ill Canada Escape Fascism?

(())

PRICE TEN CENTS

Published by CANADIAN LEAGUE AGAINST WAR AND FASCISM 146 King St. West-Room 505 Toronto, Ont.

FORWARD

HE Canadian League Against War and Fascism ackno\vledges its indebtedness to the Christian Social TJustice Fund which published the original of this pamphlet in the United States under the title "Fascism". Most of the material herein, including the whole of the section on the "Nature of Fascism", is taken from the original publication. In order to adapt that section to the Canadian scene and to bring it up to date, a very few minor changes have been made. The rest of the pamphlet has been largely rewritten for the same reasons, the united front nature of the League being always kept in mind by the editors. The Canadian League Against War and Fascism has its own program of action, drawn up at the Congress held in Toronto in the autumn of 1934. The reader is advised to obtain a copy of the report of that Congress for a full exposition of the problems facing us in Canada and of the struggle against war and fascism being waged on many fronts. This pamphlet does not entirely express the view of the League. It is being published in amended form in Canada because of the general correctness of its analysis of Fascism and because of the valuable material it contains. The program of the Canadian League Against War and Fascism provides precisely that organization so vitally needed to build the united opposition against Fascism called for in this pamphlet. It organizes workers, farm­ ers, professional people and people of the middle class on the basis of common opposition to Fascism and War. While the middle class has much to lose by the advent of Fascism, it must ally itself with the workers who possess the power to resist Fascism by practical means. It is essential that the middle class join with and give support to the workers' struggle against Fascism.

I Fascism Means War!

Fascism, by its very nature, strives towards war. John Stracbey, famous British writer, former Member of Parliament and Chairman of the League Against War and Fascism in Great Britain, bas just completed a pamphlet on this vital subject. It is now being published by the Canadian League to sell for five cents. Send your order in now for these sixteen pages on the most important subject in the world to­ day. Special prices on quantity orders. In view of the order to expel Stracbey from the United States and Hitler's provocation in Germany, this pamphlet is particularly timely.

2

• Can Canada Go Fascist?

VENTS since 1914 have shown Canadians that this country does not stand beyond world affairs. The terrific blow of the Great War E was the first major shock to our complacency, the first spectacular demonstration that we are not a country apart, unmoved by the great forces sweeping society as a whole. Canada is inevitably affected by these forces which, at their bases, are economic. The second great blow to our sense of national well-being was, of course, the crisis which, like a withering wind, struck all capitalist countries alike. The signal was the stock market crash of October, 19 2 9. This was an effect, not a cause. Editors, statisticians, economists and poli­ ticians, all united in crying that "This is only a temporary set-back," "The market was overbought," "The situation will right itself," "Pros­ perity is just around the corner," and other such phrases. But prosperity did not return. Thousands, then millions upon millions of men and women, young and old alike, were thrown out of jobs. Relief lines grew, youths just out of high schools and colleges found that the world held nothing for them. The workers in every capitalist country became restive and their challenge to the social order began to grow in power, their degree of class consciousness began to grow as their plight became worse. This is recent and current history to all of us. Again it was shown that Canada moves in the stream of events, inextricably a part of the decaying social order. Given that this country does occupy a prominent place in world economy, swept by the same social forces that sweep every land, is it possible for Canada to escape Fascism? This is the question to be answered in the following pages. "It is inevitable that an attempt will be made in every capitalist country to set up a Fascist dictatorship," said John Strachey, famous writer, former member of the British Parliament, and political observer, in an address in Toronto, "But it is not inevitable that this attempt will succeed''. Between 1925 and 1929 Canada shared in the boom which, through so-called "over-production" and "over-expansion", paved the way for the inevitable crash. Workers in the city and farmers in the country, lulled by steady incomes, readily believed that prosperity was here to stay. The theory that capitalism was at last stabilized, that "the sky was the limit" of economic advancement, gained ground here as it did in the United States. The fiction was a pretty one, an ever ascending spiral of wages, of production, of farm prices, of profits. The small businessman, the professional man, the workers and farmers, even many ''big business leaders'', believed firmly in this theory. There would be no more crises, no more depressions. All was rosy and happy. This stat~ of blissful hypnotism quite naturally gave rise to an orgy of credit buying, to real estate and stock speculation, to (for capitalism) an over­ building of factories, an over-extension of capital structures. These things gave the impression of stability, an impression which we now know was wholly false. 3 The economic face of society appeared ruddy with health. In reality it was flushed with the fever of a fatal illness. During this period - and for many years before - millions of dollars of Canadian money were poured into investments abroad, in Brazil, in Mexico, in the United States, England and other countries. Conversely, millions of American dollars and British pounds were in­ vested in Canada. This country had assumed a place among the im­ perialist powers with an international interest. Few of us, however, were astute enough to read the writing on the wall. We did not see that our bright picture of happiness was not duplicated in all other capitalist countries. Our investments abroad, roughly $ 1,831,310,000 on January 1st, 1931, (Dominion Bureau of Statistics) , continued to pour in dividends, dwindling after the first shock of the depression had been felt. The March of Fascist Terror In Italy, Germany, Austria, even in Great Britain, the sickness had reached an advanced state, amounting to a crisis of major proportions in Germany. By 193 2 the big capitalists in that country saw that some­ thing had to be done and done quickly if the storm of revolt were to be held back. Fascism burst over the land. Blood flowed from the lacerated backs of Jews. Communists, Socialists, liberals, pacifists, were murdered and tortured. Heads - to use Hitler's own term - rolled in the sand. The rising militancy of the workers was crushed savagely and without mercy. Trade unions were outlawed and those leaders who resisted were thrown into concentration camps or forced to flee the country. The rest of the world is rapidly nearing the same state of depression. Open Fascism has reared its head in France, only to have it lopped off in the monster united front events of February 6th, 1934. In Spain and Austria desperate attempts were made to stem the Fascist tide, partially successful in Spain but in vain in Austria. As early as 1922 Italy fell before Mussolini and his blackshirts. Signs are not lacking that in Canada the most powerful bankers and industrialists are even now considering ways and means by which they can continue their sway. Out of Italy, dramatized in the tragedy of the so-called " March on Rome" (Mussolini travelled in a sleeping car) , came the theatricals of Fascism, the colored shirts, the Roman salute, the storm troopers. But Fascism itself was born in the high intensity of the world situation, in the increasing rivalries between countries, in the necessity of dragooning whole populations to the bidding of the biggest bankers, the richest industrialists. The " totalitarian state'' idea has been gaining in country after country, under varying slogans carefully nurtured by high-powered propaganda machines. Hitler's "National Socialism" and Roosevelt's " New Deal" are brothers under the skin. They both have the same end in view, the re-organization of the capitalist governmental machinery for the benefit of the great industrialists and finance capitalists, the Morgans, the Krupps, the Schwabs. For this program a mass basis must be found and hence the slogans and propaganda are directed to the middle class, to the work­ ers and to the farmers. These suffer under Fascism, their organizations 4 are smashed, their freedom taken away, their standards of living forced down, the racial minorities among them persecuted. Fascism whips up I t nationalism, drives towards war, "organizes" the nation and forces the people to goose step. Brutality and terror are unleashed. I I Italy, Germany, Austria, Japan, Turkey, Spain, Jugo-Slavia, Poland, all have fallen under more or less direct Fascist dictatorships. TheJ United States has a " national recovery" government. Great Britain · has a " national" government. In Canada we are now hearing about " new deals" and Fascism is being openly discussed in academic, political and business circles. In Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, on the Pacific coast, in Toronto, there are Fascist organizations in existence. • J The menace of a " National Government," which at the time of writ- ing is being mooted with increasing emphasis throughout the country, is perhaps the most immediate one facing Canadians todav. This phrase "National" implies that all political parties sink their differences for the common good of the country, making for greater efficiency in govern­ ment. In fact, however, this sort of government means a greater con­ centration of state power, the abolition of political criticism in Parliament, and freedom for the cabinet to act pretty much as it pleases - all these things are steps towards Fascism. It is pleaded by proponents of a "f~a­ tional Government" that the interests of all the people are served. Ex­ perience has shown that this is not so, this type of government really serving in an open manner the biggest capitalists. National governments are resorted to when the party system shows signs of breaking down. The break-up of the party system is the prelude to the "One Party Sys- tern,, - - - F asc1sm.. Can Canada go Fascist? Only a study of Fascism, a knowledge of its background, of the deep social forces that produce it, coupled with a study of the Canadian situation, can supply the answer. • • •

