- 05 Nov 2013 15:02
#14325655
The Italian fascists were directly inspired by the syndicalist movement, and the yellow socialist movement (which would split into social democracy and fascism). I have no earthly idea why anybody would attempt to deny the influence of individuals like Proudhon or Sorel on fascist thought.
In France and Italy, fascism was the result of the meeting of left-wing intellectuals with nationalist leaders. Bertrand de Jouvenel was such a leftist who worked with Pierre Drieu La Rochelle to create the ideological underpinnings of the PFF and would go on to found the PRS with Georges Valois following the dissipation of the Faisceau.
In 1925, Georges Valois himself stated, in clear terms, that socialism + nationalism = fascism.
In 1935, Sir Oswald Mosley: "If you love our country you are nationals and if you love our people you are socialist."
Fascism is not Marxist, this should be clear - but be wary of Marxist-Leninists who claim a monopoly over the socialist movement and would deny revolutionary syndicalism its equal place. Prior to the 20th century, it was far less clear, and Proudhonian socialist movements developed, in many cases, into fascist movements with the inclusion of futurists, militarists, and , most importantly, nationalists. In fact, the creation of fascism itself can be said to be its own "red-brown" alliance - fueled by a mutual disgust in Italy and France for the failure of liberalism, nationalists and socialists merged together to create the fascist ideology. Read Sorel's review, L'Indipendance to see the manifestation of that alliance. Look at the founding members of the Cercle Proudhon - Marraus, grandfather of fascism; Sorel, father of revolutionary syndicalism; Valois, French Resistance fighter, and founder of France's fascist party; and Édouard Berth, a well established Marxist/syndicalist synthesist. We find Mussolini himself in the mid 1910s as editor of a socialist newspaper - it was exposure to this new form of national syndicalism which converted him, and cause him to eventually lead the charge of political fascism. Jacques Doriot went from leading the French Communist Party (and cast out because of his attempts to lead a red/brown alliance to founding the PPF. Henri de Man, noted in history as being a leading Marxist theoretician, and one of the most prominent Nazi collaborators in Belgium.
To argue that there is no influence of socialism in fascism is absurd, and a political statement utterly removed from fact, as is the belief that an alliance between the two is impossible.