Rise of Evil - From Populism to Fascism | BETWEEN 2 WARS I 1932 Part 4 of 4 - YouTube (1)
When you think of Fascism before World War Two, you mostly think of Germany and Italy,
perhaps Spain.
But that's not quite right, in the 1920s and 1930s Fascism was fashionable, and almost
created a global Fascist surge.
Welcome to Between-2-Wars a chronological summary of the interwar years, covering all
facets of life, the uncertainty, hedonism, and euphoria, and ultimately humanity's descent
into the darkness of the Second World War.
I'm Indy Neidell.
In our early episodes of this series we covered how Socialism and Communism spread across
the world like a wildfire after the Great War.
It launched several unsuccessful Revolutions, and in many places the Red Scare took hold.
In the one case where the Socialist Revolution was successful, Russia, we have looked at
the horrors left wing authoritarian ideology brought with it.
Today we turn to the origins of the authoritarian movements on the other side of the political
spectrum, and how now in 1932 Fascism might be on its way to a global surge.
Fascism becomes a thing when Mussolini rises to a de facto dictator with his flamboyant,
bombastic new form of authoritarianism in the 1920s.
This then influences many other ideologies that could be considered fascist, like National-Socialism,
and a whole slew of different movements.
According to some even Stalinism, which at the time referred to as 'Red Fascism' by many
other Communists.
But it isn't restricted to that.
In fact, the 1930s were good times for Fascism, with its ideas spreading like dandelion seeds
in brisk wind, carried through Europe into the Balkans and East Europe, France, Britain,
the low countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, to the New World through Brazil, Chile, Mexico,
and the United States.
In the Middle East, Arab versions of Fascism challenges the status quo, and in far eastern
Japan, another version of Fascism grabs control over society.
Now, in 2019, Fascism is a heavily charged term often used, or rather abused, to frame
any country, political organization or business that holds power.
The expression has been subject to inflation in a way that it's not really usable in a
constructive manner anymore.
George Orwell even wrote that 'the word Fascism has no meaning except so far as it signifies
'something not desirable."
Some academics have gone so far as suggesting not using the term at all anymore.
And even in 1932, there are many different forms of authoritarian and totalitarian ideologies.
And as the example of Red Fascism, it is a term that lends itself to a biased definition
from the get-go.
Or as Political-Scientist Robert Paxton put it: 'Everyone is sure they know what Fascism
is; "A chauvinist demagogue haranguing an ecstatic crowd; disciplined ranks of marching
youths; colored-shirted militants beating up members of some demonized minority; surprise
invasions at dawn; and fit soldier sparring through a captured city."
But Fascism is, of course, more, and when you do dig into it, some lowest common denominators
define Fascism beyond that… let's say; purely aesthetic definition.
Again we turn to Robert Paxton: 'Fascism may be defined as a political behaviour
marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation, or victimhood and by
compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed national
militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandon
democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraint
goals of internal cleansing and external expansion.'
As I opened; the first truly fascist movement fulfilling Paxton's definition is Mussolini's
Italian Fascist party that arises in the aftermath of World War 1.
We've covered that and how it was named in our episode about the March on Rome, the event
that makes him prime minister of Italy in 1922.
But a lot of his inspiration comes from three French thinkers and activists.
The first is French General Georges Boulanger in the 1880s.
His 'Boulangisme' is a fiercely nationalistic, and a populist reaction to pull Conservatives
into a more extreme movement.
You see, Boulanger and many other Frenchmen feel that Conservative politicians aren't
dealing aggressively enough with what they perceive as France's core problems.
They want 'Revanche' against Germany for the loss in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871)
and a restoration of the French monarchy.
They want the Anarchist and Socialist threat to social organization dealt with decisively.
They seek a return to law and order and an imagined greater glory of the past.
Despite being monarchist, the Boulangist movement 'rekindles the sentiments of patriotism, egalitarianism,
and popular vigilance' (Hutton).
He does so by tapping into a deeply-rooted French sentiment of revolution in times of
dissatisfaction, and Boulangism soon wins a massive following.
But to make a long story short, his movement flounders when he gets embroiled in some very
salacious sex scandals.
He's forced into exile in Belgium where he commits suicide by putting a bullet in his
head on his late mistress' grave in 1891.
In any case, it can well be argued that Boulanger was the founding father of the first far-right
populist mass movement in modern politics.
Mussolini's more left-wing ideas are influenced by another Frenchman, the political thinker
Georges Sorel and his Sorelianism.
Sorel is Influenced by Socialist thinker Karl Marx and Mutualist philosopher and politician
Piere-Joseph Proudhon.
But Sorel believes that labor organization is the key to a Marxist society.
He seeks a revolution of the proletariat driven by union action, which becomes known as Syndicalism.
But the central part of Sorrelianism that Mussolini picks up is the power of myth.
Sorel argues that a shared story, regardless if it is based on lies, falsehoods, or myths,
is crucial in uniting a group of people into a movement.
This belief in the power of myth and his strong anti-democratic opinions also influence another
thinker.
He will, in turn, eventually attract Sorel himself and Mussolini to abandon their leftist
ideology of egalitarianism for a reactionary, hierarchical worldview.
He is Charles Maurras, the father of Integral Nationalism.
Maurras believes in militarism.
