Capitalism and Fascism are synonymous

Address delivered at the Seminar "The Threats of Fascism and the reactionary forces in the Era of Imperialism and Wars" in Nicosia Cyprus on the 4th of June 2015.

Capitalism and Fascism are synonymous to each other fascism takes over when Capitalism is in crises Vladimir Illych Lenin states that "fascism is capitalism in decay".

Today the Capitalist system once again finds itself in crises. As Karl Marx had predicted capitalism thrives on crises and almost up to now, it had managed to surmount the cycles of crises and each time comes out stronger. However the present crises are insurmountable, these crises are far deeper than the previous great crises of 1929, better known as the “Wall Street Crash”.

Those crises back then, brought about disastrous consequences, all around the world, which resulted in unemployment and poverty for the working classes, gave rise to Fascism, and eventually led to a global conflagration.

Looking back upon those years The 1930’s, analyzing and examining closely its effects, we will note that primarily that fascism in Central and Eastern European Countries had the aid and support of the big financiers of those days, notably coming from US financial centres. It was an open secret that NAZI party in Germany was supported by US financiers.

The Soviet Union in those dark days found itself surrounded by countries with hostile and reactionary fascist governments.

Communists and progressives around the world were involved in a struggle against the rising fascist tide.  In Spain a Popular Front Government was democratically elected. This led to a fascist army revolt that was supported by the Catholic Church and the privileged classes in Spain.  A Civil War ensued and Spain became the rally point for the anti-fascist struggle of the late 1930’s.

Both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy openly aided the rebellion while Britain and France aided them simply by refraining from giving aid and support to the democratically elected Spanish Republican Government, and harassing progressives by closing the Franco-Spanish border so that the Spanish Republic could not be aided by progressives who wanted to volunteer and aid the Spanish people.

The war in Spain was to become the dress rehearsal for the Second World War which broke out in September of 1940. France was overrun and Britain then sought the aid of the Soviet Union. Fascism was eventually defeated through the great sacrifices made by the Soviet Union which had lost well over Twenty Four Million of its citizens in that struggle, and by the support of the working class from all around the world. The Second World War brought great changes the French and British empires came to a close as this gave new impetus for the liberation movements in the colonies to demand and struggle for Independence. The United States emerged from its isolationist policies of the pre-Second World War period to become the principal imperialist power replacing Britain and France.

Today capitalism is once again in crises, this crisis that had its start way back in the 1970’s with the Milton Friedman and the Chicago School experiments that gave birth to neo-liberalism which eventually was to bring about the financial collapse of international markets. The fall of the Soviet Union and the Socialist block in end of the 1980’s, was to bring new hope to a now moribund capitalist system. However this did not give the required stimulus that the system required to come out of these crises, instead it brought about new predicaments as countries in Eastern Europe were not prepared for the shock they had received by abandoning their socialist economic system, and the promise of new markets faded.

Subsequent localised wars were used in order to revive the system. However the overspending by the Republican administrations to maintain the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan   did not improve the financial situation, instead it brought about a collapse of the Lehmann Brothers, with dire consequences to other banks in the US and around the world.

In Europe Austerity measures are being imposed on the working class in a number of member countries of the European Union as if these crises were caused by the workers themselves and still no solutions to the problem could be found. What is resulting from this debacle is the unity of left wing forces which are growing in strength. In Greece with Syriza and in Spain with Podemos but if these new movements will give a positive result to the working classes in each respective countries remains to be seen, as the only possible solution is to do away completely with the capitalist system and adopt socialism.

One important factor that is of grave concern today is that fascism has arisen once again. In Ukraine a fascist coup was openly supported by both the U.S and the E.U. Fascists started to massacre all those that had opposed them, primarily the Communist Party of the Ukraine and other progressive forces. This resulted in splitting the country in two as the Eastern part of Ukraine is resisting the Kiev regime, and Crimea being accepted back in the Russian federation. US imperialism is interfering and blaming Russia for a situation that was brought about by their meddling. The bellicose language and embargo that is being directed against Russia by both the EU and the U.S. falls short of a war declaration. Once again we are back to the 1930’s.

Another separate war is being unleashed against Syria. Islamic fundamentalists are being financed and given arms by the U.S ally Saudi Arabia which is also involving itself in Yemen by aiding militarily an unpopular regime which is under threat by a popular revolt. In Iraq and in Libya the effect of a previous imperialist aggression against them was that both countries are still completely destabilised. Israel continues to defy the world community with impunity and the backing of US imperialism. The injustice against the Palestinians continues. The threat to world peace remains.

The solution to all these problems is to give capitalism its mortal blow and start afresh on the path towards Socialism.

Victor Degiovanni.       Communist Party of Malta.