LECTURE NO. 4
The Amsterdam International in Theory and Practice
The Amsterdam International in the Fight Against Fascism
WE will now take up the very important question of Fascism.
What is Fascism? It is the last word of imperialist reaction based on the war and post-war impoverished middle classes of government employes and intellectuals (what Americans call "the white-collar class"), who expect, in the fight against the social revolution, to win back their pre-war welfare.
Fascism is a reaction, the characteristic of which is contained in that it tries to gain foothold if not among all the workers, at least a part of them, in order that together with them it may destroy the organizational centers of the revolution.
First of all, we should remark that Fascism has learned much from the revolution, and as the most outstanding exponent of revolution is Bolshevism, so Fascism borrowed something also from Bolshevism. What did it borrow from Bolshevism? First of all, the forceful methods of struggle; second, the denial of democratic legal forms; thirdly, the rapidity of action; fourthly, the understanding that in order to gain its aim it is necessary to destroy the organizational centers of the enemy-class down to the very foundations. Thus, the methods of Bolshevism and Fascism have some similarity and on this external similarity the reformists are trading by using the parallel of Lenin and Mussolini as representatives of anti-democratic "reaction," as they express it.
What is the chief difference between Bolshevism and Fascism, these two extremes in the social struggle? The difference between them is a social one; that is, on one hand, we have the use of all the revolutionary methods in the struggle against the working class, in order to destroy its power, in order to prevent the social revolution; and, on the other hand, we have the application of revolutionary, forceful methods for the destruction of the resistance of the bourgeoisie, for the fight against the ruling capitalist system in order to destroy it and the system of class society. And it is clear that not the external appearance explains this or another social movement, but its social character. And this absolute social contradiction between Fascism and Bolshevism makes them the most fierce enemies of each other, and places before the working class, which is trying to solve its class problems, the question of methods of struggle against reaction. in general, and of Fascist reaction specifically.
As I have mentioned, the characteristic of Fascism is contained in that on one hand it is trying to base itself, or, better to say, is reflecting
