Defeating Fascism before it’s too Late

[Judi Lynn]

Defeating Fascism before it’s too Late

By James Petras.

Sunday, Mar 23, 2014

Editor's Comment: James Petras makes a powerful argument for the imperative for revolutionary governments to aggressively eliminate fascism with force early on and by avoiding the traps set by the fascists themselves. He describes ways in which "Constitutional Democrats" tend to fall into the fascists' plots that demand submission to their "democratic norms;" their rules for "democratic freedoms;" their intimidating human rights organizations, their international media campaigns and other quicksands in which revolutions of the past have been defeated.

Petras describes how fascist leaders cover themselves with "respectabiity" while their thugs carry out their "clandestine violent underground." He warns against the pitfalls of trying to negotiate with the aggressor and of being "overly sensitive to hostile criticism from overseas and domestic elites who rush to defend fascists" – in the name of “democratic freedom.” Petras advises, "The challenge in Venezuela is to cut-off the economic and political basis of fascism."

Earlier this week we published news of the success of President Nicolas Maduro's government in putting down the guarimbas (localized riots) but never thought for a moment that the U.S. government would suddenly stop it's 15 year war against the Venezuelan people. This week the fascists escalated their campaign with direct armed attacks on the police and National Guard. The leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and elsewhere in Latin America will do well to heed Petras' warnings. His wise counsel is rooted in his years of revolutionary work on the ground in Latin America and his intimate experience as an advisor to former President Salvador Allende during the time of the 1973 US-backed coup d'état in Chile, ending with Allende's death and thousands more of the Chilean people by the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. I do not add the following gratuitously: Pinochet's henchmen dropped pregnant women out of airplanes following the dictator's orders, "If you kill the bitch, you kill off the offspring." If the fascist opposition were to ever succeed with a coup in Venezuela, make no mistake, there would be a bloodbath. The US State Department would applaud and the western media would cover it as a success.

- Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic

Introduction

Captain Jose Guillen Araque, of the Venezuelan National Guard, recently gave President Maduro a book on the rise of Nazism, warning that “fascism has to be defeated before it’s too late!” In retaliation for his prophetic warning, the patriotic young captain was shot by a US-backed assassin on the streets of Marcay in the state of Aragua on March 16, 2014. This raised the number of Venezuelan soldiers and police killed since the fascist uprising to 6 with 31 deaths overall. Yesterday, an additional 4 police officers were attacked and wounded with gunfire in Merida and members of the National Guard wounded by gunfire in Bolivar State.

More:
http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_66493.shtml

[COLGATE4]

1. This charming little excerpt

"Captain Jose Guillen Araque, of the Venezuelan National Guard, recently gave President Maduro a book on the rise of Nazism, warning that “fascism has to be defeated before it’s too late!” In retaliation for his prophetic warning, the patriotic young captain was shot by a US-backed assassin on the streets of Marcay in the state of Aragua on March 16, 2014"

tells you everything you need to know about the author. Actually outFoxes Fox News.

[Marksman_91]

2. You keep using that word "fascist"

I do not think it means what you think it means

[delrem]

3. Those who support the democratic left in Latin America know exactly what 'fascist' means.

God knows the meaning has been demonstrated, in blood, over and over and over again. But, I'm sure fascists have a few semantic quibbles.

One thing is fact, the fascist right likes to portray the right-wing fascist oligarchs of Latin America as... regular people, the bedrock of the 99%. As "caring".

Fascists everywhere don't like the word 'fascist'. Compared to in its glory days, the word is in disrepute. Fascists dislike references to history, esp. to US based planning, support and orchestration of fascist coups and fascist movements in Latin America -- ESPECIALLY when those references are to recent events, attempted coups and capital strikes having a remarkable similarity to this decade's ongoing fascist attempts to overthrow Venezuela's (for one) democracy.

It's the *word*, it's the *term* 'fascist' that fascists don't like: not the methods. Not their fascist leaders or their fascist objectives. In fact, at the same time that fascists are wincing at the word 'fascist', they're inevitably promoting fascist violence against recently elected leftist gov'ts. Because they are working toward a right-wing coup, promoting a civil war that'll bring in the fascist right-wing government that lost in elections, they promote violence at every step (or every post) - that's just the way of it.

