While the people enjoyed the sham war of political controversy, the economic and financial control of the country was passing rapidly into the hands of a few irresponsible individuals, who alone possessed the wealth and power to exploit their liberty at the hands of the community.
Alexander Raven Thomson, The Coming Corporate State
Much has been said of the Corporate State, and Corporatism, within Fascist circles and outside of them alike. For how much the word is thrown around, it is often neglected as an accurate explanation, oftentimes by the self-proclaimed “fascists” who peddle their misinterpretation of it, or the Leftist who is attempting to paint it as the literal opposite of what it actually is. The goal of any Fascist attempting to pitch the idea of Corporatism should first be to ensure that their audience has a total and complete understanding of the concept, and how it interacts both in economics and in matters of the State. For the Fascist, Corporatism is not merely an alternative to the Capitalist and Socialist modes of Production; it is a new model of Statecraft.
For us here in America, the problem becomes somewhat more significant, as though there have been many “third position” movements in America over the decades, as far back as the 1920s and 30s, very few of them have been truly Corporatist in their understanding of economics or philosophy, and even fewer of them can be considered truly Fascist. This provides a roadblock, as there have been very few Americans who have written any kind of theory whatsoever on how this model can be implemented in the United States. Today, this is an issue we intend to begin rectifying.
The Social Theory of Corporatism in America
If man isn’t willing to take some risks for his opinions, either his opinions are no good, or he’s no good.
Ezra Pound, quoted after his arrest for treason, November 27th, 1945
The greatest benefit to the potential of an implementation of Corporatism here in America as an economic principle is the fact that since the late 19th century, our nation has had a strong tradition of workers unionising and banding together against a violent, anti-labor conglomerate of Capitalist monopolies. There was an actual, true Revolutionary fervor in the air among these early Syndicates and Trade Unions. The most famous historical example that comes to mind is Harlan County, in which the Coal Miners took up arms against the National Guard, but there are dozens of other examples, from all industries in American history. Whether it was the farmers, or the railway workers, or the industrial strikers in the emerging cities, these men fought not for a political aim but simply for the right to assemble–a right that in theory, should have already been guaranteed to them. A right to fair conditions and good work, with fair pay. These men were prime examples of true American spirit, and it is their legacy that we seek to embrace and reach into.
The first step that must be taken in the implementation of an American Corporatist system would be the foundation of Trade Unions and Syndicates in the vain of the traditional American Trade Unions and Syndicates of the rise of the labour disputes. There must be a return to the protection of workers in the most basic form. The right to assemble and the right to strike must be restored to their workplaces, rather than entrusted into the hands of these monopolies and conglomerates, which are predatory in their practices and treatment of the working class. These Trade Unions and Syndicates will form the basis of a new American lower legislative body upon the Fascist acquisition of power. Rather than gerrymandered political districts being controlled by the lobbyists and political pundits, the lower house will instead now hold the authority of the working class in the most direct manner possible, represented by their own Unions in government, electing their fellows in their own profession to represent them.
Many of the rural and blue collared workers of America may fear that this is the Communism that they have been taught of. To this accusation, we respond rather directly that it is simply not. This is because, while we protect the worker through the action of these Unions, we too protect the Employer, through their own conglomerations and syndicates. A fair system of Labor Courts to settle disputes must be established, to ensure the good cohesion of the nation going forward. For although the worker may reign supreme in importance, the business owner and the petty bourgeoisie are of crucial importance to the State. While we detest conglomerates and monopolies, and will do everything in our power to see them destroyed, we hold special care for the small business and medium business owners, who have worked their lives to provide for their communities a necessary service, and they themselves hold great pride in their work. Thus it is our supreme belief that the Individual is protected by the strength of the Collective.
The Fascist movement must be the main perpetrator of the foundation of these Syndicates. We must be the adamant sword by which the organised labour force can strike the method of Capitalism, and the encroaching influence of Socialism. We must be its shield against the propaganda and hatred imbued in the Liberal system against the American worker, and against the inevitably anti-human methods that are implemented in Marxist societies. Rather than tearing apart the “Great Myth” of America, we will embrace it, and use it as our foundational principle for a new and just America.
In addition to seeking labour reform and collective ownership of industry, we must be adamant in the organisation of Educators into Syndicates, and actively campaign for educational reform in the most drastic sense possible. In America today, our public education in which our children are supposed to be given the skills they need to survive in the world, is dramatically outdated. It is predicated upon Victorian education from the 1800s, in which children are not meant to be given real world skills, but are meant to be made low level bureaucrats, meant to sit behind whatever meaningless desk job they hold, transitioning between stations at a bell, like clockwork.
