FASCISM Article

[unlawflcombatnt]

There is an excellent article on Fascism written by Paul Bigione in the Toronto Star on November 27, 2005. It's titled "Fascism then. Fascism now." Here is an exerpt from the article:

"Before the rise of fascism, Germany and Italy were, on paper, liberal democracies. Fascism did not swoop down on these nations as if from another planet. To the contrary, fascist dictatorship was the result of political and economic changes these nations underwent while they were still democratic. In both these countries, economic power became so utterly concentrated that the bulk of all economic activity fell under the control of a handful of men. Economic power, when sufficiently vast, becomes by its very nature political power. The political power of big business supported fascism in Italy and Germany.

Business tightened its grip on the state in both Italy and Germany by means of intricate webs of cartels and business associations. These associations exercised a high degree of control over the businesses of their members. They frequently controlled pricing, supply and the licensing of patented technology. These associations were private but were entirely legal. Neither Germany nor Italy had effective antitrust laws, and the proliferation of business associations was generally encouraged by government.

This was an era eerily like our own, insofar as economists and businessmen constantly clamoured for self-regulation in business. By the mid 1920s, however, self-regulation had become self-imposed regimentation. By means of monopoly and cartel, the businessmen had wrought for themselves a "command and control" economy that replaced the free market. The business associations of Italy and Germany at this time are perhaps history's most perfect illustration of Adam Smith's famous dictum: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.""

The article can be found at http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1132960211791&call_pageid=970599119419">Fascism then. Fascism now?

unlawflcombatnt
EconomicPopulistCommentary
___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[John Q. Citizen]

1. I can't get the link to work n/t

[unlawflcombatnt]

2. The Link

Thanks for informing me of this. Here's the link again. I'm not sure what happened. I just tried the one below and it worked. Let me know if this works. This is a really good article. If I can't get the link to work, I'll post the entire article here

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1132960211791&call_pageid=970599119419

[McKenzie]

4. your orig' post double entered the htt protocol

this one works fine because it's just a single http at the front end of the URL. I think it's a simple posting error.

Thanks for this link friend.

[unlawflcombatnt]

5. Fascism

Your welcome. I found out the hard way that I had included the "http" in the link. Hopefully the corrected version is working.

[Nutmegger]

3. Thanks for the article

Here's supplemental information on the fourteen points of fascism.

http://www.oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

[unlawflcombatnt]

13. Thanks for the Link

Thanks for the link. There's some interesting stuff there.

[PsycheCC]

6. Great article! Thanks

[lxwen85]

7. Canada and US are becoming more and more Fascist

Sometimes in name of anti-terrorism, some times even to human rights complainants.

[sirjohn]

8. How do you think the election will turn out there? n/t

[unlawflcombatnt]

9. The United Corporate States of America

The United States is controlled increasingly more by large corporations, who are allowed to merge and become even larger, and control an even larger share of the market. In many cases, they control the entire market.

This is an extremely noticeable trend in the Pharmaceutical Industry. 10 years ago most common drugs were made by dozens of manufacturers. I used to purchase a book called "Physician's Generx" which gave relative prices of drugs by different manufacturers. The book is no longer published, because the American Pharmaceutical Cartel doesn't want patients or doctors to have easy access to that kind of information. (Furthermore, they don't want people like me being able to prove that they've quintupled prices on old drugs that have been around for over 20 years.)

In addition, starting about 10 years ago, there was a concerted effort by big pharmaceutical companies to buy out their competitors. Not only did they essentially succeed at this, but they even went one step further. They bought out the manufacturers of the raw material suppliers that the small companies used, causing smaller companies to be unable to continue making the drugs.

Welcome to the new U.C.S.A. The United Corporate States of America.

unlawflcombatnt
EconomicPopulistCommentary
___________
The economy needs balance between the "means of production" & "means of consumption."

[PsycheCC]

10. Critically Important Comparisons between Germany, Italy, and USA

Upon further reflection, I am convinced that the article cited in Unlawful's original post is a must read for anyone interested in the future of North America. It is clear, concise, and articulate.

Here are a couple more quotes from the text:

"As in Italy and Germany in the '20s and '30s, business associations clamour for more deregulation and deeper tax cuts. The gradual erosion of antitrust legislation, especially in the United States, has encouraged consolidation in many sectors of the economy by way of mergers and acquisitions. The North American economy has become more monopolistic than at any time in the post-WWII period.