To say the least, those same fascists don't like references to the fact that Maduro and before him Chavez were democratically elected. That isn't part of their narrative. They prefer to repeat ad infinitum the lie that these are "dictators", since that lie best fits their anti-democratic fascist plans. They're like American Enterprise Institute stooges repeating the refrain that Obama is a "Kenyan", so not a legitimate US president - because what matters to them is their hateful bought-and-paid-for fascist message and that one simple lie gives them carte blanche. Because their aim is to disrupt and throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of democratic reform.

Most certainly Latin American fascists are wreckers of all things leftist. They are also very violent - having no inhibitions against ramping up violence to overthrow democracies and to terrorize and kill reformists. History has shown, 100% of the time, that it's what they fucking do.

It's not at all different in mainland USA, where e.g. fascists HATE the ACA, however tepid the ACA correction is. They do everything, tell every lie (death panels! communism!) to discredit it in the MSM, and they devote their entire political capital toward destroying it.

[Flatulo]

5. Interesting observations from the Meriam-Webster definition

There's no 'left' or 'right' to fascism.

There have been rightist fascist governments (Hitler) and leftist (Stalin) examples as well.

Since Maduro was democratically elected, some might argue against Venezuela as an example. However, since his election, he has assumed absolute power by decree, with the courts and legislature acting as rubber stamps. He was granted decree powers in November, 2013, in order to battle businessmen and (American) enemies.

[Bacchus4.0]

6. so I guess his/her point is that since Maduro was elected he can't be a fascist

Someone should have told that to Hitler. Maduro blows. who cares if he was elected. Bush was elected once. People were calling for his impeachment and prosecution. Were those people fasicsts too? Chavista pigs just try to hide behind the term "leftists" as an excuse to their repressive brutal fascist-like actions. chavistas disgusting lambeculos.

[Oele]

7. I think one can argue whether Hitler should be considered 'left' or 'right' wing too.

After all, his party was called the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" and it did have some aspects of socialism. He considered himself as neither left- nor right-wing.

Hitler was democratically elected too, after a failed coup attempt a few years earlier. He used an enabling act to transform the country into a dictatorship. Sounds familiar?

[delrem]

8. As I said, I'm sure fascists have a few semantic quibbles. What else to expect?

But there can be no quibbling about the brutal history of the fascist right in Latin America. About the right-wing death squads, the disappearances, the brutal coups,...

And really Oele, after denying the fascist history of the right-wing oligarchy in Latin America, you claim Maduro is "Hitler" now?
eta: tho' of course! the claim perfectly fits the fascist denial of the results of the recent elections (following all the earlier elections that Chavez won).

[Bacchus4.0]

10. what's a good word to describe chavismo and madurismo type of government ? inept, repressive,

violent, corrupt? I think all of those fit nicely. how about delremism to capture them all?

[Flatulo]

21. You and I must be reading different versions of DU. Where in the name of all that is fucking holy

does this post, repeated here in its entirety, a direct quotation:

"I think one can argue whether Hitler should be considered 'left' or 'right' wing too.
After all, his party was called the "National Socialist German Workers' Party" and it did have some aspects of socialism. He considered himself as neither left- nor right-wing.

Hitler was democratically elected too, after a failed coup attempt a few years earlier. He used an enabling act to transform the country into a dictatorship. Sounds familiar?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1108&pid=28687

...do as you claim, which is, again, a direct quote:

"And really Oele, after denying the fascist history of the right-wing oligarchy in Latin America..."

Go ahead, keep digging a deeper hole for yourself. Keep doubling down. I can prove you're lying all day and night long. And I will.

[Flatulo]

13. I must have missed the posts where folks here denied

that the right-wing LA governments have been brutal and repressive. Can you point me to a few?

[delrem]

14. Your own posts are perfect denials of all historical fact.

It's part of your modus operandi.

