Modified:
14 Nov 2009
by Admin
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DEBATE: WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
Posted by: tehexile
Karma:
2102
According to Ed Balls, the Children and Schools Secretary, the current global recession is "the most serious global recession for over 100 years" and is described as "a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s". (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/4571944/Ed-Balls-minister-fears-rise-of-fascism-amid-economic-gloom.html) One of the many fears is that today's recession will lead to a rise in fascism similar to that of the Great Depression.
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WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
Historical precedent.
The Great Depression was said to have been the root of fascism. Hitler originally came into power partly because his drastic measures in controlling trade, such as nationalising key industries and introducing price controls, were stabilising the economy. The recession also played a large part in Mussolini's Italy and the militarist control of Japan, as well as nationalist and anti-Semitic sentiments in the USA and UK. Many of the conditions – the financial impact of a recent war, disenfranchised workers in the US and UK – are also in place again.
WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
Far right parties already using the recession as a tool.
There are worries that incidents such as the strike at Lindsey oil refinery over Italian contractors and Gordon Brown's 'British Jobs for British Workers' campaign, already dangerously close to a far-right nationalist slogan, will be adopted by the BNP for their own agenda. The left are also divided over strikes such as the strike at the Lindsey Oil Refinery over Italian contractors hired there. There is also concern over an increase in religious extremism.
WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
US Senate
Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, consistently exhibits facist behavior using her authority to choke the democratic process and the free flow of ideas and information in the political debate process. Her behavior includes shutting off microphones, turning off the power to computers of the opposing Republican party and recently censoring a flow chart that was submitted by Republican lawmakers diagramming the patient-government-doctor relationship in proposed Health Care legislation. With this kind of unchallenged by Speaker of the House, the seeds of facism have not only been planted but are ripe to grow. We need a free flow of ideas to keep a free Democracy alive and healthy.
WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
We learn from our mistakes.
I don't believe that we really do learn from our mistakes.
The biggest problem is that we have had many years of lowish unemployment and financial credit. And as migrant workers came to work in this country.They mostly filled the vacant manual jobs .We turned a blind eye to the evolving situation.
However as we are now in a recession and unemployment rises rapidly , with the assistance of certain newspapers and far right activists voicing their opinions. With so many people unemployed , struggling on benefits there will be much tension and resentment towards "in work foreign workers" .And yes this will lead towards less tolerant areas of the country and an increase in the number of people joining far right groups........unfortunately.
While some of the historical conditions are in place, what has changed is that we've already been through a period of fascism. It isn't just that the climate isn't right for fascism – there are active safeguards against fascism and specific anti-fascist movements. For example it would be extremly difficult for a fascist party to gain political power through elections as our first past the post system strongly favours the establishment. Support for the far right is in a minority, if a growing minority, and considered an unpopular extreme.
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WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
The recession won't get that severe
Just because the current recession is not as "severe" as th Depression, the whole psyche of the nation is different now: people are more willing to consider views and opinions thats seem ludicrous, whereas in the past many would simply dismiss an idea from the outset.
Another point is that we are still on the downhill slope, things will get worse, and that 7% could easily become 15% or even 20% in the next 6 months.
(data is a projection for the coming year obtained from http://www.labour.org.uk/)
The recession is not actually anything like as severe as the Great Depression. For instance, around 25,000 US banks failed during the Great Depression, compared with 31 banks in 2007. The unemployment rate in the US during the Great Depression was 25% and it is now around 7%. (http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/othercities/phoenix/stories/2009/02/02/story1.html?b=1233550800^1769691&s=btr)
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WILL THE RECESSION LEAD TO FASCISM?
Fascism requires more than an active far right.
"Will the recession lead to fascism?".
You seem not to have quite grasped the point.
"Fascism" does not always mean having a fascist government.
If, for instance, the BNP were to have a following of 20million supporters, you would have a hard time trying to say that britain was not a fascist country...
Fascism considers itself to be the 'third way' between capitalism and communism that is neither Left nor Right. It is this careful balance of factors that is required for fascism to work and the rise of such extreme groups on both sides, mostly themselves still in turmoil over many issues, as a response to the recession, is evidence that nobody is really organised enough to be a successful fascist government.
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admin
|07:43, 23 February 09
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|07:44, 23 February 09
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Holiday
|10:42, 25 July 09
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|07:45, 23 February 09
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|07:45, 23 February 09
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|07:45, 23 February 09
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twinklepop
|14:19, 14 November 09
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admin
|07:46, 23 February 09
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twinklepop
|14:23, 14 November 09
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