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Edited on Sun Feb-18-07 08:26 PM by happydreams
In my research I have stumbled across some amazing facts on fascism. Author George Seldes, who literally covered the 20th century, wrote a number of books exposing material suppressed by the corporate controlled media. This document should be dispersed widely. ......... ............. .............. The Suppressed U.S. War Dept. Expose of Fascism Seldes's Editorial note. (Editorial note: It was the purpose of the morale division of the Army to issue a weekly fact sheet for the purpose of informing the troops why they were at war. However, the entire program was sabotaged by a coalition of notable American reactionaries, including Mr. Hearst, Congressman Rankin, and Father Coughlin's lawyers.. The intrigue against the educational program resulted from my publication of Army Talk 64, which follows. The subheads are mostly mine.) A R M Y T A L K Orientation Fact Sheet 64 WAR DEPARTMENT Washington 25, D. C. 24 March 1945 FASCISM! NOTE FOR THIS WEEK'S DISCUSSION: Fascism is not the easiest thing to identify and analyze; nor, once in power, is it easy to destroy. It is important for our future and that of the world that as many of us as possible understand the causes and practices of fascism, in order to combat it. Points to stress are: (1) Fascism is more apt to come to power at a time of economic crisis; (2) fascism inevitably leads to war; (3) it can come to any country; (4) we can best combat it by making our democracy work.You are away from home, separated from your families, no longer at a civilian job or at school and many of you are risking your very lives because of a thing called fascism.... We Americans have been fighting fascists for more than three years. When Cecil Brown, one of the leading war correspondents, came back from the battle fronts, he went on a trip that took him into our cities and small towns all over America. He talked and listened to all kinds of people. He found that most Americans are vague about just what fascism really means. He found few American who were confident they would recognize a fascist if they saw one. ..... "Fascism and Business" Fascism is a way to run a country--it's the way Italy was run and the way Germany and Japan are run. Fascism is the precise opposite of Democracy. The people run democratic governments, but fascist governments run the people. Fascism is government by the few and for the few. The objective is seizure and control of the economic, political, social, and cultural life of the state. Why: The democratic way of life interferes with their methods and desire for: (1)conducting business;(2) living with their fellow-men; (3) having the final say in matters concerning others, as well as themselves. The basic principles of democracy stand in the way of their desires; hence democracy must go! Anyone who is not a member of their inner gang has to do what he's told. They permit no civil liberties, no equality before the law....They maintain themselves in power by use of force combined with propaganda based on primitive ideas of "blood and "race," by skillful manipulation of fear and hate, and by false promise of security. The propaganda glorifies hate, and war and insists it is smart and "realistic" to be pitiless and violent.
Question: How does fascism get in power: How can a violent program that enslaves the people win any support?
"Financial Interests Behind Fascism"
Fascism came to power in Germany, Italy and Japan at a time of social and economic unrest. A small group of men, supported in secret by powerful financial and military interests, convince enough insecure people that fascism would give them the things they wanted....
At the very time that the fascists proclaimed that their party was the party of the "average citizen," they were in the pay of certain big industrialists and financiers who wanted to run the people with an iron hand.
The fascists promised everything to everyone: They would make the poor rich and the rich richer. To the farmers, the fascists promised land through elimination of large estates. To the workers they promised elimination of unemployment--jobs for all at high wages. To the small business men they promised more customers and profits through the elimination of large business enterprises. To big business men and the industrialists they secretly promised greater security and profits through the elimination of small business competitors and trade unions and the crushing of socialist st and communists. To the who nation they promised glory and wealth by conquest. They asserted it was their right, as a "superior people," to rule the world.
As soon as their methods had won them enough of a following to form their Storm Troops, the fascists began using force to stifle and wipe out any opposition. Those who saw through the false front of fascism and opposed them were beaten, tortured and killed.
The fascists knew that all believers in democracy were their enemies. They knew that the fundamental principle of democracy--faith in the common sense of the common people--was the opposite of the fascist principle of rule by the elite few. So they fought democracy in all its phases....They played the political, religious, social and economic groups against each other and seized power while these groups struggled against each other
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"Little Business Betrayed
Question: How could the fascist keep their contradictory promises once they got in power? How did their program actually work out?
It was easy enough for the fascists to promise all things to all people before they were in power. Once they were actually in power, they could not, of course, keep their contradictory promises. They had intended to advance to break some, and they did break those they had made to the middle classes they workers and the farmers.