[Flatulo]

16. As I thought. You're full of it. Thanks.

[delrem]

25. Those who support the democratic left in Latin America know exactly what 'fascist' means.

God knows the meaning has been demonstrated, in blood, over and over and over again. But, I'm sure fascists have a few semantic quibbles.

One thing is fact, the fascist right likes to portray the right-wing fascist oligarchs of Latin America as... regular people, the bedrock of the 99%. As "caring".

Fascists everywhere don't like the word 'fascist'. Compared to in its glory days, the word is in disrepute. Fascists dislike references to history, esp. to US based planning, support and orchestration of fascist coups and fascist movements in Latin America -- ESPECIALLY when those references are to recent events, attempted coups and capital strikes having a remarkable similarity to this decade's ongoing fascist attempts to overthrow Venezuela's (for one) democracy.

It's the *word*, it's the *term* 'fascist' that fascists don't like: not the methods. Not their fascist leaders or their fascist objectives. In fact, at the same time that fascists are wincing at the word 'fascist', they're inevitably promoting fascist violence against recently elected leftist gov'ts. Because they are working toward a right-wing coup, promoting a civil war that'll bring in the fascist right-wing government that lost in elections, they promote violence at every step (or every post) - that's just the way of it.

To say the least, those same fascists don't like references to the fact that Maduro and before him Chavez were democratically elected. That isn't part of their narrative. They prefer to repeat ad infinitum the lie that these are "dictators", since that lie best fits their anti-democratic fascist plans. They're like American Enterprise Institute stooges repeating the refrain that Obama is a "Kenyan", so not a legitimate US president - because what matters to them is their hateful bought-and-paid-for fascist message and that one simple lie gives them carte blanche. Because their aim is to disrupt and throw a monkey wrench into the machinery of democratic reform.

Most certainly Latin American fascists are wreckers of all things leftist. They are also very violent - having no inhibitions against ramping up violence to overthrow democracies and to terrorize and kill reformists. History has shown, 100% of the time, that it's what they fucking do.

It's not at all different in mainland USA, where e.g. fascists HATE the ACA, however tepid the ACA correction is. They do everything, tell every lie (death panels! communism!) to discredit it in the MSM, and they devote their entire political capital toward destroying it.

__________________________
Now read the OP, paying attention to the description of fascists.

[Marksman_91]

26. Repeating a post you already posted? Now it's confirmed you're just here to troll.

At least try to come up with something original.

[delrem]

28. Since my friend Flatulo hadn't been paying attention.

byeee!

[Flatulo]

29. You don't understand nuance very well, do you? In your mind, are there no positions in between

Stalinist totalitarianism and Laissez faire libertarianism?

Hint: only about a million.

Lumping people into one of only two buckets shows an extremely inflexible, and frankly, idiotic, mentality.

You're posting on Democratic Underground, not Chavista Underground. There is room here for those who oppose the regime in Venezuela without vilification.

[delrem]

33. Do you read your own posts?

I didn't think so.

[Flatulo]

4. The Maduro government is the very definition of a fascist state.

Brutal crackdown on any and all opposition. Placement of cronies and loyalists in every position of power in state-run enterprises that have been confiscated from private hands. Shortages and rationing. Brown (or red) shirt vigilantes striking terror among the civilian population.

Of course, the armchair revolutionaries who post from Starbucks with their lattes can't see, blinded as they are by their infatuation with the father figure with the amazing hair.

[delrem]

9. And so in a puff of hot fetid air the history of fascism in Latin America is denied, then

laid at the feet of the victims.

,

[Flatulo]

15. You don't ready very well. Can you point out where

I a) denied the history of fascism in LA and b) laid the blame for the very thing you just alleged that I denied existed at the feet of the victims?

Thanks.

[delrem]

19. I repeat: it's your modus operandi.

[Flatulo]

20. You're a cute one, aren't you. You level accusations,

then deflect, deflect, deflect when called on your bullshit.

