Book Blog “Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It” by Leon Trotsky
Trotsky on Fascism
Originally published together in 1944, “Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It” is a pamphlet collecting a series of essays about fascism, primarily written by Trotsky in the early 1930′s – an ultimately crucial time period for scholars seeking to understand the rise of fascism, as it stands after the full bitter blossoming of Mussolini’s fascist regime in Italy and yet Trotsky at least begins his analysis at a time when Paul von Hindenburg had not yet surrendered power to Hitler and the Nazi Party.
So why should you be interested in reading “Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It” today? Well for starters, it contains that stunner of a quote above and I’d be flat out lying to you if I didn’t admit that this singular, perfectly articulated concept represents *the* most important thing I’ve ever learned about fascism; and I think it’s fair to say that over the past five years especially, I’ve learned quite a lot. While it’s certainly true that a small portion of the material is quite dated and Trotsky’s analysis ultimately remains incomplete, this pamphlet still offers a remarkably effective entry-point towards grasping a Marxist analysis of fascism, as opposed to a more standardized (and in my opinion, less correct) liberal historian analysis of fascism – and it does so while ringing in at a mere fifty or so pages.
Written in Trotsky’s famously bold, but still ruthlessly concise style, “Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It” carefully lays out and ultimately proves the argument that fascism does not exist in opposition to capitalism, but rather as an emergency evolution of the capitalist project designed to thwart, brutalize and otherwise disempower a burgeoning labor class, left wing or socialist political movement seeking to alter the exploitation relationship between capital and workers. Want to understand why may observers (including myself) don’t think Trump’s election loss is going to stop the rise of American fascism, especially in the wake of oncoming climate catastrophe? Then check out the free reprint on marxists.org below:
Fascism: What It Is and How To Fight It by Leon Trotsky
Additional Quotations
“The worker who becomes a policeman in the service of the capitalist state is a bourgeois cop, not a worker.”
“Both theoretical analysis as well as the rich historical experience of the last quarter of a century have demonstrated with equal force that fascism is each time the final link of a specific political cycle composed of the following: the gravest crisis of capitalist society; the growth of the radicalization of the working class; the growth of sympathy toward the working class, and a yearning for change on the part of the rural and urban petty bourgeoisie; the extreme confusion of the big bourgeoisie; its cowardly and treacherous maneuvers aimed at avoiding the revolutionary climax; the exhaustion of the proletariat; growing confusion and indifference; the aggravation of the social crisis; the despair of the petty bourgeoisie, its yearning for change; the collective neurosis of the petty bourgeoisie, its readiness to believe in miracles, its readiness for violent measures; the growth of hostility towards the proletariat, which has deceived its expectations. These are the premises for a swift formation of a fascist party and its victory.”
“We may set it down as a historical law: fascism was able to conquer only in those countries where the conservative labor parties prevented the proletariat from utilizing the revolutionary situation and seizing power.”
– nina illingworth