5 The Nature of Fascism

N its essence Fascism is nothing new. Men have often been saddled with dictators. Men have often gone running after them and begged to I be dictated to. When an old economy, a decaying social system, breaks down, men call for a leader who will promise them order in the midst of confusion. They demand in their blindness and dismay that the old order, which is the cause of the confusion, be prolonged. Dictators appear when society decays. When the Roman Republic died the Caesars stepped in; when the feudal order broke down the power of the kings grew; when the monarchies became rotten there were the Napoleons. Each by the power of the State held social progress in check for a longer or shorter period. That is what Fascism does. It expresses the need for centralized authority which appears in a time of economic breakdown and spiritual vacuum. Where that break­ down is still incomplete, dictatorship takes form through the old demo­ cratic channels, is gradual and tentative in its limitations on popular government, pays lip service to the old ideals which economic forces are driving it to abandon. We find such a development today in countries where democracy has long been :firmly established, as in England, France, and the United States. In other countries the breakdown in the social order is so complet~ or so imminent, the confusion and despair of the masses has reached such a pitch of frenzy, that no subtle or mild transition into dictatorship is possible. The masses themselves express their despair in a popular "revo­ lution" which sets up an idol to rule over them. Those interested in the preservation of the old order assist and guide the course of this "revolution". All the creative energies of society are flung passionately into the pursuit of a nebulous and incoherent ideal; the ideal takes con­ crete form in a mass political party, and the party seizes and absorbs the entire machinery of the state. This is what has happened in Italy and Germany. With the seizure of power by the Fascist party four elements fuse to exalt and perpetuate the power of the State: the need in a time of econ­ omic breakdown of a centralized direction of the national economy. the need in a time of international tension of a unified direction of na­ tional policy, the need in a time of spiritual chaos of a passionate affirma­ tion of tribal unity, and last but not least, the human desire of the Fascist leaders for power. These four elements, working through the Fascist revolution, lead to such a deification of the National State as has never before been seen in history. "For Fascism," says Alfredo Rocco, Mussolini's Minister of Justice, "society is the end, individuals the means, and its whole life consists in using individuals as instruments for its social ends." Thus the State is erected into a tribal god of which each citizen is a servant and to which he owes unquestioning obedience. An abstraction has been made a real­ ity. In practice of course the god is not abstract: the State is the Party and the Party is the Leader. The one-party state, the totalitarian state, is merely an instrument through which the dictator operates. He be­ comes the modern counterpart of the deified Roman emperor and the king by Divine Right. The exaltation of the State is merely an excuse 6 for the complete subordination of the body politic to a man or a group of men. This subordination involves of course the complete destruction of democracy and all its forms. Personal freedom and individual liberty disappear. " Fascism," says Mussolini, "bas already stepped over, and if it be necessary it will turn tranquilly and again step over, the more or less putrescent corpse of the Goddess of Liberty." This involves the absorption by the Fascist Party and the Fascist State of all political organizations, parties, parliaments, from the humblest town meeting to the national congress. It involves sooner or later the control, the taking over, the "Gleichschaltung", of all religious denominations and churches. of all professional groups and societies, of all educational institutions, of all farm organizations, of all business and trade associations, of all trade unions, of all organizations of war veterans such as the American Legion. of all youth movements such as the Boy Scouts, in short, of all the means of group expression, political, religious, economic or professional, in the nation. All are appropriated by the Fascists and either dissolved or dominated and perverted for the purposes of the dictatorship. The People cease to exist. There is only the State, that is, the Party bureau­ cracy. It is this which now occupies all the seats of power and privilege, which becomes the machine, the Tammany Hall of Fascism. It is this which establishes and maintains in every obscure corner of the nation the creed and the will of the Party, the "order" of Fascism. We have said that this "order" which Fascism establishes, or re­ establishes, was the old order. We have described it as the reaction of a confused and baffled people to a dissolving social economy. It is only by analyzing what Fascism promises to do, and what it actually does, to that economy that we can understand its essence.