Being clear is easy - watch, I'll show you how:

Point to one single post. Just one, where someone has denied the brutal, repressive RW governments in LA's past. You can't. End of story, end of argument. This isn't about me, even though you keep trying to make it so. It's about your inability to back up a claim. Nothing else.

You can't discuss the rot in VZs current regime because you're too intellectually dishonest to confront it, so you attack others for statements and sentiments that they didn't make.

Either respond with a pointer to a post that you suggest is so representative of denial of RW brutality, or kindly shut the fuck up about it.

[Judi Lynn]

27. You've got that right. "Hot fetid air" is even complimentary!

Last edited Fri Apr 4, 2014, 06:14 PM - Edit history (2)

Refreshing to hear the truth.

They've proven long ago they have long sense dispensed with any sense of shame, and it's heaven to hear truth bombs dropped from time to time when addressing them.

Others know, due to consciousness, the difference revealed already by history itself.

[Bacchus4.0]

11. agreed, I don't see how any one could ever wish a government like in Venezuela upon anyone

Its a cancer.

[Flatulo]

12. The interesting thing about all socialist Utopian revolutions,

and this is without exception, is that their success is always completely dependant on the removal of all Undesirables. The factory owner. The land owner. The banker. The opposition legislators. All are persons non grata.

And by removal, of course, we mean murder. Not at first, certainly, but when the revolution begins to falter. When the food supply dwindles. When the currency fails. When the brains of the country flee.

Workers paradise just can't coexist with a loyal opposition.

[delrem]

17. Of course, it's a war against the poor victimized billionaires, like the Kochs.

[Marksman_91]

18. Yes, a war against the rich...

... so that another group of people become rich, in this case the nepotistic government. You keep telling yourself that Maduro and co. are all doing what they're doing for the benefit of the poor, yet you fail to recognize that they themselves have made themselves into millionaires through their power. There's a deep level of corruption within the Ven government that would warrant them being sent to prison if they lose their political immunity. Right now they're becoming so desperate that they're repressing anybody that would dare upset the status quo they created to keep getting rich and immune to any kind of prosecution, as demonstrated by their control over all institutions that supposedly are independent from the central government, such as the electoral center and Supreme Court.

[Flatulo]

22. We've seen the play book a hundred times. Trumped-up charges, kangaroo courts, civilian defenders

of the regime.

I swear there's nothing new under the sun. Wait, there is one new thing - useful idiots taking to the internet to defend tyrants.

[Bacchus4.0]

23. I wonder what the end game for chavistas including the keyboard revolutionaries is supposed to be

Its hard to believe that lack of toilet paper and the creation of paramilitary units was part of the plan.

[Flatulo]

24. If history is any teacher, those in power are loathe

to surrender it. There will be more, and more brutal, measures to come.

I don't see it going all Pol-Pot, with mass genocide of the intelligentsia, but as the brain drain continues, there will be more challenges in running a modern state with only brute labor and slogans.

[Judi Lynn]

30. "running a modern state with only brute labor and slogans." Memorable, sorta.

You've registered your disdain for the poor, but little else.

Disdain for respect for the human race clearly is indicated, as well.

Apparently you don't realize the difference is the opportunity afforded by being raised without crippling handicaps, material, psychological, spiritual, when insulated by awareness you are safe from overwhelming cold, heat, rain, snow, hunger, illness, vulnerability beyond anything you've ever experienced, without education, and the assurance that comes with it, clothing to hide your poverty, even transportation which you take for granted, etc., etc., etc.

Middle class people with no grasp whatsoever of what life is for the majority of people in the world, the actual daily struggle for survival, not even to mention a moment's peace of mind, being able to draw a breath of air without fear permeating every moment of your existence.

Some will never awaken. They don't matter. It would be good if they gracefully decided to stop trying to pontificate from a sheltered, completely indulged perch in a world of suffering people.

[delrem]

35. This (miniature) problem of communication

is similar (in a way) to problems in "homeland" USA (oh wow, what wunderkind decided on making *that* word official?) w.r.t. the debate over ACA, and over ideas like health care in general, in the context of basic human rights. (I'll just note here: "single payer" was "not tabled" in the USA, and in this day and age that's a very significant omission from democratic debate.)