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As soon as the fascists were in control of the government, the torturing and killing were no longer unlawful acts of a political party and its hoodlum gangs. They became official government policy. Among the first victims of official government policy were those farmers, workers, and small business men who had believed the promises that had made them and who complained that they had been "sucked in." Some simply vanished. Often they came home to their families by return mail in little jars of ashes...
The fascist "solved" unemployment by converting their nations into a giant war machine. The unemployed were either conscripted in the army or organized into labor battalions and put to work in war plants.
"Why are fascists anti-union"?
Deprived of their unions, the working people could be driven to work longer and harder for less and less money, so that those who subsidized and ran fascism could grow richer. By wiping out all internal competition--especially the small and medium-sized business firms--profits were increased still higher for the handful on top. In some cases, the fascists then gobbled control of the top corporations. The living standards of the masses of the people declined, of course. As they earned less and less, they were able to buy less and less of the goods they produced....
Once the fascists were in control of the government, not even the gang on top was safe from its own members. There would be more loot and power per fascist leader if some fascist leaders were eliminated. Some of the party "big-shots" and some of those who had helped them take over were therefore "purged" . Many would-be partners in the dictatorship, including some industrialists, would end up in jail, in exile, or dead.
"Can it happen here?"
Some Americans would give an emphatic "No" to the question "Can fascism come to America after it has been defeated abroad?" They would say that Americans are too smart, that they are sold on the democratic way of life, that they wouldn't permit any group to put fascism over in America. Fascism, some might say is something peculiar that you find only among people who like swastikas, who like to listen to speeches from balconies in Rome or who like to think that their emperor is god. Their reaction might be that it is something "foreign" that Americans would recognize in a minute, like the goose-step. They might feel that we'll laugh it out of existence in a hurry.
U. S. Has 100% American Fascists
Question: Do all fascists come from Germany, Japan, or Italy?
In a good many European nations, the people felt the same way some of us do: that fascism was foreign to them and could never become a power in their land. They found, however, that fascist-minded people within their borders, especially with aid from the outside, could seize power. The Germans, of course, made efficient use of the fascist-minded traitor whom we have come know generally as "the fifth column".
In France, which was considered a leading democracy of Europe, the betrayal was spearheaded by a powerful clique of native "100% Belgian," and Britain's Mosley's "100% British." The United States also has its native fascist who say that they are 100% American". There were native fascists in the Philippines , in Thailand (Siam), in China , in Burma, in many other countries--all waiting to become willing puppets of the Axis. Not one these fascist is a "foreigner" who had to be imported from Germany, or Japan, or Italy.
Question: Have any groups in America used fascist tactics appeals?
Most of the people in America like to be good neighbors. But, at various times and place in our history, we have had sorry instance of mob sadism, lynchings, vigilantism, terror and suppression of civil liberties. We have had our hooded gangs, Black Legions, Silver Shirts, and racial and religious bigots. All methods and doctrines which experience has show can properly be identified as "fascist."
"Crackpots and Alleged Seditionists"
Can we afford to brush them off as mere crackpots? We once laughed Hitler off as a harmless little clown with a funny mustache.
In January 1944, 30 Americans many of them native born, were indicted bya Federal Grand Jury on charges of conspiring with "the Nazi party to accomplish the objectives of said Nazi party in the United States." These objectives, according to the indictment, included undermining and impairing "the loyalty and moral of the military and naval forces of the United States."
The case ended in a mistrial caused by the death of the presiding judge. The question of re-indictment is still under consideration.
Whenever free governments anywhere fail to solve their basic economic social problems, there is always the danger that native brand of fascism will arise to exploit the situation and the people
Can we Spot It:
Question: How can we identify native American fascists at work"
An American fascist seeking power would not proclaim that he is a fascist. Fascism always camouflages its plans and purposed. Hitler made demagogic appeals to all groups and swore: "Neither I nor anybody in the National Socialist Party advocates proceeding by anything but constitutional methods."
Any fascist attempt to gain power in America would not use the exact Hitler pattern. It would work under the guise of "super patriotism and "super Americanism." Fascist leaders are neither stupid nor naive. They know that they must hand out a line that "sells." Huey Long is said to have remarked that if fascism came to America it would be on a program of "Americanism"
Three Ways to Spot U.S. Fascists
Fascists in America may differ slightly from fascists in other countries, but their are a number of attitudes and practices that they have in common. Following are three. Every person who has one of them is not necessarily a fascist. But he is in a mental state that lends itself to the acceptance of fascist aims.
