nazis were able to grab power only after a certain kind of development.  Hitler organised a meeting with the German industrialists. He appealed to the ‘robber barons’ to allow the Nazi party to smash the power of the communists and of the organised TU movement in return for political and financial support. The industrialists readily agreed. The Reichstag fire gave a decisive turn to the events in favour of the fascists.  Hitler and the Nazi party were escorted to power with the help of the military, the monopoly capital, and the forces of ultra-nationalism.

The role of social democracy must be noted in the rise of fascism.  The social democrats allied themselves with the forces of imperialism and rejected internationalism.  They also compromised, widely based on class cooperation and served the interests of the capitalism.  They worked to defeat the proletarian revolution.  They also helped the crisis-ridden capitalism to regroup, recover, and develop.  Of the chief proponents of fascism, Mussolini, Pilsudski, and Oswald Mosley were all allied to social democracy.

WORLD WAR II  

The Second World War that arose out of the desire of the fascists of Germany and Italy to smash socialist USSR soon took a turn that was not anticipated by the forces of finance capital. Hitler wanted to capture the continent of Europe and thus there arose a contradiction between the ‘democratic’ camp led by the USA, Britain, and France, and Hitler’s Germany.  However, both the camps regarded the socialist Soviet Union as the real enemy. 

Germany dug her own grave when Hitler chose to attack USSR with tacit support of the western capitalist powers.  Running into communist zeal and inspired patriotism, the Nazi military machine was smashed although the USSR had to suffer great losses. Between 1941 and 1945, the German forces were defeated again and again by the Red Army till the Soviet troops crossed into Berlin and mounted the Red Flag from atop the Reichstag. 

Germany surrendered on May 9, 1945.  The day was of immense importance historically.  The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) has in a statement noted that the defeat of fascism on May 9, 1945 was an important event with fascist Germany being annihilated with the Red Army entering into Berlin.  “The defeat of fascism,” notes the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, “marked an important turning point in the history of the 20th  century and opened the way for the advance of the progressive and revolutionary forces.”

ANTI-FASCIST STRUGGLE AND STALIN

The triumph against fascism was a victory of the forces of freedom, democracy, and socialism.  Comrade J V Stalin was one of the chief architects of this victory.  As the general secretary of the CPSU, the president of the Soviet Union, and the head of the military commission, Comrade Stalin put to use his political skills, diplomatic strategy, and his military tactics to bring about a memorable victory over fascism.

As soon as the fascist forces attacked USSR, Comrade Stalin called all-out resistance in every form against the aggressors and made a tactical use of the policy of retreat and regrouping for attack with renewed vigour. Constantly harassing the enemy and involving the whole people in defence deployment in some form or other, Comrade Stalin mobilised the nation against the fascists.  These tactics were later followed in Vietnam and Korea against the forces of US imperialism.

Comrade Stalin always thought the battle against fascism was a battle that was never confined to the defence of the USSR alone.  It was a war against fascism everywhere. In cooperating military efforts with the western powers, Comrade Stalin never thought of abandoning the concept of class contradiction between socialism and capitalism.  There was no question of class cooperation at all.

Comrade Stalin built up his anti-fascist strategy on three issues:

• The people of the USSR must be involved in the resistance to and attack on fascism

• The Red Army must be made decisively strong, and

• An international anti-fascist solidarity must be built up

On the question of second front, Comrade Stalin was firm to the western powers in his demand that USA, Britain, and France must launch an assault on the fascists from the west.  Until the battle of Normandy, in effect, the USSR had to withstand the worst of the fascists attack.  The enemy lost 4.5 million soldiers killed or wounded.  However, the USSR, too, had to suffer immense losses with nearly 2 million soldiers killed, wounded, or missing. 

The struggle of the USSR against fascism caused a great wave of anti-fascist movements to spring up around the world.  The peace loving and democratically minded people of the world looked to Comrade Stalin and to the USSR for inspiration in the struggle against fascism.  Comrade Stalin led the task of reconstruction of the war-ravaged USSR too.

Following the debacle of fascism, the forces of imperialism and colonialism went onto the backfoot.  Country after third world country shook off the shackles of colonial rule. The movement for freedom received a strong boost.  Just as the November Revolution led by Comrade Lenin had inspired the forces of socialism and freedom to grow in the world, so did the triumph of USSR led by Comrade Stalin inspired the developed countries to accelerate the anti-colonial freedom movement.

THE OUTLOOK OF THE CPI ON ANTI-FASCISM

The Communist Party of India was resurgent in condemning fascism. Under the leadership of the Comintern, the CPI went ahead to organise movements against Franco’s attacks in Spain and the inroads of fascist Italy into Abyssinia.  CPI pioneer, Comrade Abdul Halim had already written in the 1920’s a paper on fascism.  Following the Seventh Congress of the Comintern, the CPI set a united front against imperialism and fascism.

As the Second World War broke out, the CPI opposed the war efforts of the British colonial government in India and as Hitler attacked the USSR, the CPI followed the leadership of the Comintern to adopt in 1942 the slogan of ‘people’s war.’ 