Economic Fascism promises a great many things. It is all things to all men. It promises to further the interests of all the people. It says it is going to end the conflict between capital and labor by ''harmonious collabora­ tion". It says it is going to end the conflicts within industry by re­ straining competition and eliminating waste. It says it is going to end the conflicts in political life by throwing out the corrupt bureaucracies of the old parties and abolishing the meaningless parliamentary squabbles of democratic procedure. It promises first, therefore, social peace and unity. It promises, in the second place, both internal and external expansion for the economic life of the nation. It promises independence of foreign products, economic self-sufficiency, the home market for home-producers. It promises at the same time an increased export trade, a capture of new markets, colonial or foreign. It promises, in the third place, a higher standard of living within the nation. This it calls socialism, because in the countries in which it has appeared the word socialism, if interpreted loosely, has a certain popular appeal. The Hitlerites call themselves the National Socialist Party. They promise to the national economy, therefore, peace at home, expansion abroad, and a fairer distribution of its products. Have they kept, or can they keep, these promises? 7 The promise of social peace they have kept-in a certain manner. The struggle between capital and labor has been closed by the abolition of the right to strike, by the absorption of all workers into national Fascist unions, and by the direction of these unions either by the em­ ployers themselves, as in Germany, or by the Party bureaucracy, as in Italy. The conflicts within industry have been terminated by the en­ couragement of monopolies, trusts and cartels. This policy, of course, is in direct contradiction to the promises of protection invariably made by Fascist parties to small businessmen. Finally, the conflicts in political life are ended by the dissolution of all rival parties, the suppression of their newspapers and organizations, and the imprisonment or execution of their leaders. It thus appears that the Fascists resolve the conflict within the national economy by simply declaring that they do not exist. When faced by a problem their instinct is to suppress it. In the second place, Fascism is unable to attain that national self­ sufficiency which it has promised. It finds that certain raw materials must be imported if its industry is to continue to operate. And it finds that, in order to dispose of the industrial surpluses which its internal market has not the purchasing power to absorb, it must push exports vigorously, in other words rely on those foreign markets of which it boasted its independence. This expansion, backed by the whole power of the centralized Fascist State, eventually will demand exclusive con­ trol over neighboring markets by forcible annexation, or will come into conflict with other expanding Great Powers on pre-empted markets. In either case the outcome is war. Thus the Fascist promise of economic self-sufficiency can never be kept, and that of economic expansion abroad leads directly to another world catastrophe. Thirdly, Fascism is bound by its very nature to fail to bring about a higher standard of living and a fairer distribution of wealth. Socialism to the Nazis is a slogan, not an economic reality. In a debate with Otto Strasser in 19 3 0 Hitler said: "The expression 'socialism' is in itself a bad one, but first of all it does not mean that industry must be socialized, but only that it can be socialized, if it works contrary to the interests of the nation. So long as it does not do this, it would be nothing less than a crime to disturb business.'' It is therefore not surprising to find that in Germany business is operating almost exactly as before the "Na­ tional Socialist Revolution". Philip Gibbs reports in the New York Times of March 2, 19 34: "Hitler and his lieutenants have not begun the socializing part of the National Socialist program ... The leader tarries. He has the power but he does not use it. He does not touch the great industrialists or the big bankers. His lieutenants, in fine new uniforms and fine new caps, seemed pleased with power and forget their ideals of simplicity, austerity and Spartan faith. So much the better, in the opinion of millions of middle-class Germans belonging spiritually to the old order. Their terror, I am told, is lest the real revolution is yet to come." They need have little fear-until Fascism is overthrown. The situation is the same in Italy. The famous Charter of Labor, constitution of the Corporate State, declares: "Art. VIL-The corporate state considers private initiative in the field of production as the most efficient and useful instrument in the interest of the nation." "Art. IX. -State intervention in production takes place only when private initiative is lacking, when it is insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved." As a matter of fact, the corporations, whose es- 8 tablishment was provided for by law in 1926, have not yet come into existence. The Corporate State remains largely a fiction for the con­ venient regimentation of labor and the trusti:fi.cation of industry. The economic machine is still run primarily in the interest of private profit. Nor has the standard of living been raised. In 1928, a year of pros­ perity, the real wages of Italian workers were, according to official sta­ tistics, 15 % lower than in 19 14 and 3 0 'fo lower than in 19 21. In 1930, according to the International Labor Office, real wages in Italy were only two-fifths of those in Great Britain and one-fifth of those in the United States. Although Italy is primarily not an industrial country, more than I, 150,000 workers were registered as wholly un­ employed in 1934 and a quarter of a million others were listed as tem­ porarily unemployed. Italy, moreover, has no unemployment insurance. In Germany, the development has been the same. "Patriotic" wage-cuts have been imposed widely in the last year, and a nation-wide share-the­ work program has been pushed to cut down the staggering unemploy­ ment figure. At the same time, prices of staple foods have risen due to tariffs on their import in the interests of agriculture. Unemployment too, according to neutral observers, has been reduced only by the ex­ pedient of the state's taking large numbers of people off the dole and putting them on public works projects or in Nazi training camps. We have seen that the political "order" which Fascism establishes is essentially the old order re-enforced by new methods and new ex­ pedients. It now becomes clear that the economic "order" which it adopts is of the same character. Fascism achieves peace and harmony by suppress­ ing its difficulties, not by solving them. Fascism cannot solve the economic problem. That is its great weak­ ness. All its other sins, its brutality, its hysteria, its persecutions, are secondary. The reason why it can never permanently succeed, why if the 20th century is to be the Fascist century, it will be a century of bloody war and economic collapse unparalleled in history, is that Fascism refuses to permit men to enter the new era, it refuses to accept the im­ plications of technology. Technology has solved the problem of pro­ duction. The real problem for the 20th century is the problem of distribution. For this the profit system has no solution. Fascism makes and can make no real effort to solve this problem; it is prevented from doing so by both its economic and its psychological characteristics-it is itself the expression of the popular fear of the new era and the popular psychology attachment to the old. It is this fear and this attachment which are exploited by the ruling class to maintain and to consolidate its position by a centralization and a regimentation of the national econ­ omy. Laissez-faire competitive capitalism is perforce abandoned, but .. the profit system remains. The result is state capitalism. Sometimes it is accomplished by the growth of industrial monopoly and the gradual infiltration of the machinery of the state by that monopoly. Sometimes it is accomplished by a full-blown Fascist "Revolution" in which the machinery of the state is taken over wholly and immediately by a Party bureaucracy. But in neither case is the profit economy touched or any attack made up the fundamentals of distribution. "A Revolution" has occurred, but nothing has been changed. In summary then, the economic consequences of Fascism are those inherent in the capitalist system, of which it is the climatic expression. 9 They spring inevitably from its unwillingness and inability to distribute purchasing power, lest such distribution eat into profits. This inability prevents the building up of an adequate internal market for the products of the national industry. Production and consumption are not, and cannot be, balanced. In the effort to balance them by the profit method, the national industry and the Fascist State are compelled to resort to one of two expedients: either limit production and create an artificial scarcity, or concentrate on the export market. If the first expedient is adopted, a lower standard of living follows at once. If the second is adopted, the bitter competition existing in international trade, in a con­ tracting world market, compels a cutting of prices, hence a cutting of costs, a reduction in wages, vigorous technological rationalization leading to unemployment, and hence once again a lower standard of living. The ultimate outcome of the second expedient, pushed to extremes, is of course-war. For the efficient practice of either of these expedients, two more measures prove essential: first, a more complete concentration of industry, leading to the elimination of the small business man, and second, a more vigorous and constant control of the rational econon1y by the State. The economic consequences of Fascism, then, are: trustification of industry and a growing trend towards state capitalism; a shrinking internal market, artificial limitation of production, a lower standard of living for all classes but the most wealthy; an energetiE: invasion of foreign markets leading in the present international crisis ever more direct­ ly to international war. All of these consequences are already apparent in the case of Italy and German y--except the last. How long will we have to wait for that? Italy's openly imperialistic adventure in Abyssinia is an indication of how the wind blows.

Emotional Economic expansion is not the only characteristic of Fascism which leads to war. Equally dangerous is its appeal to the spirit of nationalism. For Fascism in its full-blown "revolutionary" variety is a very special phenomenon. Politically. it is our old friend dictatorship in a new shirt: economically, it is our old friend capitalism with new weapons. But the last century and a half has been one in which at least the forms and phrases of democracy were widely current; political action in one shape or another has become the habit of the whole people. It is no longer possible for reaction to be engineered by a praetorian guard, a man on horseback or a money trust, acting alone. Not only revolutions, but counter revolutions as well, are today made by the masses. In our times only the masses can defeat the masses. The tide of popular discontent and despair demanding a new order can be stemmed only by the tide of popular discontent and despair cleaving to the old order. That is the emotional basis of Fascism. It is the instinctive recoil of the people from the mental re-orientation necessitated by a changing world, it is the psychological lag which holds ways of thinking behind ways of living. It is this psychological" back\vardness which lures the masses into the Fascist parties to defend the very system which is ruining them. It is this psychological backwardness which is encouraged by all the forces of propaganda. newspapers, radio, movies, sermons, textbooks, cheap literature, which are in the hands of the vested interests. It is this 10 psychological backwardness which allies itself with and expresses itself through all the most primitive and the most pern1c1ous mass emotions persisting in society. (a) The most powerful of these is nationalism. This is precisely the sort of mass emotion with which Fascism is most congenial and to which it automatically allies itself. The two were made for each other. Nationalism complements and serves Fascism in two ways. Internally it exalts the "historic mission" and the "sacred unity" of the nation, which provides for the heterogeneous elements contributing to Fascism a cohesive force they would otherwise lack. Externally it provides a common enemy, the foreigner, against whom these elements may unite and which serves to distract their attention from internal difficulties and failures. It is this reckless exploitation of an inflammable mass emotion which, with the drive for foreign markets described above, constitute Fascism's f serious threat to world peace. The nation has been fused into a tense impassioned spiritual whole; national self-consciousness has been exalted and national energy rendered dynamic; a human instrument of tremen­ dous creative or destructive power has been forged. If this instrument cannot be used creatively to reconstruct the social order inside its boun­ daries (and we have seen that it cannot be so used) it will ultimately explode destructively outside its boundaries. Mussolini says: "We are forty millions squeezed into our narrow but adorable peninsula. There are around Italy countries that have a population smaller than ours and a territory double the size of ours. Hence it is obvious that the problem of Italian expansion in the world is a problem of life and death for the Italian race." General Goering says: "When as is the case with Germany, 65 million people live in a small space, it is no use trying to solve the social problem, because the essential conditions for a solution of the problem are lacking. The conditions for the solution of the social problems at home are to build up the outward strength which will there create room for the existence of the individual and of the nation as a whole." The Fascist nations lead in the armaments race; they denounce and persecute as traitors pacifists of all sorts; they subject the entire nation-beginning with the children in school-to military training and military thinking; they tax bachelors and pay bounties for large families while at the same time complaining that they are overcrowded; they announce publicly their need of their neighbors' lands and markets; they profess their devotion to peace and do everything in their power to in­ still in their people a war psychosis. Thus Fascism, not only from its economic and political necessities, but from its emotional nature as well, means war. (b) Closely allied with the spirit of nationalism is the second mass emotion or mass prejudice exploited by Fascism, the glorification of "race." This may be described as the discharge of a national inferior­ ity complex, arising from humiliation or defeat in war. It expresses itself in weird and fantastic theories of "supermen," "chosen peoples" and ''racial souls.'' It gives the humblest follower of the Fascist banner the opportunity to feel himself superior, because he is an Aryan or a Roman or a Nordic. It is directed against all racial minorities within the nation but chiefly against the Jews, since historical developments had placed the 1 1 key positions of finance, trade, and the professions in their hands. It serves Fascism in the same way as does nationalism: first, to exalt the unity of the nation and veil the clashes of interest within it; second, to offer a scapegoat against whom the despair and indignation of the suffer­ ing people can be directed while those really responsible for the catastrophe escape unscathed. ( c) Akin to this mythical glorification of race and nation is the superstitious reverence of the leader-" il duce" or " der Fuhrer-Prinzip"­ which Fascism cultivates. This is an extreme and degrading form of mankind's deep-rooted habit of hero-worship. It is an atavistic revival of the older tribal cult of adoration of the chief. In place of developing creative thinking and democratic initiative, Fascism restores slavish sub­ mission to authority. It is, as we have seen, the eruption of profound social f0rces ; it is the expression of underlying economic interests and ingrained psychological conservatisms bursting forth in an emotional watersprout. The exaltation of the leader, the rapt hanging upon his words, the faith in his empty, opportunistic promises is admission of its weakness and emptiness, its lack of guiding philosophy, the inadequacy of its program. ( d) In the third place, the emotional appeal of Fascism and the psychological backwardness of the people upon whom it relies fuse in an attack on all new thought. Liberals, radicals and progressives of every variety are persecuted and muzzled. Reaction conquers not only the political and economic fields but the cultural and scientific as well. New modes of education, new directions of scientific research, new curiosities in literature and art, new adventures in philosophy are vigorously re­ pressed ; for if the people begin to think what will become of Fascism? This popular fear of innovation and of intelligence, which is exploited by Fascism, centers its attack upon political restiveness among the working class and among those who sympathize with it. Political parties of the Left, when republican or radical, are singled out for especial persecution or for complete obliteration. All working-class organizations are de­ stroyed or co-ordinated to the State. Popular hatred is mobilized against any signs on the part of the wage-earners of independence or initiative, which are labelled as "Marxism" and "Bolshevism." The existence of "labor" as an entity distinct from "the nation" or "the race" is denied. This brings us directly to an examination of the social background and the so~ial significance of Fascism.

