Joel A Lewis Youth Against Fascism.pdf

YOUTH AGAINST FASCISM
Togliatti warned that if the Popular Front did not stop fascism it would mean the onset of
a destructive world war unlike one ever witnessed by humanity:
But what will the new war be like Army officers, men of science and novelists have
tried to depict the horror of mechanized war… when the most perfected means of destruction
are put into operation on a mass scale. We know only that the next war will be
a general war of all countries, a war in which there will be no distinction between front
and rear, a war of destruction of everything which makes the life of a present-day cultured
nation possible. The next war… will be a war of extermination. It will be a fascist
war. 21
Previous Comintern statements identified fascism as a domestic form of reaction, noting
little of special significance about the movement. Togliatti's analysis suggested fascism
was a distinct phenomenon with international implications since it threatened to unleash a
new world war.
Dimitrov defined fascism as "the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary,
most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital;" this narrow definition
intended to "suggest that any social layer, except the most extreme imperialists,
could be anti-fascist." 22 Dimitrov's personified fascism as the greatest enemy of the entire
nation, positing the broad interests of "the people" against an ultra-reactionary segment of
the capitalist class. Dimitrov specifically critiqued Nazi fascism as "the most reactionary
variety of fascism" stating:
Hitler fascism is not only bourgeois nationalism, it is bestial chauvinism. It is a government
of political banditry, a system of provocation and torture.... It is medieval barbarity
and bestiality in its own country, it is unbridled aggression in relation to other
nations and countries. German fascism is acting as the spearhead of international
counter-revolution, as the chief incendiary of imperialist war.... Fascism is the power of
finance capital itself. It is the organization of terrorist vengeance against the working
class.... In its foreign policy, fascism is chauvinism in its crudest form, fomenting bestial
hatred of other nations. 23
Hitler's victory forced communists to reformulate their definition of fascism and their
conceptions of social change. Fascism was as an international force menacing the peace
and progress of the entire world, threatening the future of both bourgeois democracy and
socialism. The victory of fascism meant a return to a "medieval barbarity" that would
deprive society of hard-won citizenship rights for the advancement of "finance capital."
Dimitrov's conceptions identified fascism as the ultimate counter-revolutionary force
directed initially against the working class, but antagonistic to the general interests of the
nation as a whole.
Dimitrov's reconceptualization of fascism directed communists to abandon their previous
Leninist positions of opposition to the nation. Communists were directed to
organize and lead the most progressive social forces to defend democratic rights, institutions
and culture against domestic fascist threats. By taking a leading role in national
politics, communists could be positioned to influence international policy to counter and
contain fascist threats of imperialist war. This transition was not an easy task for a
movement accustomed to sectarian attacks on all other movements of the left. The
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