The CPI organised and led the ‘Friends of the Soviet Union’, and was steadfast in expressing its solidarity to proletarian internationalism. In India, thus the communists remained in the forefront of the anti-fascist struggles with a glorious role being emoted by the working class through historic strike actions.  

FASCIST VIOLENCE IN INDONESIA, CHILE

Following the Second World War, fascism remained active in several countries.  In this period, fascism received help from the forces of imperialism to launch assaults on the working people.  In this connection, the instances of fascist assaults in Indonesia and Chile need to be noted.  In Indonesia in 1965, the Communist Party endeavoured to capture power.  As a reaction, a series of fascist attacks were organised against the party and the working people.

The Indonesian CP itself had earlier played into the hands of the ‘nationalist’ leader Soekarno.  The CP itself boasted of three million members with 20 million supporters in the country.  The frustration that was cause among the ranks of the Indonesian CP through the party’s support for the Soekarno government led to the murder of a high-ranking military officer.  Based on this incident, the Indonesian government started to smash the Communist Party and annihilate its cadres.

Through army operations lasting for weeks and months, no less than half-a-million of communists were killed by the armed forces.  The dead included most members of the Polit Bureau.  At the end of the mayhem, General Suharto assumed office through a coup.

In Chile, in 1973, a popular unity government was in office. It had been duly elected.  The US imperialism was active in supplying funds, arms, and expertise to the Chilean armed forces to topple the popular government headed by the socialist, Salvador Allende.  On September 11, 1973, the coup took place.  Allende was killed.  Thousands of working class families were put to death.  The coup leader, Augusto Pinochet declared how his forces had killed ‘at least five thousand communists.’  Thousands of common people were killed, sometimes machine-gunned after assembly in football stadiums. 

The Allende government had upset not only Chilean capitalists but also US imperialism by nationalisation of copper mines and other assets that were earlier being controlled by US-based multi-national corporations.  The redistribution of land among the landless, too, had angered the ruling classes.  The ruling classes of Chile backed the coup with the US standing by to ensure that the brave resistance of the Allende government never succeeded.

NEO-FASCISM

In several countries of Europe of late, forces claiming to represent the inglorious heritage of fascism have arisen.  They call themselves neo-fascists or post-fascists.  The political parties of this genre operating in Europe are: Freedom Party of Austria; Progress Party of Denmark; Progress Party of Norway; Italian league, Social movement of the national right, and Lombardy league of Italy; the Republicans, the National Front, the National Democratic Party and People’s Union of Germany; the National Front in France; the Centre democrats, and the Centre Party-86 of Holland; the national Action, and Swiss Democrats of Switzerland; British National Party and Pro-fascist Action of England; the Christian European Union of Nations in Europe, and Russia’s Choice in Russia.

These parties emulate fascist traditions in dress and language as well as in political and economic philosophy.  They use the ‘swastika’ as a symbol like the fascists.  Their agenda include exclusion of ‘foreigners’, racism, anti-communism, anti-Semitism, and religious fundamentalism.  The acts of the succession of Popes in the Vatican have enthused the neo-fascists because of the content of Christian fundamentalism.  The neo-fascists are also increasingly active in organising racist assaults on people from Asia, Africa, and Latin America in Europe. The racists are backed by the force of US imperialism and its camp followers.

The rise of neo-fascism is to be traced to the escalating crisis of capitalism in the early 1970’s.  Unemployment grew.  Production slowed down.  The large number of workers, who had come from the developing countries in the 1960’s when the European economy started to grow, was now regarded as enemies. The antithetical attitude crystallised in the creed of anti-racism.  The fascists took advantage of the situation and started to preach their slogans of exclusion and of racial superiority. 

The ruling classes backed the fascists because the fascists’ movements would turn the attention of the people away from the crisis that was overtaking capitalism.  In the circumstances in countries like Italy, the neo-fascists have assumed office.  The USA has been steadfast in providing help to the neo-fascists, whether in government or out of it.  The debacle of socialism in the USSR and in east Europe and the subsequent fracturing of the Soviet Union created instability that, too, helped the neo-fascists.  The neo-fascists have remained loyal soldiers against communism and socialism.

The forces of neo-fascism have always found a ready shelter and a willing patron in United States.  The CIA has been known to provide shelter to a great many Nazi leaders. In the USA, neo-fascism has fed off violent racism as practised by organisations like the Ku Klux Clan and the John Birch Society. 

In the aftermath of the debacle of socialism in the USSR and in East Europe, the forces of religious fundamentalism have joined hands with neo-fascists to flex their muscles.  They are active even in countries that have long-established tradition of anti-fascism and anti-imperialism.  Religious fundamentalism and neo-fascism pose a real threat to democracy especially in cases where they have utilised the instability and crisis of capitalism to enter the parliamentary system.

The forces of neo-fascism and religious fundamentalism are active all the time to split the working class movement. Any weaknesses manifest in the bourgeois democratic structure is taken advantage of by these forces.  All over the world, imperialism is becoming increasingly aggressive to hold onto its sway.  Capitalism in crisis is giving rise to neo-fascism, racism, ultra-nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and anti-communism. The mass of the people must realise this and organise themselves in class-based struggles and movements. That would pave the way to consolidate and expand the democratic movement. The anti-fascist struggle assumes great importance in this context.