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Yes, I thought about it more and I actually sent the following letter to the editor. I doubt they'll publish it, but I sent it anyway: Regarding "American Fascism; it has happened here". Sarah Churchwell outlines a truly horrific history of racist terrorism, especially in the South. However, I think it is questionable whether it was truly fascism that held sway. Under fascism, the working class is atomized; working class organizations are crushed completely and no working class organizing is possible. Not only that but the main form of repression is the state forces themself. That was not the case in the South. Consider this history, as outlined in Philip Foner's "Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619-1981": In the 1880s and early 1890s, there was a series of strikes of black and white workers together throughout the South. This included sugar plantation workers in Louisiana and the New Orleans general strike of 1892. In that instance, the workers consciously established a negotiating committee that was half white workers and half black workers. The employers sought to divide them by offering to negotiate with the whites only. The whites refused and the strike was ultimately successful. That period reflected a general tendency of the working class to come together across racial lines. That general tendency was reversed by the Panic of 1893. This crisis threw workers into competition with each other for jobs and, in the absence of any alternative, racial divisions were given a renewed life, including in the AFL. That body, which had previously threatened to expel the Machinists union due to their racist color bar, then reversed course and by 1914 Gompers was in effect blaming black people for their own oppressed conditions. Despite this, even in that time the United Mine Workers were a largely integrated union throughout the coal mining regions. While rare, there were a few instances of united worker struggles even in those years. That included the 1907 strike of levee workers in New Orleans. In that instance, the workers elected an arbitration committee composed of 2 black and 2 white workers. The most outstanding example was that of the IWW during those years. One example was the Brotherhood of Timber Workers, which organized in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. They held their founding convention in Alexandria, Louisiana in 1914. Due to the Jim Crow laws, the black and the white workers at first met separately. However, at the urging of Big Bill Haywood, they agreed to defy the law and meet together. They then elected black and white delegates to the subsequent IWW convention to be held in Chicago. It is true that most of these efforts in the South in those years were crushed, but the same was true in the North. I hardly think that one can make an argument that the entire United States was fascist during that entire period. Under fascism, no such organizing is possible. And it is not only the extra-state mobs that crush such attempts; it is the forces of the state itself. Therefore, while I think that Churchwell makes a real contribution in her article, horrific as the situation was in the South, I don't think it's accurate to call it "fascism" during those years. On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 12:15 PM Andrew Stewart <hasc.warrior.s...@gmail.com> wrote: > Considering that Robert Paxton points to the Klan as a fascist > organization decades before Mussolini came to power I have to agree with > that point > > Best regards, > Andrew Stewart > - - - > Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via > https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2020 10:04:56 -0700 > From: John Reimann <1999wild...@gmail.com> > To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > <marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> > Subject: [Marxism] fascism in the US? > Message-ID: > <CAFGnm-BNg8zQmrNCmNrTpyEJeUbDajCgMZjoLXsxU=dmk-8...@mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" > > Here is an article that argues that the US was ruled by fascism in the > South for an extended period of time. It also argues that fascism in the US > has had a greater influence at the national level that we often recognize. > I think their argument is quite serious. > > > https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/06/22/american-fascism-it-has-happened-here/?fbclid=IwAR3QiVgCGTORPziQv04LceN9VI-iQ9hjlgBNVf3txsaMGgU3qOVWXiQzefM > > -- > *?Science and socialism go hand-in-hand.? *Felicity Dowling > Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook > -- *“Science and socialism go hand-in-hand.” *Felicity Dowling Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