We wish to turn the education system to one that is free-form, that embraces the form based education system as described by Gentile and implemented in Fascist Italy. This system will provide students with the social skills, as well as the education skills, to thrive in modern society. It will no longer be predicated upon desk learning, but rather tactile, social, and physical education. In Middle and High School, American students will also be given the opportunity to begin specialising, where they can begin to learn skills that actually interest them, and can apply those skills later in life in their careers, or in the pursuit of higher education. This eliminates mandatory classes that are meaningless to the individual; a Biologist for example has no need of a class on Bronze Age History, although it may be interesting to them, it is not relevant to their field of study. They should not be mandated to take Bronze Age History, just as an example, unless they wish to.
As part of the Fascist program, there will be an excess of resources that the State can allocate into more necessary fields, such as Higher Education. For far too long in America, our higher educational institutions have been their own aristocracy, in a sense, in which quality education is restricted to those who can afford it, and inevitably, education is bought and sold. The Fascist believes that anyone who has the desire to receive higher education should be able to, and this education should be the best possible. No longer should the behemoths of education such as Harvard and Yale be restricted to those who are incredibly lucky or incredibly wealthy.
With regards to Healthcare, this is another sector of great importance that we can allocate more resources to under the Corporate State. It is a shame and crime that many people in America fear childbirth, death, or sickness, because they can’t afford medical treatment. Our moral obligation, and fundamental belief, is that every American should have a right to life, should be provided medicine for free, and should never have to choose between food, shelter, or medicine. This is why Fascism seeks to implement a Social Healthcare policy, one where nobody has to pay the extreme fees needed for insurance, nor to the Hospitals, for life-saving medical aid. Every man, woman and child should be eligible for universal healthcare, for the benefit of themselves and society. This will mean the end of private healthcare, insurance, and a sizable portion of the Pharmaceutical industry will be nationalised, and taken away from predator monopolies, to provide for the American population.
It is the belief of the Fascist who seeks to implement the Corporative State that every citizen should be provided for, in promotion of general welfare. This can be done by the implementation of a universal basic income and housing program, in which no American need fear homelessness, and no American need fear starvation. For Americans who are unemployed, we believe in the implementation of a “Right to Work, Duty to Work” system. We understand that, in some places across the country, no matter how much societal reform occurs, there will always be a labour shortage. For this, we propose that Americans who are unemployed will be guaranteed their basic income and housing, but we will also endeavour to bring jobs through national policies to these areas. That way, the benefits of being employed in the Corporative State will be given to them, as new jobs will be created through the program of reindustrialization and expansion of infrastructure, as America seeks to inevitably return its industries and manufacturing from the third world, and also revitalise its decades old interstate system, as well as expansion of the railway system, in which public transit by electromagnetic train will be possible across the continent, in a similar fashion to what we see in Japan.
The expansion of industry and infrastructure in America will be brought into the consideration of the environmentalist aspect; these things will coincide with the transition of the United States to a new, green economy. We will place emphasis on clean, safe, public transit, powered by renewable energy, including hydro-electric, solar, nuclear, wind, and fusion power. The goal in all of this is to create the America of tomorrow, in which our nation is powered entirely on green energy, and is entirely energy independent. It is inevitable that we must adopt this system of energy policy sooner or later; the coal and oil reserves of the Earth will not last forever, and its damage to the Earth has been well stated, although the climate crowd does have its exaggerations at times. When the coal and oil does run out, we don’t want to be the ones who are stuck in the old times.
In the spirit of the future, we believe that there should be a new importance placed on NASA, and many of the top private space exploration companies should be nationalised or partnered with NASA, and subsidised as we can. America should seek to, within the century, return to the Moon and make it to Mars, as well as begin operations to set up a permanent presence on these other celestial bodies. We must seek to harvest the resources of the Moon, as well as inevitably send American citizens to colonise its surface before 2100. While this is not a primary focus, and we should not focus on just increasing the wealth of the Earth, it is important that humanity inevitably breaks the bonds of the sky, and so that should something happen to the Earth in the distant future, all is not lost.
The Economics of Corporatism in America
It is no longer a trauma, it is a constitutional disease. Today we can state that the Capitalist mode of production is outdated, and with it the theory of economic Liberalism which illustrated and apologised for it.
Benito Mussolini, Speech to the Chamber of Corporations, 1933
Now that we have extrapolated upon our social reforms, one may ask the very real question of how we intend to go about funding it. To start, we have already stated that we believe a general withdrawal of American forces from overseas and a selling off of unnecessary assets is a good place to start, but this is only the beginning. The general shift to Corporatism as the organisational structure of large labour bodies is accompanied by the shift from Capital to Social economic theory. More specifically, that of Sorel, and his Syndicalism.