I imagine that 95% or more teabaggers are little more than stooges who have no idea what value universal health care has proven to bring to a general population (e.g., Canada's, Venezuela's,...). It's pretty damn clear, with politicians and stooge-pundits talking about "death panels" and so on, that those parties under control of the American Enterprise Institute, the Bros. Koch, etc. aren't the kind that *care*. I should say, *even can care* - some because they can't understand at all, others because they knowingly accept conditions under which they aren't allowed (since to care would make them liars). They certainly don't care enough to acknowledge fact about how these matters have played out in other countries, or display anything like a grasp of the wide range of choices available once a jurisdiction has decided in favour of universal health care. So "debate" with one of them about these matters is based on thin air, indeed, since they aren't able to understand or acknowledge the particulars, and are totally tuned into a $$vituperative$$ astroturf message (make big $$ "Get the Baggers Riled!" and make big $$)

Venezuela isn't "homeland USA", but ... it's the same thing, but extended. Then, Venezuela being so rich in natural resources...

[Flatulo]

36. Disdain for the poor, as you put it, has nothing to do with anything. It's about the need for a

managerial/entrepreneurial class to run a country. Can you imagine the United States without any engineers or managers? Production of everything would stop. Infrastructure would fall apart. Shortages of everything would become endemic.

When the productive class is vilified and turned into enemies of the state, they will flee. Sure, VZ is making new engineers and managers with their fine public and private higher education, but you know what? The smart ones will all get the hell out of Dodge as soon as they graduate, most likely heading for the USA, where they can make a few bucks.

You seem to have this romantic notion, fueled no doubt by 60's era posters of Soviet workers, shovels in hand, muscular and confident, marching towards ultimate victory over the evil imperialists. Nice. Except it's a fairy tale.

It takes smart, educated people to run a country, and VZ is demonstrating quite handily what happens when you chase them all away. Everything falls apart.

[delrem]

37. Yes, we've heard all the promises about ensuring that the trains run on time.

I'm sure you're very confident, Flatulo.

In the meantime, Pres. Maduro recently won democratic elections. Elections that reconfirmed the Bolivarian program.

[Flatulo]

38. The Bolivarian program is modeled after thoroughly discredited Marxist teachings and is, as

predicted by many, almost a complete and utter failure. It's a program that is based on purging society of the ownership class and other Undesirables. Yes, it has temporarily improved the lives of the poor, but long-term, everyone is suffering.

But, as you say, Mr. Maduro was democratically elected, and I predict that he'll be democratically defeated and replaced with a more centrist leader. If his regime can survive until the next presidential elections, that is.

History is littered with examples of societies that were ruined by, effectively, single-party rule. I've always believed that a bimodal system is far more stable, preventing a lurch too far to either the right or the left. We apparently disagree here, but that's OK.

The Venezuelan people should determine their own fate. I strongly oppose any outside intervention by any state-sponsored or private parties. I expect they'll figure things out on their own.

[Bacchus4.0]

31. amazing the decline that has taken place there over the past 15 years

Venezuela did have the region's highest living standard at one time. Now they can't even get basic goods to meet their needs.

[delrem]

34. Here ya go, whiner

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017185053

Pic Of The Moment: Charles Koch Whines In Wall Street Journal About "Character Assassination"

[Benton D Struckcheon]

32. Venezuela's not going to do well no matter which side is in power.

See this; http://www.democraticunderground.com/110818290

Note as well that US imports of Venezuelan oil have been declining for years. Mexico and Canada can both easily replace the entirety of our imports of their oil without breaking a sweat.
When everyone down there, left and right, figure out the oil bonanza is over, maybe they'll actually sit down and figure out a real way forward. Until then, watching each side dump on the other is maybe mildly amusing, but mostly it's dismaying. Neither side has a clue re what the actual problem is. One side is made up of private rentiers, the other of public ones, equally corrupt. The only difference between the two is the adjective.
The public ones at least spread the wealth around a bit. But once the wealth is gone, it won't make a bit of difference anyway.