Earl R. Browder

Fascism

Fascism in the United States

(29 December 1923)


From International Press Correspondence, Vol. 3 No. 74 [50], 29 December 1923, pp. 848–849.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2020). You may freely copy, distribute, display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet Archive” as your source.


Fascism, as a well-defined institution, has not appeared in the American class struggle as yet. The basic reason for this is, that in spite of the bitterness of the class struggle there has not been a far-reaching and fundamental crisis in the capitalist system. American capitalism is still lusty and strong, it still feels the blood of youth coursing through its veins, its productive powers are still on the increase. The labour movement generally is still completely dominated by a bureaucracy without the faintest traces of class-consciousness. The ideology of the trade union movement is shot through and through with bourgeois influence, its economics is capitalistic, its philosophy is, at best, middle class liberalism. Subjectively, it presents not the slightest menace to capitalism. The objective strength of capitalism, coupled with the objective weakness of the labour movement, renders impossible at this time such a crisis as would bring into existence a well-organized and militant Fascist movement at all comparable to the classic bands of Mussolini.

But if the Fascist menace is as yet vague and diffused in America, it is still very real. The roots of Fascism are imbedded deep in the soil of American life, and today, under the stimulation of the example of triumphant Mussolini, they begin to push through the soil in many places. Branches of Mussolini’s own party are formed among the Italian immigrant population of America. The Ku Klux Klan is flourishing, especially in the South and Middle West, and from its strongholds, the backward agrarian districts, is reaching into the middle class circles of the cities. The American Legion, ex-service men under the leadership of bourgeois ex-officers, is still a powerful exponent of Fascist ideology, in spite of the things that have somewhat retarded its development in that direction. The Minute Men of the Constitution, the latest comer in the field of budding Fascist organizations, bids fair to become a militant anti-labour band of picked members of the bourgeoisie. Fascism is taking up a very real position, is becoming more aggressive, is adopting the devious methods and tactics necessary to adjust itself to national and local peculiarities, and bids fair to challenge the labour movement even before anv revolutionary developments have shaken American society Tne counter-revolution in this country is organizing its forces far in advance of the revolution.

In spite of all that has been written about the Fascisti, the workers of America have no clear idea of what it means to the labour movement. The capitalist class has no trouble in recognizing Fascism, in Italy and at home alike, as its friend. Judge Gary of the Steel Trust visited Mussolini in 1923, and came back to praise him and his work. The labour movement is more hesitating. Regarding the direct branches of Mussolini’s party, it has been forced to take a stand against it. Due to the strenuous counter-activity of the unions with a large Italian membership, particularly the garment trades of New York City and through them the Central Trades and Labour Council, the Anti-Fascist Alliance was formed, largely under the inspiration and direction of the Communists. The Anti-Fascist Alliance has carried on a propaganda that has neutralized the Fascist Party in America, and has placed the American labour movement on record against Fascism. But this has not meant action against the Fascist movement of American origin and American trademark.

The American Legion, composed of ex-service men. founded and led by ex-officers of the American Expeditionary Force in France, has developed along the well-known Fascist lines. In countless towns and cities it has accumulated a record of strikebreaking activities and general violence against the labor and revolutionary movements which has made it hated in labour circles. Its spiritual kinship with the Fascisti of Italy was dramatically expressed when it invited Mussolini to be its guest at the San Francisco Convention of the Legion, October 1923.

With a keen appreciation of the tactics of Mussolini, the American Legion modified its attitude toward the trade unions early in its career, and adopted the policy of “boring from within”. In spite of the handicap of bitterness against it among the rank and file, it soon registered results with this policy, and at the Cincinnati Convention of the A.F. of L, June, 1922, an open alliance was proclaimed between the Legion and the Gompers bureaucracy. Now, a year later, posts of the Legion are being formed within the unions themselves. To those familiar with the development of Fascist trade unions in Furope. it will be readily seen that the basis for repeating the history of Italian labour is being laid in America. The trade union bureaucrats have a natural affinity for Fascist ideology, and when the time comes for the real Fascist Part) of America they will, no doubt, furnish much of its leadership as have their counterparts in Europe. If Mussolini had been able to attend the Legion Convention, we might have had the sublime spectacle of Samuel Gompers and Benito, the dictator, speaking together from the same platform; if would have symbolized the growing power of Fascism within the labor movement of this country.

Another Fascist organization, the Minute Men of the Constitution, was organized only this year, 1923. It is led by Brigadier-General Charles G. Dawes who is, in addition to his military honours, an ex-budget expert in the Harding administration and a banker, connected with the Central Trust Company of Chicago. The Minute Men is more of a picked body than the Legion; the latter, although led entirely by bourgeois elements. has more of mass character. The Legion was hindered in its development as a complete Fascist body by this fact; to retain its mass following it was forced to make some show of fighting for the “soldiers’ bonus”, in which the Legion found itself in opposition to the ruling capitalist clique. The class-conscious bourgeoisie saw that the Legion had its limitations as a Fascist instrument, and this was undoubtedly one of the considerations that led to the formation of the “Minute Men”, openly and frankly an adjunct of the “open shop” forces, militantly anti-labour, and aspiring to the role of shock-troops in the counter-revolution. It is too early to say whether it will achieve this ambition or not.

