Fascism. Much is in a word, to most the western world the word bears many connotations and meanings, some truthful, some derogatory. But what I wish to discuss today for you all, is fascism in the economic sphere, a topic I’ve noticed has gone long forgotten by many of those who speak of and about Fascism.
To the casual reader of literature and history, fascism as a movement seems born of pure action, without concern for what that thought would come out to in the end, a movement of action, the Me Ne Frego of the Veterans from world war one. But many people don’t realise this was simply the more violent step of growth for the fascist movement, not its first and definitely not its last. Fascism does not come from Mussolini, or even truly Gentile. No, Fascism originates from France, where the Socialist (or more accurately Syndicalist) writers and thinkers George Sorel and George Valois alongside Integral nationalists like Charles Maurras conceived of an idea born of Socialist Economic mentality, staunch anti-parliamentarian Anarchist thinking and Nationalist sentimentality. As such the Proudhon Cercle was made, it was a movement of thinkers and lacked a mass following, but it did its job in inspiring people to follow its path, notably a artist by the Name of Gabriele D’Annunzio, who used many of its concepts for the Constitution of Fiume. This movement also inspired Socialists, Mussolini and the early Fascisti took even the name from the Movement, that being Trade unionism, or as a trade union was known in Italy at the time, Fascio-ism.. Fascism.
The Concept was quite simple, trade unions would be used as the basis of the state, building blocks of both democratic and economic function. This would culminate in the “Corporations” (or Syndicates) becoming the “lower house” of representatives while a similarly structured system would be established for those of the various trades themselves, to act as an “Upper house” of representatives, a concept which has seen application in some nations even to this day (Namely the Republic of Ireland) where elections for the upper house are done via trade not constituency, this concept applied to the lower house or Chamber of Corporations/Syndicates would be elected via the union system, local to regional to national. Such was the socio-political concept of the system, for the economical it leaned to the social aspect very heavily.
However before this could come to be, the Fascists had to get over their first few hurdles. Italy was poor, agricultural, and ill suited for any form of Socialist thought, a hotbed of conservatism and Monarchism, an era of fascistisation had to come before any of the changes they wanted to implement could be brought to bear.
Fascism here saw the praxis to its concept of Heretical Marxism, or alternative socialism with this path of logic, Italy was an under-developed nation, a nation that according to Marx could never achieve communism because of that, similar to Russia and China. The Bolsheviks in Russia ran into a very similar issue of concepts in the immediate aftermath of the revolution, the “Socialisation” could not sustain an underdeveloped nation based firmly in rural agricultural tradition, it needed an alternative path to achieve the level of development required to sustain Proletariat rule. Lenin, much like Mussolini had before him, came to the conclusion that the only means was with the support of some capitalist systems in an era of rapid industrialisation. In Russia it became the NEP, in Italy it was Heroic Capitalism, In Maoist China it was the “Three steps to economic development” of Deng and the gradual abandonment of Maoist era attempts at Industrialisation. It was clear that no amount of state intervention was going to make industry that lasts a more wide spread reality.
The Heroic capitalism of Italy created a new class of Bourgeoisie, the National Bourgeoisie. A Bourgeoisie no longer predicated upon personal wealth, or the expansion of it, but instead only seeking the betterment of the state and by extension the people of said state. The Heroic capitalist phase brought about the means by which the above discussed state ownership could become effective and worthwhile. The National Bourgeoisie became a force able to be trusted in the preservation of the state, and as such the necessity of the class warfare of Marx had been eradicated by the supreme unity imposed by the State.
After Heroic Capitalism came Corporatisation, the construction of the basic outline of the state which we will cover in but a moment. Finally, the last stage of Fascism before the final points of the Corporate State are finished, is the Socialisation phase, an event we saw though heavily restrained, in the Salo Republic with the Verona Manifesto, a topic I aim to cover in a future article.
For the Italian example of the corporatisation, Industries saw widespread nationalisation, the government as it promised put itself in charge of ensuring the security of its people, a business was split into three groups, the Worker who was represented by the Union, the Manager who was represented by his own corporate pod, and finally the Government who represented the consumer. At its peak, as much as 75% of all industry lay in the hands of the state, managed not by a central planner like you would see in the soviet union, but instead by the workers unions who elected autonomously responsible leaders. Such a feat propelled the Italian nation forward. Such structure was core to the empowering of the Corporations and Syndicates, and finalised with the creation of the Chamber of Corporations as a legislative body. Heroic Capitalism ended officially in 1927 with the Labour Charter, what tapperings were left had long since disappeared by the beginning of the Corporate state in 1939.
Thus here I leave you, with an apology for the lack of content from our lads here, and the promise of more in near future.
“Companions! Look me in the face, comrades! You will now ask yourself whether I am the same socialist agitator, the founder of the Communist Party, the friend of Lenin that I once was. Yes sir, I’m still the same! I have never denied the ideals for which I have fought and for which I will always fight. I was next to Lenin in the bright days of the revolution, I believed that Bolshevism was in the vanguard of the workers’ triumph, but then I realized the deception. ” – Nicola Bombacci
Ave Fascisti
Seamus
The Seamusite Fascisti 