Social The backbone of Fascism has always been the middle class. In Italy the small landholders were its first supporters and Mussolini's legions were made up of sons of the middle class. But the situation appears most clearly in Germany. In the ten years following the war the position of the middle class there was disastrously shaken. The concentration of industry proceeded very rapidly, eliminating or making an employee of the small businessman. The parallel development of chain stores had a similar effect on the small shopkeeper. Increased competition for white­ collar jobs and declining opportunities for advancement in those jobs lowered the salaries and status of this group. The professions also were overcrowded and underpaid. Government employees were sacrifu:ed to the necessity for economy on the part of the State. Farmers were pinched 12 between falling agricultural prices and fixed interest rates on mortgages. To this \Vas added the fatal effects of the post-war inflation which wiped out the savings and investments of this class. All of these trends were responsible for unemployment among middle class men and women on a scale which had never before occurred. These people found rugged in­ dividualism and private initiative quite unavailing; they became dependent on society. This was especially true of the thousands of students orig­ inating in this class who every year graduated from the universities and were unable to find occupation of any sort. The effect of this disaster upon the minds of the middle classes was curious. They resented bitterly the development of monopoly capitalism which dispossessed them of their property and independent livelihood and reduced them to the status of employees. They railed against "big business," "monopolies," and " international financiers," Yet at the same time they were deeply alarmed at the growth of radicalism in the working class and at the threat therein to all the institutions and catch-words they held dear. The psychological lag described above came into play. Though the material condition of these groups were often the same as that of the worker, or very close to it, their attitudes of mind remained strictly middle class. They resented being identified with the workers, to whom they had always considered themselves superior. They reacted to the socialist threats against property with the same indignation as if they had still possessed property. Their mental roots remained stronger than their physical necessities. Their real desire, which they were rarely able to formulate clearly, was in some way to remove all the disabilities which capitalism had imposed upon their class while at the same time retaining the privileges with which it had once invested them. What they wanted was a revolution which would go not forward but back. Fascism was, of course, the perfect answer to their mental confusion. It would be a mistake, however, to blame Fascism wholly on the middle-class. As has been said, Fascism sprang from forces of change and dissolution which ran through the whole of society. The working class, too, felt the full impact of the breakdown of capitalist economy. Some of its members were converted to faith in communism; many more joined or gave their votes to socialist parties, which remained socialist in name alone. Most of the workers, suffering from the same psychological lag, infected through its education and the whole atmosphere in which it had grown up with middle-class psychology, remained even more loyal to democratic principles and capitalistic illusions than did the middle­ class. In spite of exhortations from radicals they were not revolutionary and showed slight signs of becoming so. Due to the intensity of their distress and to a reaction against the tactics of the radicals, some con - tributed to the success of Fascism by actually going over to the Fascist parties. But most made their contribution by holding until too late to democratic illusions and loyalties or by wasting in dissensions within their own ranks the strength they should have turned against the Fascist. This is what happened in Italy, Germany and Austria, and what is no\V happening in France and Spain. A third group plays a very vital part in the success of Fascism. This is the ruling class, the plutocracy, the big industrialists and the monop­ olists. It is they who under Fascism, as under any other form of 13 capitalism, dominate society. If through the intervention of the State, Fascism in some measure limits the free play of their activities, it is not wholly pleasing to them. It is, however, infinitely preferable to any really sincerely revolutionary or even mildly radical movement which threatens their profits. The reaction of the plutocracy to radicalism shows itself in three degrees, operating always upon public opinion through the power of its money and through the organs of propaganda controlled by its money. To a mild indecisive, ambiguous radicalism, such as that of the New Deal, it reacts by endeavoring to engineer a return to the days of monopoly control, when the bankers and industrialists ran the country unimpeded by the government. To a more thoroughgoing re­ forming radicalism, taking shape in social services which eat seriously into the profits of the plutocracy, such as that of the British Labor •• Party, it reacts by endeavoring to engineer a veiled form of business dictatorship, in which the public is persuaded by a threat of national catastrophe to countenance the merging of big business and the govern­ ment in a sort of interlocking directorate. And to a frankly revolutionary radicalism, or even to one which it is feared may become so, the pluto­ cracy reacts by subsidizing more or less secretly a Fascist party, and, if this proves necessary, by assisting it to come to power. This was the case in both Italy and Germany where the danger from syndicalists or Com­ munists was felt to be much more imminent than it actually was. Mussolini frankly accepted subsidies from the plutocracy; Hitler was at first more discreet but eventually entered into open alliance with Hugen­ berg, the newspaper magnate, and Thyssen of the Steel Trust. Today it is generally admitted that leading industrialists of France, Spain and England are providing the sinews of war for the Fascist parties of their respective countries. Big business does not create Fascism, but it uses its strength and shapes its ends. It is, however, occasionally contended that, though the Fascist leaders may use the plutocracy in their early struggles, upon attaining power they will act independently of it and even contrary to its interests. The theory is that Hitler, having got the sinews of war from Hugenberg and Thyssen, will turn upon them as soon as he has gained his objective. Politically of course this is plausible; the Fascist Party and the Fascist bureaucracy admit no competitors. But economically it is not so; the economic ends of the plutocracy are, as we have seen, pursued by the Fascist State; Schmitt, Schacht, and the big industrialists behind them, remain in control of German economic policy. The Italian Corporate State, in so far as it has more than a paper existence, is an instrument of the industrialists, not of the middle-class or of the workers. The explanation of this is to be found in the character of the Fascist leaders themselves. First, they too spring from the middle-class; they too have a wholly middle-class psychology; they suffer from the same psychological lag which infects their followers; what they too want is a "revolution" which will repair capitalism witholit touching its essentials. Secondly, as described above, they received in the formative years of the Party very substantial assistance from the plutocracy and are bound to feel certain obligations to it. Thirdly, after coming to power, the Fascist leaders, being inexperienced in the administration of industry and gov­ ernment are compelled to take into their ranks many of those who have previously been engaged in that administration; therefore in many cases the Party bureaucracy and the industrial leaders are the same individuals. 14 Fourthly, any government, no matter how dictatorial, must possess at least the consent if not the active support of the most powerful forces and elements in the nation; and plutocracy with its control of finance and industry remains after as before the Fascist " revolution" the strongest economic force in the nation. Finally, after the "revolution" the Fascist leaders and the plutocracy have a common interest in the status quo, they both are essentially vested interests; they both are conservative forces ; neither wants a change-they need each other. It is for these reasons that Fascism does not and cannot effect an economic revolution. It is for these reasons that the oft-made suggestion that it is evolving or may evolve into some form of state socialism is pure illusion. It is for these reasons that the hopes of the middle-class and of some of the workers that monopoly capitalism is to be broken up and a classless society introduced are doomed to disappointment. Only the plutocracy, the upper crust, stands to gain by Fascism, as it does by any other form of capitalism. We have arrived thus at a fairly clear picture of the social significance of Fascism. It appears as the last phase of capitalist society, after finance­ monopol y capitalism has nearly destroyed the economic bases of industrial life. As in a slowly dying man unexpected powers of resistance surge forth in a last, violent struggle against dissolution, so in the dying society there develops an unguessed obstinacy of spirit and an amazing adapt­ ability to the atmosphere of decay. All the unexhausted forces of the old order, the embattled rapacity of the vested interest, the psychological backwardness of the majority of the workers and the explosive discontent of the middle-class resist the metamorphosis which confronts them. Capitalist society now makes a last, blind convulsive effort to escape its fate and to deny in passionate violence and spiritual intoxication the cancer that is destroying its life. We have seen that such an effort is bound to fail. We have seen not only that it is bound to fail but that in failing it is sure to involve us in complete and disastrous economic breakdown, in a series of appalling international wars and in the most brutal civil strife and repression. The vital question that arises in our minds is whether or not Western civili­ zation can stand this breakdown, these wars, this strife, without dis­ integrating completely and falling into the chaos of another Dark Ages. In other words, can Western civilization stand Fascism? H . G. Wells said the history of the next twenty years would be a race between education and catastrophe. Fascism means the victory of catastrophe and perhaps the end of the Western world. We have this choice . • • •