If the American Legion and the Minute Men of the Constitution show us two faces of the Fascist movement in America, particularly its crystallization among the ex-soldiers and within the labour unions, the Ku Klux Klan presents a phase not less important and differing in many respects. The K.K.K. is the most native, 100% American, and at the same time the most typical expression of Fascism in this country. It has its origin and its stronghold in the agricultural districts. It is sweeping hundreds of thousands of the agrarian population into its folds, and is now gathering in the clerks, petty officials, middle class elements, and municipal employees, especially through the middle western States, and is even achieving some success among the isolated communities ol workers such as the coal miners. Along with its spectacular organizational expansion it has become a belligerent and noisy, even if hooded and secret, factor in political life. It is making a bold bid for power in maqy communities.

Nominally the K.K.K. is a centralized organization, but actually it centralizes little but the sale of robes, etc. Even in this field (the economic exploitation ol the ignorant yokels making up its membership) the K.K.K. has had several secessions and splits, and there are now several competing bodies, which are carrying on litigation against one another in the courts. It is actually decentralized in action and practical policies, taking on the most conflicting aspects in the various localities. In one community it may be militantly prohibitionist, its marauding masked bands flogging and mutilating “bootleggers“ – illegal vendors of liquor – while in another neighbouring center the same white-hooded costume hides the faces of violators of the prohibition law and violence is turned against federal enforcers of the Volstead Act. It may, in one locality, be an instrument of small producers and tenants trying to control the market for cotton and tobacco; nearby it may simultaneously be carrying on violent suppression of tenant and farm labour movements. In, its methods it is typically Fascist, except for the notorious white robe and hood, this mask is in contrast to the bold and open violence, the boast of the Fascisti in Italy.

There is conflict on the surface, without ever becoming a serious struggle, between the various fascist bodies. Thus the Gompers bureaucracy in the trade unions, while adopting the American Legion, condemns the Fascisti and the K.K.K. Many sections of the Legion are publicly against the Klan. Sections of the labour movement are opposed to the Legion, in spite of Gompers sanction. All sorts of local antagonisms exist. But all of these budding Fascist organizations go to the same roots, and a fundamental harmony exists between them. This is even being demonstrated quite publicly. The Commander of the Legion, Owsley, praises Mussolini and threatens that the Legion will follow in his footsteps, the Legion invites Mussolini to its Convention. Gompers and his family condemn Mussolini. But that does not interfere with the closest alliance between the Legion and A.F. of L. bureaucracy, and Gompers speaks from the same platform to which Mussolini has been invited. Judge Gary endorses Mussolini, the Legion endorses Mussolini, Gompers endorses the Legion and brings it into the labour movement, the American Legion Convention refuses to condemn the Klan one week after Gompers condemns it – but through all the manoeuvres a greater solidarity is exhibited among the aristocracy, the leading spirits, of all these aspiring Fascisti. The “red menace” is being used to fuse them together, and when a revolutionary situation develops they will doubtless be united.

The bureaucracy of the American Federation of Labour is playing a role in the development of Fascism that is continually growing more important In addition to the alliances with organizations of a fundamentally Fascist nature, it is also developing internally along the typical Fascist lines, more openly and definitely than even D’Aragona in Italy. At the October 1923 Convention of the A.F. of L. in Portland, the fundamental program of the Gompers machine was enunciated bv Major George L. Berry, president of the Pressmen’s Union and prominent American Legionist, as follows:

We of the American Federation of Labour stand for four great principles governing industry. These are the ownership of property, an adequate return on investments, an adequate return allowed industry for the matter of deterioration, and that all workers, including managers, get proper compensation for what they put into industry.

Upon this basis the Gompers family appeal for a united front with the employing class against the growing unrest of the rank and file of labour. The employers have greeted the move with great enthusiasm. Such labor-hating organs of capitalism as the Chicago Tribune and the Journal of Commerce promptly endorsed it. The officials of the United Mine Workers Union, at the conclusion of a series of articles proclaiming a “red menace”, said: “It is a situation that challenges not only organized labour but every employer as well. This is one occasion when labour and the employer might very well join hands and fight together instead of fighting each other.”

Just as the renegades and reformists in the Italian labour movement gave leadership and service to the Fascisti, in the persons of Mussolini, Rossoni, and their kind, so we have every reason to believe the American bureaucrats and reformists will furnish much of the real Fascist leadership in the American class struggle. There can be no other meaning to the alliance of Gompers with Gary and Mussolini through the American Legion, to the programme of class collaboration, and to the campaign of expulsions, splits, and general violence, launched against the adherents of the Red International of Labour Unions. It may be confidently predicted that, with the new revolutionary wave sweeping over Europe, with growing unemployment and economic crisis facing America, with the intensifying of the class struggle and the growing power of the Red International with the rank and file, the American Fascisti will soon be a reality, that it will have an unexampled clutch upon the throat of Labour, and that its record for violence and brutality will vie with that of the classic exponents of Fascismo in Italy.



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