1. Pitting of religious, racial, and economic groups against one another in order to break down national unity is a device of the "divide and conquer" technique used by Hitler to gain power in Germany and in other countries. With slight variations, to suite local conditions fascists everywhere have used this Hitler method. In many countries anti-semitism (hatred of Jews) is a primary device of fascism. In the Untied States fascists have often been anti-Catholic, anti-Jew, anti-Negro, anti-Labor, anti-foreign born. In South America, the native fascists use th same scapegoats except that they substitute andi-Protestantism for anti-Catholicism.
Interwoven with the "master race" theory of fascism is a well planned "hate campaign" against minority races, religions, and other groups. To suit their particular needs and aims, fascists will use any one or a combination of such groups as a convenient scapegoat.
2. Fascism cannot tolerate such religious and ethical concepts as the "brotherhood of man." Fascists deny the need for international cooperation. These ideas contradict the fascist theory of the "master race." The brotherhood of man implies that all people--regardless of color, race, creed, or nationality--have rights. International cooperation, as expressed the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, runs counter to the fascist program of war and world domination...Right now our native fascists are spreading anti-British, anti-Soviet, anti-French, and anti-United Nations propaganda....
3. It is accurate to call a member of a communist party a "communist." For short, he is often called a "Red." Indiscriminate pinning of the label "Red" on people and proposals which one opposes is a common political device. It is a favorite trick of native as a well as foreign fascists.
Many fascists make the spurious claim that the world has but two choices--either fascism or communism, and they label as "communist" everyone who refuses to support them. By attacking our free enterprise, capitalist democracy and by denying the effectiveness of our way of life they hope to trap many people.
"Hitler's Red Bogey"
Hitler insisted that only fascism could save Europe and the world from the "communist menace." There were many people inside and outside Germany and Italy who welcomed and supported Hitler and Mussolini because they believed fascism was the only safeguard against communism. The "Red bogey" was a convincing enough argument to help Hitler take and maintain power. The Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis, whose aggressions plunged the world into global war was called the "Anti-Com-intern Axis." It was proclaimed by Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito as a "bulwark against communism."
Learning to identify native fascists and to detect their techniques is not easy. They plan it that way. But is is vitally important to learn to spot them, even though they adopt names an slogans with popular appeal, drape themselves with the American flag, and attempt to carry out their program in the name of the democracy they are trying to destroy.
"How to Stop It"
Question: How can we prevent fascism from developing in the United States?
The only way to prevent fascism from getting a hold in America is by making our democracy work and by actively cooperating to preserve world peace and security.
Lots of things can happen inside of people when they are unemployed or hungry. They become frightened, angry, desperate, confused. Many, in their misery, seek to find somebody to blame. They look for a scapegoat as a way out. Fascism is always ready to provide one. In its bid for power, it is ready to drive wedges that will disunite the people and weaken the nation. It supplies the scapegoat--Catholics, Jews, Negroes, labor unions, big business--andy group upon which the insecure and unemployed can be brought ot pin the blame for their misfortune.
We all know that many serious problems will face us when the war is over. If there is a period of economic stress it will create tensions among our people, including us as returned veterans. The resentment may be directed against minorities--especially if undemocratic organizations with power and money can direct our emotions and thinking along these lines .
"Citizen's Job to Fight Fascism
The fascist doctrine of hate fulfills a triple mission. By creating disunity--it weakens democracy. By getting men to hate rather than to think--it prevents men from seeking the real cause and a democratic solution of the problem. By fake promises of jobs and security, fascism then tries to lure men to its program as the way out of their insecurity. Only by democratically solving the economic problems of our day can there be any certainty that fascism won't happen here. That is our job as citizens.
Citizenship in a democracy is more than a ballot dropped in a box on Election Day. It's a 365-days-a-year job requiring the active participation and best judgment of every citizen in the affairs of his community, his nation and his country's relations with the world. Fascism thrives on indifference and ignorance. It makes headway when people are apathetic or cynical about their government--when they think of it as something far removed from them and beyond their personal concern. The erection of a traffic light on your block is important to your safety and the safety of your children. The erection of a world organization to safeguard peace and world security is just as important to our personal security. Both must be the concern of every citizen.
Freedom like peace and security cannot be maintained in isolation. It involves being alert and on guard against the infringement not only of our freedom but the freedom of every American. If we permit discrimination, prejudice, or hate to robb anyone of his democratic rights, our own freedom and all democracy is threatened.
What is true of America is true of the world. The germ of fascism cannot be quarantined in a Munich Brown House or a balcony in Rome. If we want to make certain that fascism does not come to America, we must make certain that it does not thrive anywhere in the world.
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