15 Beginnings of Fascism in Canada

E KNOW now that full-blown Fascism requires for its develop­ ment: ( 1) a condition of near economic collapse, ( 2) the lower W stratas of the population bewildered and desperate, hard hit by conditions and seeking a "way-out", (3) a challenge to the continued rule of capital, ( 4) a disillusionment with democracy among the masses, (5) a government that is unable for various reasons to cope with the rapidly developing political situation, and ( 6) a Fascist organization plentifully supplied with funds and led by men skilled in the art of demogogy. We have discovered that the real purpose of Fascism (as distinct ~ from its stated purpose, a program which is for public consumption only f and not for use in any other way, except those parts of it which serve •J. the needs of the great financiers and industrialists) is first and foremost J to continue the rule of capital. To accomplish this purpose the govern- ment must be in firm and ruthless hands, there must be a complete cen- tralization of authority and no real opposition. The state must be given a unified direction in both foreign and domestic policy. The minds of the people must be diverted from the real issue, their suffering. This means that scapegoats must be found on whom bad times may be blamed -the Jews, Marxists, external enemies, democrats, pacifists, etc. These pre-requisites are not all existent in Canada at the time but the pre-conditions for them are rapidly developing. The Federal and Provincial governments are endeavoring to deal with the situation within the framework of the present parliamentary system. Should this fail, however, there is no lack of leaders who are clamoring to play the role of Canada's Hitler. At this point it should be pointed out clearly that the colored shirts, the abolition of parliament and the other "externals" of Fascism, are really non-essentials. Pilsudski has retained parliament, and "elections" of a sort are still provided for in Italy and Germany, in the former only under the eagle eye of black-shirt functionaries in th~ syndicates' and employers' associations. What is really essential is the concentration of power so that the real purpose of Fascism may be carried through. Political leaders in Canada are beginning to advocate more or less Fascist programs, haltingly at first but nevertheless containing definitely Fascist proposals. Some of these men preach Fascism and at the same time warn against it. They warn against dictatorship, while everyone who has been to Italy since 1922 knows that the blackshirts deny that a dictatorship exists there. Henri Bourassa of Quebec proposes a "back to the land" movement, i urging that the unemployed be put on small self-contained farms and ~ reduced to the living standard of the medieval European peasant. He ' would also take the franchise from all unemployed and ex-service men who are receiving relief in any form. Bourassa also proposes that women be driven out of industry and their places taken by men. He mentions neither Hitler nor Mussolini as his mentors, but these phases of their programs will be easily recognized. Mayor Camilien Houde of Montreal is more open than many of the others and has come out with Fascist proposals, including the "back 16 to the land" scheme. The daily press is beginning to reflect this swing towards Fascism. In almost every edition speeches by political, economic and academic leaders are reported in which the reactionary proposals of Fascism are made. Dr. Henry F. Ward. head of Union Theological Seminary. New York, and chairman of the American League Against War and Fascism. has stated: "Fascism in the United States will come in the name of de­ mocracy." This likely holds true for Canada as well - unless we are able to expose it in its infancy and organize to successfully resist it.

Fascist and Pseudo-Fascist Organizations In Montreal, Mayor Houde has established a series of so-called "Labor Clubs" into which the dregs of the city have been recruited. The Cha­ lifoux "Labor Clubs" in the same city are famous and are typical terror­ detachments. These clubs have supplied hoodlums for any type of Fascist work and they have played the part of storm troopers in breaking up workers' meetings. In this - just as in Germany prior to Hitler's rise to power - they have had the passive and sometimes active support of the police. The Nationalist Socialist Party of Canada, an open Nazi-like or­ ganization. exists in Montreal. Their paper, "Le Patriot", bears a swastika on its cover page and is violently anti-semitic. In the same city there is a Catholic paper. "The Beacon'', which printed the "Theses of the Classocracy League of Canada". in its issue of January 2 5, 19 3 5. This League is completely Fascist and its program advocates the "cor­ porate" state and it even makes use of the Communist hammer and sickle on its emblem in much the same way that Hitler used the Red Flag and appropriated May Day as a Nazi holiday. The emblem of this organi­ zation is reproduced on page thirty-one of this pamphlet. In Montreal, as in every other large Canadian city. there are strong Italian Fascist groups which have the support of the \Vealthy merchants, contractors and employers who are of Italian origin. Recently "The Canadian Union of Fascists" has appeared in a num­ ber of Canadian cities and a convention has been held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This group exists in Toronto and has a "cell" at York Memorial Collegiate Institute headed by a youth named Crate who lives in Mount Dennis. W. F. Elsey of Woodstock is the Ontario organizer. In the summer of 1933 gangs of young hoodlums wearing s\veaters \vith swastikas sewn on them, attempted to clear the beaches district in Toronto of Jews who were insulted and attacked. Counter demonstra­ tions, which forced police action, effectively silenced these budding Nazis. There was intense excitement on the beaches for some weeks. A move, exposed as an official one on the part of Mussolini's govern­ ment, to win Italian workers in Canada over to Fascism is being carried out with the help of consular officers of that country. An "Italian Centre" is to be constructed in Toronto to serve as a clubhouse for workers and as a propaganda centre. The building, which is to be paid for by rich Italians (donations of less than $ 5. 00 are not accepted) is to be owned by the Italian government through the consul. The people who sub­ scribe to the fund sign a paper in which they give up all rights to the money and waive any say in how it is to be spent or how the building is to be controlled. Thus the control of the whole project is in the 17 hands of the consul who is a Fascist appointee. Similar "centres" are planned for New York, Chicago and other large cities on the continent. Many of the Italian organizations are Fascist and their members wear black shirts. In Windsor, Ontario, an organization known as the "Blue Shirts" was started in 1933. From some mysterious source funds were supplied for the purchase of uniforms. The "Blue Shirts" faded out of existence when the workers of Windsor refused to have anything to do with them. In Stratford, London and Toronto, unsuccessful attempts were made to set up this organization. The National State Party, better known as the White Shirts, appeared vigorous for a short while in Toronto. This Fascist group has a plan for troops of "White Guards" into which workers, professors, artists, and other classes and groups will be organized into respective sections. The "leader" is Frederick Mullen and headquarters are maintained. The record of Ex-Mayor Webb of Winnipeg, and of Whitaker, a Canadian Legion officer, reek of Fascism. Webb, avowedly Fascist in his utterances, supported a newspaper known as "The Trumpeter" which had as its main policy anti-Communism and which was anti-Semitic as well. The Communism attacked by this paper made no distinction between real Communists and Social Democrats. The 1935 Mayor of Winnipeg, John Queen of the Independent Labor Party, for example was branded a Communist along with Alderman Jacob Penner, a Communist. Whitaker headed the Winnipeg organization of the Nationalist Party of Canada and claimed a large membership. The full Hitler program of terrorism, complete with the theatricals of brown shirts and Nazi regalia, characterized this group. They publish a paper called "The Nationalist". Anti-red, anti-Semitic, and anti-C.C.F., the "Nationalist" was also anti­ liberal and it has played a big part in developing Fascist sentiment in Winnipeg. Recently a court injuction was issued against Whitaker and his "Nationalist" restraining the paper from publishing libels against the Jews. Whitaker's hoodlums staged demonstrations and at one time suffered a severe defeat on the market square when workers on their way home from their factories went into battle against the brown shirts. This de­ feat was in spite of the fact that two truck loads of " knuckle dusters", black-jacks, and other terrorist street-fighting weapons were hidden near by. After the battle it was revealed that the trucks, which belonged to the Fascists, also contained pieces of lead pipe and studded clubs. The Fascist movement in Winnipeg grew to such proportions and became so violently anti-labor and anti-Semitic that the Jews were forced to form a defence corps to protect their stores, and labor also organized against the menace. In Calgary an organization known as the "Knights of Confederation", a Fascist group, has been formed.

