Part I Use of the term "fascist" , "fascistic" etc., today in the U.S. is more of a rhetorical question than an empirical one. It is a matter of trying to stir people up against the wars and changes in the criminal laws, arousing them through the tenor of moral censure of the word. We are still within a period of history when the ultimate moral/political censure resides in "fascist" because of the extremity of the Nazis' political crimes ( although the ruling circles seek to give "terrorist" this status). We lefts should employ the ultimate censure in criticising the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan now. There is no reason to "save" the term for some timre when the characteristics of the U.S. state more rigorously match those of the warring fascist states in Germany , Italy , etc.
A second rhetorical role of "fascist" or the form "proto-fascist" is "pre-emptively" ( sarcastically "prematurely") with respect to prepatory "domestic" U.S. law and policy changes. Again, saving its use for when some fullblown open, terrorist rule is upon us is not practical. The extreme gravity of the harm and destruction of actually existing fascism justifies this "nipping in the bud" measure, the premature use of the term. The throroughgoing repressive nature of actually existing fascism makes using the term "fascist" ineffective in getting rid of fascism should it actually come about. Once it's here, calling it by its name is too late. The greatest danger to the greatest number of Americans may be from the blowback from the US aggressive wars and occupations in other nations, not self-inflicted domestic repression ( I don't mean we should minimize the harms those actions inflict on other peoples, but for now I focus on the self-interest of Americans; underlying many objections to use of "fascist" is the unstated thought that there isn't "domestic" fascism even if the U.S. murders masses in other countries). As massive as the murder of the German death camps was, as much or more harm was done to the German people themselves by the Allied counter wars. What goes around comes around as "9/11" showed. It is not comfortable to think about or say, but the greatest danger of mass political violence domestically right now is some retaliation for the U.S. increased and intensified violence against other peoples. It is common sense, and even said in some mass media that Iraq may now be a "breeding ground" for new anti-American terrorists. Horror of horrors, another terrible incident like "9/11" will most likely result in increased repressive laws and "programs" , miltary "commissions" _domestically_, that is increase domestic fascistic measures. So, there is a vicious cycle between the foreign and domestic fascistic measures. We can add to this the factor of potential "revanchism" and resentment among returning U.S. military personnel, should the U.S. lose the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a ready cadre for "stormtrooper" types. Carrol Cox often says, to paraphrase " that's not fascism; that's just ordinary capitalism." That's upside down/inside out. We should say with the decay of capitalism, fascism, fullblown and partial, becomes as normal to capitalist rule as is bourgeois "democracy". That is the level of critique and denunciation we should use with repect to the capitalist state power. Capitalism and its state doesn't progress or get better as it gets older. It degenerates. It is not that fascism and tyranny are _rare_ occurences in bourgeois rule. The bourgeois state normal state is more and more vicious the longer capitalism lasts. That's a revolutionary's attitude toward this shit. Not the quiescent, blasé, hohum Coxian complacency. As for class struggles in all this, the repressive laws being put in effect, the demogogy of the war on "terrorism", etc. will be used against the working class when it raises its level of struggle again. Urban riots of the future will be crushed as "terrorism" by using anti-"terrorist" laws or , actually, using lack of civil liberties. The Military Commission Act, Homeland Security Department have been piled on top of the Patriot Act and thirty years of the Berger and Rehnquist courts reversing the civil libertarian advances of the Warren Court ( See Part II on "Legal Illegality). A legal pot has been prepared to boil the working class when it gets angry and active again. The working class is very active and on the move today in its immigrant components, particularly Mexican immigrant workers( even as Cox and other Rip Van Winkles sleep). This does worry the ruling class. All is not quiet on the class struggle front in the U.S. as compared with Europe of the 20's and 30's, where the ruling class' response was fascistic. The class struggle in the U.S. still may be aggravated further by economic crisis. Around here we have fallen into the habit of eschewing anticipation of economic crisis, not predicting recessions. I remember when that old left way of talking was still going on, but then it was discouraged as alarmist.( No doubt repeating "recession" so much rendered the term meaningless like the use of "fascism"). It seems that U.S. finance has the world on a string, sitting on a rainbow, with the string tied around its finger in a rich nation "debtor's" finesse ( See Michael Hudson's _Superimperialism_). But what if China and others one day, for some reason , jerk that string ? And the masses of recently unemployed, laidoff autoworkers are suddenly joined by lots of others ? It's not like there isn't actually existing mass poverty already "underneath" an economy that seems to grow almost continuously. What if there is some new oil shock ? These are not entirely remote possibilities. The ruling class knows this better than I do, and they worry in advance about the potential crises and working class fightback. When they worry, they have premature fascist ideas. John Henry