The average mom-and-pop bakery has no negative impact, on its community or the people it employs, unlike the franchised mega-corporation, which seeks to exploit its workers and managers in order to extrapolate the most capital it can. Due to this, such mega-corporations cannot coexist in a Corporative state. They will be nationalised and given to the Labor Unions which their employees are members of. One may ask how such an action will be funded, or fund the state. To answer, we draw inspiration from none other than Karl Marx–In his theory of labour value, Marx supposes that the payment of a worker is less than the sum of the product in which he sells, a true assumption. The Capitalist, in their greed and need for an expansion of capital, ensures that they can pay the worker the least amount possible while selling the product for the highest amount possible. Anyone who has ever worked for a retailer or fast food joint can attest to this, as well as anyone who has worked in manufacturing, or anyone who has worked in shipping. It is from the gap between what the worker is paid and the product is sold for that labour value is taken. In a Marxist society, Marx theorised that the labour value should be attached to the basic standard of living–that the worker should create something, and be given for the same price in which he is paid to make it.
While we are critical of most aspects of Marxism and the Socialist system, we believe that this observation is quite astute, and the Fascist solves it by marking the value in which the labourer is paid to the fair standard agreed upon by the Union, as well as the Employers Syndicate and the State, whilst the consumer then purchases the product for a price considered fair in the same process. In almost all cases, this will mean that there is a small yet notable divergence between what the worker is paid versus what the product is bought for. That divergence, which is the sum of the profit of the sale, is no longer taken by the Capitalist, it is now taken by the State. This is the fundamental principle for bankrolling the Corporate State, and is also the means of transitioning away from the outdated system of income tax.
On the abolishment of the income tax, as it is a note of importance, the Fascist state finds the use of income tax to be antithetical to its social reform. The Worker should not have his paycheck divested of him by the State, and instead should have the full wage of what he has earned. The State, instead of collecting an income tax, will collect money from a fair sales tax, progressively structured by the House of Syndicates, a more extensive tariff policy, and from the aforementioned theory of labour value.
In summary, the cohesion created by the Syndicates and Unions, which negotiate fair prices and wages through the Labor Courts, allows for a healthier, non-predatory economy, in which growth is created through prosperity, and not the manipulation and exploitation of markets.
A vast amount of industry will be nationalised. The approximate amount is hard to tell, but effectively, any business that is not specially excluded–such as those with scientific or educational value–and employs more than 200-300 employees, would be nationalised and turned over to the State. Their workplaces and policies would be determined by the aforementioned Syndicates of their respective industries. This would lead to a nationalisation of most industrial, retail, and pharmaceutical conglomerates and their placement under Syndical control. As stated in the section on social reform, these Syndicates would then elect representatives to the Lower House, the new House of Syndicates that replaces the House of Representatives.
It is important to recognize that in the Fascist state, concepts and operations such as the Stock Market would no longer be in effective existence. What would replace it would be a community-based investing concept, where instead of decisions made in an afternoon made on Wall Street being able to employ millions or divest millions of their jobs, the community and the Syndicates around them will decide what projects are worth investing in, based on their social or economic value, and will invest in them as such, with State support. This will eradicate the ability for money manipulators, hedge funds and other economic predators to negatively impact small industry, small business, and will remove the concept of monopolies and mass conglomerates from society. This will lead to a much more competitive and local economy, based on what is needed for the community, rather than stockholder wishes. This will effectively end the concept of the trader class from economic existence; there will no longer be a Wall Street.
Continuing on the mentioned topic of tariffs, it is important to recognize the economy must remain competitive and stable in an international market. Removed from the stock market, we must now rely on our wealth of natural resources, rather than its ability to predict the whims of a market. This will mean that, in order to remain relevant in the international trade economy, America will employ an aggressive protectionist, but outward-focused trade scheme. We will export goods produced in the USA to foreign markets, and will use the excess profit to fund all our intended social reforms and programs. American goods and American labour will benefit the American first. This will include the introduction of protectionist tariffs where necessary, such as industries reintroduced to America: Steel, large-scale Car Manufacturing far beyond what is currently seen, Electronics, and more, so that American industry will not be pressured into irrelevance, or forced to migrate overseas for cheaper labour by foreign markets.
To close this piece, our intentions are to create a society and economic model that is no longer predicated upon profits and capital, but is instead focused on providing for the general welfare of the people, and the improvement of the quality of life for all Americans.
Italy needs, he asserted, not only a new economic but also a new political organisation. The old Syndicalism of the workers must leave its false proletarian exclusivism, and join the national cause. For today, all homogenous interests are uniting and social classes are assuming primary importance within the realm of the nation as a whole. The State must be, under new forms, reborn.
William Welk, Fascist Economic Policy
Co-written by:
Octavian and Seamus
The Seamusite Fascisti 