Storm Troopers in British Columbia In British Columbia, where the "Fascist Party" and other sympathetic groups exist, the connection between Fascism and big industry is crystal clear. In the coal mining districts and in the lumber camps hired thugs, 18 without the "romantic" accoutrements of colored shirtst have deliberately smashed union meetingst thwarted union organizers andt with unbridled terrorismt have beaten up dozens of workers. Not once has the police force acted against these hirelings of the mining and lumber companies. "The Friends of New Germany" , a part of Hitlert s propaganda ma­ chine, exists in many cities and towns of Canada and is carrying on active work in the German Clubs. Many of the Germans who are settled in Canada were formerly members of the Social Democratic Party or of the Catholic Centre Party in Germany. The propagandists play skill­ fully on their national feelings and have won hundreds over to the Nazi faith. German Fascism is particularly active in the universities where "cells" have been established. Professor Karl Gerhardt formerly of the University of Western Ontario at Londont played a part in Nazi propaganda in this country. According to Gerhardts own statements he joined the National Socialist Party of Hitler when it was a small organization re­ stricted to l'vlunich. When he joined the Nazis Hitler was unimportant in Germany and ridicule was heaped upon his little group. Hitler then appeared as ludicrous as Whitaker appears today in Winnipeg. In the same universityt men like Professor Hartley Thomas, openly praise the "totalitarian" state and are not above quoting false statistics to beautify the Fascist rule. The most significant Fascist group in Canada and the only one with any real mass support at the present time is led by William Aberhart, in Calgary, Alberta. With a program known as the "Aberhart Social Credit Scheme", this man has been carrying on a campaign of demagogy un­ paralleled in Canada. He promises a $25.00 per month dividend to everyone andt added to this straight bribe, he has adopted the whole program of Fascism. Aberhartt who is a spell binder able to whip his audiences into hysterical enthusiasm, speaks three times weekly over the radio and there is a real threat that he may at the next provincial elections actually win the legislature. He carries on a violently anti-Semitic propaganda, in­ cluding distribution of the notorious "Protocols of Ziont'. He is viciously anti-Soviet and anti-Communist. His main mass base is among the destitute and almost destitute farmers. These manifestations of organized Fascism in Canada - by no means completely listed here - are now scattered and small and without any mass basis. The various brands are divided along national and sectional lines and have made no great inroads that are apparent in Canadian think­ ing. This does not mean, however, that they are unimportant. All that is needed is a strong mant well supplied with money by frightened millionaires, and these forces could be drawn together and organized.

Econoniic Background In Italy the Fascist Party seized power and subsequently, over a period of years, installed the Fascist economic order. In Canada, on the other handt as in the United Statest a tentative state capitalism is slowly and imperceptibly growing up around us. At the same time the political trend has lagged and the mass Fascist parties are only now in their embryo stage. Because of the pressure of economic conditions and the 19 ·stress and strain of class conflict the political factors are developing at an enormous rate. The rapid development of the C.C.F. and of the revolu­ tionary Communist movement, paralleling decades of development in Europe, are both indications that Canada is quickly reaching political maturity. "I am amazed," said John Strachey, the British writer, during his recent visit to Canada, "at the speed \Vith \Vhich the Canadian political scene is developing. It is apparent that this country will within the next year or so reach a state that took European nations 5 0 years to develop." We have seen in Canada since Confederation in 1867 a phenomenal -growth in Canadian industry and finance. Under the conditions of the World War we have seen Canada change from an exploited, semi-colonial country into an imperialistic power in her own right, a position that is now legally recognized within the Empire where Canada is an equal partner with Great Britain. What is more important, we have seen a concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands that is unequalled in any other country in the world. At the time of Confederation, when Canada had a total population -0f 3,000,000 people, there were 28 chartered banks with combined assets of $71,000,000. Today, with a population of 10,500,000, there are but 10 chartered banks with total assets of $2,806,012,623. This un­ usual degree of economic centralization renders much easier and more natural the transition into a control of the national economy by the :State in the interests of the monopolists, which we have seen is the very .essence of Fascism. The new Central Bank may easily be used to hasten this process while Canada still continues to wear the mask of democracy. When private enterprise and laissez-faire competition fail to avoid an -economic break-down, the mass of the people itself demands a measure of governmental intervention. In such a case this intervention may be -carried out through normal political channels. The power of the state is then used by the monopoly capitalists to make these changes in their -own interest. The state intervention sought by the masses of the people has a two­ fold end, to raise living standards and give a measure of economic security to workers and farmers who have been buffeted by conditions and haunted by the spectre or the reality of unemployment, and, secondly, to curb the big industrialists and bankers who have rightly come to be looked upon as the chief exploiters, the ruthless enemies of the people as a whole. Before proceeding with the analysis of the Canadian economic background, let us look back for a moment. We see that in the capitalist countries where state intervention has been carried furthest (Germany, Italy, the ·united States, Great Britain) neither of these results have been attained. On the contrary, living standards have been driven lower and monopoly capital, instead of being curbed, has greatly increased its power. Why is this?

