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Capitalism, Fascism and World War 2

Gary Sudborough | 30.09.2002 15:45

The relationship between fascism and capitalism as illustrated by the events of World War 2.

Most Americans know enough about the Nazi holocaust to thoroughly despise the horrible events that occurred- the torture, executions, concentration camps, forced starvation, gas chambers and the attempted extermination of the Jews. I wonder what Americans would think if they knew that the part of this Nazi terror apparatus which operated on the Russian front was incorporated into the CIA after World War 2. The Nazi SS officer was Reinhard Gehlen, and he and his group were employed by the CIA for their knowledge of the Soviet Union. The SS death squads that followed the German advance into the Soviet Union were very brutal, killing any communists and Jews they found. The CIA used Nazi war criminals like Klaus Barbie, Walter Rauff, Otto Skorzeny and others in South America to impart their knowledge of torture techniques and concentration camps to the police and militaries there. Klaus Barbie was involved in the 1980 Bolivian coup known as the "cocaine coup" that is described in former DEA agent Michael Levine's book The Big White Lie.

There is a close and often ignored relationship between fascism and capitalism. German corporations financed Hitler's rise to power and were rewarded by slave labor. Krupp, I.G. Farben and other corporations used Jewish and Slavic slave labor. Alfred Krupp called girl babies born to his slaves "useless feeders" because they were not as strong a potential worker as were boy babies. These girl babies were gassed.

American corporations invested heavily in Nazi Germany, and many like General Motors and Ford had factories there, which also used slave labor and produced war materials for the Nazis. US corporate investment in Germany accelerated rapidly after Hitler came to power. Investment increased 48.5% between 1929 and 1940, while declining in the rest of continental Europe. American bombers deliberately avoided hitting these US factories, and they received compensation from the American taxpayer for any damage after the war. US oil companies sold oil to the Nazis and oil on credit to the fascists in Spain.

Many American capitalists were openly sympathetic to the Nazis. Henry Ford wrote a book called The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, and he is mentioned in Mein Kampf. James Mooney, the General Motors executive in charge of European operations, was awarded the Order of Merit of the Golden Eagle by Adolph Hitler. There were op-ed pieces by Nazis like Hermann Goehring in Hearst newspapers in the United States.

The Nazis broke unions, lowered wages, abolished overtime pay, decreased business taxes and increased business subsidies. Their program bears a strong resemblance to the Republican agenda in this country.

The CIA was very concerned about the survival of capitalism in Europe after World War 2 because the anti-Nazi resistance movements in many countries like France, Italy and Greece were led by communists and socialists. Therefore, many bankers, industrialists, judges, lawyers, educators, etc. who were fascists were put back in power because they were the most virulently anti-Communist. Britain even invaded Greece to fight the Greek communists, who had driven the Nazis from their country, and the United States later took over with massive military aid to Greek fascists and former Nazi collaborators. The Italian Communist Party was poised to win postwar elections in Italy. Consequently, the CIA mounted a huge disinformation campaign there and gave millions of dollars to opposition parties.

I have a theory that World War 2 in Europe was at least in part the second attempt to destroy socialism in the Soviet Union. After the Bolshevik revolution, every capitalist nation on Earth invaded Russia in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy this alternative to capitalism. Then, there was a wave of repression against leftists in the capitalist countries. In the United States the IWW was destroyed, socialists like Eugene Debs were imprisoned, and anarchists like Emma Goldman were arrested and deported. Other anarchists like Sacco and Vanzetti were framed and executed.

Although the Nazis attacked other capitalist countries, the focus of their military onslaught was the Soviet Union. Over 80% of German casualties took place on the Russian front, and the vast majority of their military forces were located there. The Nazis lost 300,000 men at Stalingrad alone. The United States stayed out of the war for three long years as Russia bore the brunt of the fascist attack and only entered as Russian forces were driving the Germans rapidly back toward Berlin. American policymakers had to be worried that all of Europe would go communist.

Mussolini said that fascism is corporatism, but I think that is much too mild a description. Fascism is essentially corporate power coming down with a vengeance on the heads of working people, although fascists often mask their real agenda with some populist rhetoric and even call their parties things like National Socialist, etc. I maintain that what we have in most countries of the world today is really fascism, but fascism cloaked in a facade of democracy and supported by an extremely efficient propaganda system. Bertram Gross wrote a book called Friendly Fascism, but I think with George W. Bush in power, it is getting less friendly by the minute.

The ideas I have expressed in this article are so startling to most Americans that I need to give references: The Arms of Krupp by William Manchester, Understanding the F-Word by David McGowan, The Splendid Blond Beast by Christopher Simpson and Turning the Tide by Noam Chomsky.

Gary Sudborough
- e-mail: IconoclastGS@aol.com

Comments

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Russia was not communist!!!!!

30.09.2002 18:13

Russia was not communist at all by the time the Second World War broke out. Communism had died in Russia long before then! Russia was only communist from October 1917 until about 1920 by which time the civil war in Russia against the White Army had took such a terrible toll on the country that democracy within the communist party and within workplaces and within the armed forces had collapsed and nearly all trace of communism except the planned economy was finally wiped out by Stalin and his supporters in 1924 who purged the communist party of Trotsky and his supporters ie true communists! What Russia was after then was state capitalist not communist.

Germany also attacked Russia in 1940 because it thought that Russia would enter the war later on the side of Britain when it was better armed and equiped to fight a major war and leave Germany fighting on two fronts. At first Germany tried to make a peace deal with Britain when that failed it attacked Russia thinking that Russia at that time was unprepared for war and would fall easily. Germany came very close to defeating Russia after a few weeks and probably would have had Hitler ordered the troops to press on to take Moscow instead of ordering them south to attempt to take Stalingrad. Then came the effects of the Russian winter which bogged down the German army and turned the tide against Germany.

steelgate


Reply to Steelgate

01.10.2002 15:44

It is interesting how leftists always seem to think capitalists view the world the same way they do, and if they don't like a particular brand of socialism, then well capitalists couldn't possibly see it as a threat. Capitalists see any alternative system to laissez-faire, completely privatized and deregulated capitalism as a threat. That is why the IMF is pushing privatization of water and electricity on Third World countries. The United States even views independent leaders with disdain, whether they are from capitalist countries or not. The United States dislikes the leaders of Libya, Iran and Iraq not only because they nationalized their oil, but because they act independently. They would rather have someone like their installed puppet ruler of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. The Soviet Union had free health care, free education through college and many other things that capitalists in the United States consider socialistic. The Cold War was all about destroying the Soviet Union. They never would have established the Voice of America and broadcast continuous propaganda to them unless they were concerned. Many American capitalists were complicit with financing the arms build up of the Third Reich. Both of George W. Bush's grandparents were with an investment firm called Brown Brothers Harriman, which helped finance the Third Reich.

Gary Sudborough
mail e-mail: IconoclastGS@aol.com