The Coming of the American Behemoth by Michael Joseph Roberto

Author:Michael Joseph Roberto
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2018-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

WAS THE NEW DEAL FASCIST?

The contradictions of American capitalism in the New Era of the 1920s and the subsequent Depression it brought required a qualitative leap in state power to manage the crisis and save the economic system from collapse. But its advance in the guise of the New Deal contained the elements of a crisis all its own. In clinging to existing property relations dominated by monopoly and financial capital within the limits of constitutional democracy, the New Deal did not resolve the fundamental contradictions between capital and labor. It only strengthened them. Its course from 1933 to 1940 marked the final phase in the transition to state monopoly capitalism in the United States. Some journalists and political writers even saw the genesis of fascism in American capitalism, comparing Roosevelt’s bold steps in a general crisis and national emergency to what fascists had done in Italy and Germany.

Indeed, in the media there was a visible and vigorous discussion about the relationship between fascism and capitalism that began after Roosevelt’s inauguration. Must America go fascist? The editor of Current History magazine, E. Francis Brown, who knew the history of U.S. ties to fascist Italy and the praise bestowed on Mussolini’s corporatist government by American business and political leaders, wrote that “the new America will not be capitalist in the old sense, nor will it be Socialist. If at the moment the trend is toward Fascism, it is an American Fascism embodying the experience, the traditions and the hopes of a great middle-class nation.”35

Discussion along these lines picked up over the next two years. Most of it went beyond straightforward comparisons of political differences between American liberal democracy and European fascist dictatorship. Instead, many writers employed their knowledge of political economy and class analysis to determine which political and social forces constituted the main fascist threat in the United States. Most deemed fringe organizations such as the Silver Shirts and other groups that emulated Mussolini’s black shirts or Hitler’s brown shirts as insignificant. None ever came close to creating a mass movement as happened in Italy or Germany. On the other hand, there were definite affinities between the New Deal and Italian fascism. The New Deal bore strong resemblances to the corporatist state established in Italy in its approach to reconciling the antagonism between capital and labor. Both Mussolini and Roosevelt had made clear their commitment to maintain and strengthen capitalism in their respective nations. Consequently, the fascist character of the New Deal could not be easily dismissed, especially given the high praise that American businessmen and politicians had lavished on Mussolini. Three Republican presidents of the 1920s had looked favorably on Mussolini’s formula to transform Italy from a crisis-ridden nation in the years immediately following the Great War. Both nations were inextricably linked in the 1920s. American bankers had paved the way for the export of U.S. capital in the form of direct investments and business partnerships in Italy, which made them the most valued of all U.S. partners in Europe.

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