Canada Must Export Mr. R. B. Bennett on his return from the World Economic Confer­ .ence in London stated that Canada is an exporting country and cannot afford expensive social legislation. He meant that unemployment in­ -surance, for example, would place a heavy charge upon industry and thus raise prices which must be charged in the export market. This would 20 react unfavorably to Canada's export trade. Following this through to its logical conclusion we find that; if it be true that living standards cannot be raised because of the exigencies of Canada's export trade, then might it not be necessary for the Canadian capitalists, in order to hold their export business, to launch a campaign of wage cutting, coupled with an attack upon farm prices? We remember that this necessity brought Fascism to both Germany and Austria where strong, well organized labor movements were in a position to fight back against any attempt to further slash their living standards. Before the capitalists could carry through their program they had to smash the labor opposition. Professor Alvin Harvey Hansen, professor of economics at the Univer­ sity of Minnesota, has pointed out that social legislation prior to the Hitler regime placed a 9 per cent charge upon German industry, ra1s1ng production costs by this amount with an inevitable reflection in export prices and a decline in export business. In Canada the trade balance, the ielation between exports and im­ ports, was adverse in 1930 and 1931. In the years since, including last year, the balance has been favorable, a condition brought about by the lowering of Canadian living standards. Mr. R . B. Bennett's remark as he came down the gangplank of the ship that brought him from the­ Economic Conference shows that he is fully aware of the role which he must play as the political leader of big finance and industry in Canada. But there is a point below which wages or relief or farm incomes cannot be cut without social repercussions on a vast and (for the bankers and industrialists, extremely unpleasant) scale. Great Britain, admit­ ted! y on the advice of her creditors, tried to do this on February of this year by cutting the dole. The immediate result \Vas a movement of pro­ test that involved millions of workers. Demonstrations were held all over the country and in Wales, according to the estimate of the New York Times correspondent in England, 300,000 workers demonstrated on one day. Unable to resist this tremendous pressure, the minister of labor announced in the House of Commons on February 5th that the­ government had surrendered and the dole cut was withdrawn. Had Sir Oswald Mosely and his black-shirted British Union of Fas­ cists been in power the cuts would have been put through easily because there would have been no trade unions, no unemployed councils and no political parties able to offer resistance. The demonstrations, which were organized, of course, could not have taken place and any opposition to the dole cut would have been smashed ruthlessly and quickly in the name of patriotism and "loyalty to the state". As we have seen, Fascism must outlaw every organization of the working class or, as an alternative, must tie these organizations directly to the state machine where they will be under complete control. Mus­ solini has put over no less than five separate wage cuts by decree since 1932, these in addition to the cuts made in the normal manner by the Italian industrialists. There are workers in Italy who receive less than 8 cents per day. In Germany and Austria deliberate attacks have been made by state decree upon standards of living. In Austria before the heroic struggle of the workers against Fascism in February, 1 9 3 4, the balance of Austria's trade was almost two to one against her. In 1932 her imports amounted to 1,402,639,000 schillings and exports to only

21 783,810,000 schillings. This trade balance meant little profit, an un­ balanced state budget and constant demands from the big bankers. The standard of living of the workers had to be cut down and, with the trade unions and the Socialist party in the way, this could not have been accomplished. Fascism resulted. Is this deliberate governmental policy of wage cuts, relief cuts and lower farm prices apparent in Canada? Is the attempt being made to concentrate state power, to augment the administrative power of prime ministers in Canada? Although it would be incorrect to label Mr. Bennett a Fascist, he has been forced to adopt certain planks from the program of the Fascist dictatorships. In Canada, as in other countries, there has been a grow­ ing popular swing away from democracy. This takes the form of a contempt for parliament and for politicians, a rising indignation at "par­ liamentary ineffectiveness," against corruption in government, against the obvious pettiness and fraud of party warfare inside and out of parlia­ ment. The reason for all this, of course, lies in the fact that government measures have done little to mitigate the effect of hard times. President Roosevelt in the United States and Mr. Bennett in Canada have both assumed the strong man role, the Canadian prime minister even going so fare as to state that he would tolerate no opposition to his program. Roosevelt in a speech at the height of the last strike wave in the United States stated frankly that if strikes endanger the "new deal" then strikes must be outlawed. According to Professor Hartley Thomas of the University of \Vest­ €rn Ontario, a man who declares that he is a believer in the corporate state of Fascism, one of the main characteristics of Fascism is that it derides democracy as ineffective, leading to useless chatter. A strong man, backed by a disciplined party, is free from all the red tape of democ­ racy and can act quickly and decisively. One after another our Cana­ dian provincial governments are demanding from their legislatures special powers and are instituting legislation restricting the rights of workers organizations. Mr. Bennett's "blank cheque," the Patullo "Special Pow­ ~rs Act" in British Columbia, are only two examples. The classic example, however. of Fascization in Canada is the Arcand Bill in Quebec. Under this bill the provincial cabinet may, by passing an order-in-council, make any wage agreement binding upon the whole of an industry in any given area, both employers and employees. The agreement so ratified and made law may have been sanctioned by only a small group of workers, even by workers dictated to in a company union. In Italy the "Labor Courts" occupy the same position as the Quebec cabinet. In each industry in Italy there are two main divisions, the syndicates of workers and the associations of employers. An agree­ ment reached between syndicates and associations are binding and have the force of law within the whole industry even though only 10 per cent. of the workers are organized into the syndicate. The similarity here is clear and Quebec has been rightly called "The Fascist Province". As we have seen, the externals of Fascism, the Roman salute, the shirts, etc., are non-essential and the program can be carried through without these things. We have seen that the economic pre-requisites are developing in Canada for Fascism. The political pre-requisites are not lagging far behind. 22 Emotional Background Open Fascism in Canada will undoubtedly be anti-Semitic and will likely be anti-Catholic as well, the latter in the predominantly Anglo­ Saxon provinces where militant protestantism is a tradition. The rise of Fascism in Quebec thus presents a situation that is likely to become more and more complicated as time passes and as the economic situation develops. Quebec, jealous of "provincial rights" because she is able thereby to evade the advances (such as votes for women, minimum wage restrictions, etc.) that have been won in other provinces, is ready to fight centralization involving revision of the British North America Act. The :financial barons of that province, which is already dubbed even in Liberal circles as "The Fascist Province," wish to continue the low wages and lower standard of living for the workers. This gives them a great advantage in manufacturing, particularly textiles, tobacco, etc. The low wages in Quebec are used in other provinces as a club over the heads of the workers. Trade union leaders often report that employers threaten to move their factories to Quebec "where we can get cheap labor," and very often this threat is carried out. Religious differences are often used by big employers to keep their workers divided. What part is this likely to play in the future of Fascism in Canada? In Germany the Jews, as a racial minority, were blamed for the ills of the country. The Fascists claimed that the biggest capitalists were Jews and thus the Jews as a race were blamed for exploiting the people. It was also claimed that many Jews were Communists and a double excuse was supplied for attacking them. This served to divert the attention of the Germans from the real issues and to inflame them. In Canada anti-Semitism is developing and our Fascist organizations are crudely antagonistic to the Jews. In this country, however, there is this latent religious question, kept alive by certain fraternal organizations, which can easily serve the same purpose, that of dividing the workers and at the same time divert their attention from their plight. In the United States the Negro will be the scapegoat. Not only is anti-Semitism part of the stock-in-trade of our embryo Fascist organizations, but it even appears officially in our universities, schools, hospitals and other surprising places. It is a well known fact that many hospitals will not accept Jewish internes except under excep­ tional circumstances. It is often difficult for Jews to rent apartments in certain buildings even when these buildings are owned by Jews. It is explained that tenants would leave if Jews were admitted. Many cities have unofficial restricted areas in which a real estate agent would not dare sell a house to a Jew. "Jews not wanted" signs have been tacked up at bathing beaches (Ipperwash, Toronto Island, etc.). Latent anti­ Semitism exists in Canada and awaits only a breeze to fan it into a raging conflagration. The Fascist organizations in Canada know of these prejudices and make use of them. They are likely to become the basis of their emo­ tional appeals. In Canada the great numbers of foreign born workers will undoubt­ edly feel the full force of the Fascist attack. Although Fascism vents verbal fury against the "capitalists" this is simply window dressing, as Hitler and Mussolini have abundantly proved. The attack against radicalism, however, is perfectly real and the main 23 attack of Canadian Fascists will be against Communists, Socialists, and the trade unions. Many of the Fascist groups make use of the Maple Leaf and other national emblems and will try to whip up the same degree of chauvinism as in Germany under Hitler. The outbreak of a war with its intense patriotic appeal will thus fertilize the soil for Fascism in Canada. The main base of the Fascist emotionalism, however, rests in the economic plight of the masses of the people who are willing to grasp at almost anything to save themselves when the circumstances are ripe. The average run of high school and university graduates, their future a blank page, are not likely to think deeply when a strong wave of demogogy strikes them. Persecution of the Jews offers them the professional places and the jobs now held by Jews. War offers them excitement and jobs. Fascism offers them war.

