Capitalism In Decay

"Fascism is capitalism in decay." As far as I know this quote comes from Lenin, but the creator of the video I share with you today tried to find the source of this astute slogan, and couldn't find any. But it's true though, like the video says; "when the people notice that capitalism fails, and then try to begin to change to a new system, the rich and powerful become afraid that they may lose their privileges, and they'll do everything in their power to stop this change."

This is exactly what happened in Germany when the Nazi's rose to power. Germany was left in a miserable economical state after the Great War, having to pay reparations to all the countries they attacked. On top of that Germany was hit by the fallout of the Great Depression from the early 1930s and suffered an amount of inflation never seen before and never since, except maybe in African or South American countries hit by neoliberal disaster-capitalism through nefarious lending practices by the World Bank. The socioeconomic atmosphere in Germany was exactly right for the rise of a strong populist leader, a "strong man" who would make the country great again...

In the meantime Germany's rich business owners saw the rise of communism happen in the U.S.S.R. with a new economic and political model that at least promised to benefit the working class; in fact socialism was becoming more popular all over Europe in that time when capitalism failed for the middle class and working class. Like Roosevelt in America, most European countries took the path of social democracy, taking of a system of progressive taxation in order to redistribute wealth from the very rich to the poor (and thereby saving capitalism from total failure I might add). Not Germany though, they were ahead of their times and went with the oligarchy; business owners made deals with the strong nationalist leader, giving the fascist government money in exchange for their promise to stamp down on communists and socialists.

In the video a long list of reputable corporations is mentioned that funded Nazi Germany, but I'd like to add IBM, who's computer hardware and software helped Hitler solve the massive logistics problem associated with the registration and transportation of millions of Jews, and Coca Cola, who invented the sub-brand Fanta to not be directly linked to Nazi-Germany in the public eye. Knowing all this, it amazes me that to this day right wingers still point to Nazi Germany as a failed socialist experiment; the Nazis despised commies and socialists, it was literally their job to extinguish socialism.

This is something I've written about many times before, but with the current developments in America and the rising tensions surrounding the systemic racism, and consequent police brutality apparent not only against black people, but against peaceful protesters as well, this topic seems critically important again. I'll quote some of the video's closing statements and then leave you to just watch it; it's a must-watch if you ask me.

"The destruction of socialism is the highest goal of fascism. So, we could feasibly say that fascism is a reaction of the rich against the threat of the poor. When the poor organize to bring about equality, the rich will turn to fascism, which means that when capitalism comes close to falling, fascism will arise."

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