Page - 303 - in Otto Bauer (1881–1938) - Thinker and Politician

the spectre of fascism 303 thespecialplaceoccupiedbyBauer’sanalysis intheMarxistbloc,however,we cannotrefrainfromoutliningthedifferencesbetweenCommunistandSocial- Democraticviewsof fascism.Withintheframeworkofourobservations, these differences aremerely comparative rather thanconstitutive– the readerwill thereforefindabriefexplanationinthefootnote.20 McGovernandViereck; (3) fascismasaproductofcapitalist societyandanti-proletarian reaction, thusunderstoodbyauthors fromCominterncircles, e.g. Thalheimer, Labriola, Dobb,Baran,Löwenthal,Sweezy,andat thetimeBauer.CompareDeFelice 1977,pp.37– 82. 20 Twobrief remarks beforewe cite themainCommunist and Social-Democratic assess- mentsof fascisminthe1920sand30s.Firstly, this isaveryroughoutlinethatonlyserves todemonstrate theessential characteristicsofboth interpretations.More thoroughand complexreadingsoffascismcanbefoundinbothcamps.Secondly, thescientificvalueof theseinterpretationsisofnointeresttousinthiscontext.Intheiranalysesoffascism,the Communists–Dimitrov,Radek,Koszucka,Zetkin,Zinoviev, andothers– lookedmainly attwosocialclasses:thebourgeoisieandtheproletariat.Whentheydidmentionthepetty bourgeoisie, itwasof lessersignificance. Inthe1920s, theyregardedfascismasacounter- revolutionarythreat,amethodofthebourgeoisietodefenditselfagainsttherevolutionary danger emanating from the proletariat. Their position onlymarginally changed in the courseof the 1930s.Whenidentifyingthesocialcarriersof fascism, theyno longerspoke of thebourgeoisieasawhole,butspecificallysingledoutthefinanceoligarchy,believing that thedestructionof theworkers’movementwasmerely its short-termobjective– in the long-term, itwasplanninganother imperialistwarandanewdivisionof theworld. Dimitrov’sdefinitionoffascism,asformulatedatthe13thenlargedplenumoftheexecut- ivecommitteeoftheCominternandreiteratedattheeighthcongressinMoscowinAugust 1935,wouldbepivotalfortheCommunistsforyearstocome.Accordingtothisdefinition, whichpersistedevenafterWorldWarii,fascismwasthe‘openterroristdictatorshipofthe most reactionary,most chauvinistic andmost imperialist elementsof finance capital’ – seeDimitrov1935.TheCommunistsdidnotshyawayfromaccusingtheSocialDemocrats ofperiphrasticallyassistingfascismorevendirectlycollaboratingwithit.Until 1935, they bandiedthephrase ‘social fascism’basedonthe‘theoryoffascism’coinedin1928,against the Social Democrats. It nipped in the bud any attempts to build a united anti-fascist front. In their attacksagainstparliamentarismandbourgeoisdemocracy, theCommun- istsevenwentsofarastoequatedemocracywithfascistdictatorship.Dokumentyzhistorii iiiMiędzynarodówkikomunistycznej, inDocuments,Programmes,Protocols,pp.275–465; compareSobolevetal. 1971. The Social Democrats’ attitude towards fascism in that period wasmore complex than theCommunist position becausemanydifferent interpretations coexistedwithin SocialDemocracy.Seee.g.Deutsch1926;Hilferding1932;Breitscheid1977;Rosenberg1934; Bauer 1976pand1939. It is,however,possible tooutline thebasicpremisesof theSocial- Democratic interpretations.Unlike theCommunists, theSocialDemocrats regardedthe petty bourgeoisie and declassedmembers of all social layers and classes as the social