....It was the liberals of that era who clamoured for unfettered personal and economic freedom, no matter what the cost to society. Such untrammelled freedom is not suitable to civilized humans. It is the freedom of the jungle. In other words, the strong have more of it than the weak. It is a notion of freedom that is inherently violent, because it is enjoyed at the expense of others. Such a notion of freedom legitimizes each and every increase in wealth and power of those who are already powerful, regardless of the misery that will be suffered by others as a result. The use of the state to limit such "freedom" was denounced by the laissez-faire liberals of the early 20th century. The use of the state to protect such "freedom" was fascism. Just as monopoly is the ruin of the free market, fascism is the ultimate degradation of liberal capitalism."

It's time for Democrats to call Bush's "ownership society" what it is-nothing more than a power grab by big business. It has nothing to do with tax cuts that will help small businesses flourish, and everything to do with handing over control of the people to corporations, eventually gutting the power (and desire) of government to protect individual rights. Government is surely becoming a puppet whose strings are pulled by business. Of course, this is a process which has been ongoing for some time, but how much longer can we ignore this threat to our way of life?

Again, this article, Fascism then. Fascism now? is excellent.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. kick

kick, kick...

[HeatherDawn]

12. Bigger Picture

Please see my thread "Adam Ciongoli..Alito's Corner Man" I cut from your thread here to help paint a bigger picture

[unlawflcombatnt]

14. Censored by the Boston Herald

I posted this same letter at the Boston Herald's "TalkBack" forum and it was removed without any reason being given. It must have struck a nerve with one of their Coporatist moderators. (It was removed by a moderator named "guns.")

[kwolf68]

15. Fair Game

Liberals have been called communists and socialists for as long as I can remember.

While there are some similarities between socialism and Liberalism, a chasm has developed between the two since the 1960s.

I don’t think modern Liberals want government to “own” anything (the definition of socialism), I do think modern Liberals want the markets to be checked, the excesses to be curbed, social welfare to be promoted, and a social justice and not social Darwinism to be the light that leads the way.

The similarities between the modern day Republican Party and Fascist states of the past is striking and eerie. I made the statement a few days ago about the Republican Party’s jingoism and nationalism by saying, “these people make Nuremburg look like a walk in the park.”

They don’t have any concentration camps for Liberals, commies, gays, Jews, gypsies and artists yet….But they are heading that way. I’ll call it like I see it…Conservatives are inherently fascist in operation and ideology. FASCIST. Yep, you’re a bunch of freaking fascists. Don’t deny it….

[unlawflcombatnt]

16. Republicans and Fascism

I think the most Fascist characteristic of Republicans is their "no-corporation-left-behind" Corporate Welfare policies. They believe in massive handouts to Corporations, repeal of all anti-trust legislation, and the freedom of Corporate America to use the poorest of the world's work force to replace high cost American workers.

I don't think the NeoCon-Artists are truly nationalists, or even patriots. I think they are internationalists that want to extend their own Corporate power over the rest of the world. Again, I don't think they have a patriotic drop of blood in their greed-infested bodies. It's all about how they can make the most profit, regardless of how it affects the citizens of the United States.

They're for non-enforcement of any laws that might reduce their exorbitant profits, including any laws that would deprive them of cheap, exploitable labor. The Republican Corporatists favor free trade agreements without labor protections, because those labor protections would reduce the profits they earn from their overseas investments. And it would reduce the profits they make from outsourcing American jobs to foreign production facilities.

They propose ineffective laws against illegal immigration, in order to pacify their constituents. But they don't truly want to reduce illegal immigration, as evidenced by the ineffectiveness of their proposed legislation. Illegal immigrants provide business with an abundant cheap labor supply. So Republicans continue to propose phoney bills to combat illegal immigration, knowing full well the only effective solution is prosecution of employers who hire illegal aliens. (The most recent bill passed takes no action against employers for at least 2 years.)

Republican immigration bills concentrate their efforts on "border security" and deportation, which they know will have little effect. By doing so, they distract the public from the underlying cause of the problem: the illegal action of employers who hire illegal aliens. They know direct prosecution of illegal aliens will have little effect. And they know prosecution of employers would have a tremendous effect. So they concentrate on prosecuting the immigrants themselves, because they have no true desire to reduce their source of cheap labor.