He has a belief in ethnic assertion, coupled with outspoken xenophobia, and a deeply rooted
anti-Marxism.
But he also believes that some aspects of Socialism are useful.
Or as he puts it; "Socialism liberated from democratic and cosmopolitan elements fits
Nationalism well as a well made glove fits a beautiful hand."
He is opposed to liberal democracy which he believes was responsible for degrading French
culture by allowing freemasons, protestants, jews, and foreigners to enter the French Nation.
Maurras strong pro-catholic and antisemitic views gain popularity in France in parallel
to the Dreyfus Affair, the case in which Charles Dreyfus, a French Jewish officer is wrongfully
tried and convicted for treason.
In reality, it is a crime committed by another French officer; Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy.
But Dreyfus is preconceived as guilty because he is a Jew and from Alsace, hence more or
less German anyway.
The trial and Maurrasian thought bring about the creation of the first really proto-fascist
movement.
Action Française, which will develop a staunchly reactionary, racist, and antisemitic form
of Nationalism, and have a significant impact on a certain Adolf Hitler's thinking.
Later, when Mussolini, develops Fascism in Italy multiple French fascist parties such
as Faisceau, the Parti Populaire Français, and Rassemblement Nationale Populaire, follow
his model.
A few factions will turn to violent terrorism.
The most prominent of them is La Cagoule.
All the way until the end of the 1930s La Cagoule will assassinate perceived opponents
of the Right.
They will also sabotage any French efforts to aid the Republicans in the Spanish Civil
War.
Yet, Fascism never gets as organized and centralized as in Italy or Germany, but these movements
will one day serve as a base for French collaboration with the German Nazis.
And it is Germany that provides the fertile ground for the reactionary components of Fascism
to develop into Naziism.
Just like communism requires an industrialized society, Fascism requires a modernized society
in a modern nation-state.
Nations with a sizable portion of people fed up with they see as hypocritical and decadent
liberal democracies of Modern Europe that arise just before and after World War One.
Here, Fascism seeks a national rebirth.
But you can only go back to 'old values' if they have been there before and if you feel
like they are slipping away.
This means that certain preconditions need to create a 'perfect storm.'
The enlightenment, democratic revolution, the industrial revolution, followed by the
Great War, create precisely these conditions, and they are especially virulent in Germany.
As the 20s progress, it looks like Germany is on the path to genuinely modern society.
Democracy with universal suffrage.
Civil liberties.
A mass media boom.
Mass consumption.
Cult of the automobile.
Vibrant youth culture.
Changing moral standards.
All aspects of the German Golden Twenties.
But the country is also wrought with political strife between extremes.
A fractured parliament is unable to rule effectively.
Economic hardship for many parts of society.
Eroding classical values.
And perhaps most significant: a widespread and shared national myth.
It is The Stab in the Back conspiracy.
That Germany was not genuinely defeated in World War One and is being dealt an unfair
blow though the effects of actually losing that war, which they definitely did.
And in this divided society, this myth is seized upon in true Sorelian manner to whip
up a movement of catastrophic proportions.
The Maurrasian ideas of race and anti-semitism take this ideology yet another step.
You see, the Nazis imagine that the German race is embroiled in a secret war with Zionism.
Thus they transpose all of the things they see as corrupt, derelict, and decadent in
society to the Jewish faith.
They even blame the imagined Stab in the Back on the Jews.
These Jews, who make up less than 1% of the German population, who are by no means especially
dominant, and many of whom are secular Jews, and all of whom are relatively well-integrated
as Germans.
Many Nazi's - shall we say - stretch the definition of what a Jew is.
Although it is still debated within the Party, a lot of the more rabid anti-Semites consider
even converts and citizens with some some Jewish grandparents to be Jews.
But following Sorel's thoughts; the realism for accuracy of a shared vision doesn't matter
much, as long as it can unite the troops.
And although it fails at first to make Naziism into a broad movement, it is very efficient
to create a broad base of dedicated fanatics.
Following Maurras lead, the Nazi movement is also extremely anti-Marxist, and yet they
recruit large parts of their militants from Socialist Revolutionaries.
Even the Name of the political party: the German National 'Socialist' Workers' Party
indicates the influence of traditionally left political thought on its origins.
And in the 1920s there is a sizable part of the Nazi Party and some German Conservative
Revolutionaries who pursue a Mussolini style Fascism.
It is called Querfront, or in English; the Third Position.
In the Nazi Party, they are the Strasserists led by Gregor and Otto Strasser.
But in December 1932 they are soundly defeated by Hitler's version of Naziism, which rejects
Mussolini's statist and collectivist economic aspects of Fascism.
We will get back to that in the next chapter on Germany.
Instead, Hitler espouses an oligarchic economic model.
He supports private industry and finance, allowing them relative freedom to act, as
long as they are aligned with the Racist and Nationalist goals of the party.
Moreover, Germany has long adopted a conservative welfare state.
In 1932 it already has some of the world's most advanced labor rights, created under
Chancellor Otto von Bismarck in the 1880s.
So there is not even a perceived need for more labor rights by most ordinary people.
In yet another anti-semitic masterstroke, the Nazis have also managed to channel existing
anti-capitalist emotion into hatred of the Jews.
They have rhetorically equated Judaism with banking and capitalism.