Social Background Earlier in this pamphlet \Ve traced in some detail the developments which made the middle class of Germany highly receptive to Fascism. Many of these developments have already taken place in Canada. The concentration of industry and merchandizing has bankrupted or made employees of many thousands of small business men. Government codes can only hasten this process by forcing the smaller "marginal" business firms out of competition. Small shop keepers have suffered severely from the competition of the chain stores. Every relief officer can tell of men who in 1929 owned their own stores and who are now on relief. The over-crowding of \vhite collar jobs and professions, increased by the thousands of university ~nd high school graduates turned out every year, coupled with the almost total lack of organization in these occupations, has reduced great sections of these groups to an economic position com­ parable to that of the manual worker. Farmers have been in a state of chronic and growing distress for 12 years and in the west are now resorting to violence in defence of their interests. Even in Ontario the tobacco growers, desperate because of low prices, have staged demonstrations. All of these groups are suffering either directly or indirectly from unemployment. The only element lack­ ing is a serious currency inflation leading to a disappearance of fixed assets. There is no lack of inflation advocates in Canada. Should "new deal" schemes fail, as they inevitably must, we may look for such inflation both in Canada and in the United States. The recent "gold decision" of the U.S. supreme court was a test of the legality of inflation in that country and paves the way for it on a grand scale. The establishment of the Central Bank of Canada with the right of note issue leaves the way clear here and guarantees that big industry and the banks will not feel the shock. The middle class in Canada is thus rapidly becoming pro­ letarianized as in Germany while, in point of view, it remains as stub­ bornly and aggressively capitalist as ever. We have seen that a class thus pinched between economic necessity and political and psychological back­ wardness, is fertile soil for Fascist propaganda. The Canadian working class finds itself divided in the face of in­ creasing Fascization - the main condition for Fascist victory once the movement gets under way. To pave the road for this victory it is neces- 24 sary for our great capitalists, through their political and economic power and their control over the avenues of propaganda, the press, radio, etc., to further divide the workers. This process we see taking place and the governments of Canada, whether consciously or unconsciously, are playing a major role. The unemployment insurance plan now passed by Parliament ignores the great majority of the workers and creates a division in their ranks. The unemployed have been used by municipal, provincial and Federal governments as well as by industry as a weapon with which to batter down the wages of the men still employed. These are cases in point. The Arcand Bill in Quebec which sets out zones in which wages differ is another example. Three great trade union organizations exist in Canada, the All-Cana­ dian Congress of Labor, the American Federation of Labor and the Work­ ers' Unity League. Here is more division. On the political field, Labor is split into two great wings - the revolutionary Communist movement on the one hand, and the labor sec­ tions of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation on the other, the latter being a federative organization including farmers, workers and middle class people. The great masses of the Canadian workers, however, are still under the influence of the Conservative and Liberal parties or have no stable political preference at all. These unorganized workers, struggling against heavy odds, bewildered and confused, are easy prey for the :flashy promises of Fascism or for the Fascization propaganda of the " new deal". Under the heading "The Fascist Process" in Canada and in the conclusion these workers' groupings will be discussed again. The main consideration at this point is that the working class is divided and thus unable to present a common front against their class enemy. This condition, it will be remembered, existed in Germany where the Communists and Social Demo­ <:rats failed to form a united front against Hitler.

The Farmer in Canada "Whosoever controls the farmers controls Canada," a politician once said. It is not generally realized that a farmer's vote in this country is worth twice as much as a city-dweller's vote. The rural constituencies contain about 25.000 people each, the city ridings about 50,000 on an average. Therefore. under the parliamentary system. the farmers are theoretically twice as powerful as the workers and middle classes com­ bined. They are, however. much more powerful than even these figures would imply because the capitalist parties, which are, of course. con­ trolled by big business, realize the growing class consciousness of the workers and have "gerrymandered" the ridings in such a way that many city constituencies have a large rural section attached on the theory that the farmers are much more conservative. The farmers, much more than the workers, have realized their position and in the aggregate their degree of class consciousness is greater. This is shown by the number of farmer members in the House of Commons and by the powerful farm groups in the legislatures of Western Canada. So far our budding orthodox Fascists have ignored the farmer. In Germany and Austria the farmers constitute a strong mass basis for Fascism. Between them and the work­ ers, despite the Fascist talk of "unity," a wedge has been driven, a wedge that only now is being chipped out bit by bit. 25 Fascist demogogy makes a special appeal to the farmer, promises to curb the bankers, to hold the city speculator in check, to cut down the­ power of the big corporations, and give the farmer a special " new deal". Once in power, Fascism forgets its rosy pledges and at once attacks the­ farmers, forcing their living standards down so that farm products, just as in the case of industrial commodities, may be sold abroad at prices low enough to beat competitors in the world market. Finally we come to the fourth group, the plutocracy, the big indus­ trialists and :financiers, how will they react to Canada's proposed " New Deal" ? They will react in very much the same manner as suggested in the first part of this pamphlet. By observing the reaction of this class in the United States to the " recovery" program there we can reach a pretty fair estimate as to what their Canadian counterparts will do. To quote from the pamphlet " Fascism" : " They (the American cap­ italists) have once more given abundant proof that capitalism cannot re­ form itself, that the vested interests never do and never can think beyond tomorrow's profits, and that any rational attempt to save the system in spite of them encounters their unyielding and savage opposition." (See Henry Ford's article in " Liberty" the week of February 17th.) After recovering from their first panic in 1933 they have launched upon a cam­ paign of sabotage and evasion against all measures tending to check or control their predatory instincts, and upon a campaign of propaganda for a return to the " American traditions" of rugged individualism and laissez-faire. Should business improve they would probably, as sug­ gested above, be successful in this campaign, and we would step once more on the delirious merry-go-round of expansion, boom and crash. Should business not improve, and should the government therefore launch upon a continued control of industry and upon necessary social services and state expenditures (necessary to keep the masses from taking direct action to obtain decent standards of living) taken from the profits of capital, we should see an attempt on the part of the plutocracy to install the veiled form of business dictatorship now existing in England and France. And should this, too, prove ineffective and should a continu­ ing and growing unrest manifest itself among the masses, we should expect to see big business beginning, as it did in Germany and Italy, quietly but energetically to subsidize the Shirts and prepare the country for Fascism." Let us look at this in another way. In 1914 when war became neces­ sary between the great powers of the earth in order to steal markets from one another and to crush economic competitors did the plutocracy hesitate before sending a grand total of 65,000,000 young men into con­ flict, including in many cases their own sons? We know that they did not. What then will they do when conditions threaten, not the size of their profits, but actually their right to make profits at all? Will they be any the less ruthless? Further light on the ruthlessless of big capital may be seen in the­ increasing use of terror against strikers, the increasing use of the police­ and the soldiery to suppress and break strikes. Stellarton, Stratford, Nor­ anda, Guelph, Flin Flon, and dozens of other battlegrounds, stand as examples. The changing role of the red-coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police from a purely criminal-chasing organization into a political police force provides still further indication. 26 The Terror in Canada The use of such legislation as Section 9 8 of the Criminal Code, the sedition laws, the passage of the David Bill (which sets the police up as censors of publications), the attacks on the right of free speech, organ­ ization and assembly, are signs of advancing Fascism. The years 1932, 33 and 34, show a continuous upward curve in the :figures showing the number of arrests, convictions, beatings, and deporta­ tions involving strikers and working class leaders. These figures are ex­ tremely significant, pointing as they do to the basic questions discussed in this pamphlet. There has been a rising curve of class terror. Exact :figures are, of course, not available for any of these years, but of the reported cases alone there were 1, 3 7 7 workers arrested last year, 1,167 in 1933, and just above 1,000 in 1932. At the present time there are more than 100 political prisoners in Canadian jails, including strikers. The first six months of 19 3 2 shows the following summary: 45 6 arrests, 13 2 convictions, sentences totalling 73 years, 5 3 demonstrations smashed by police action, 125 workers beaten up or "wounded'' by extra-legal police action, 30 cases in which literature was seized (books, pamphlets, newspapers, etc.) , 105 raids on meeting halls, 3 3 political deportations, 4,507 unemployed deported (many "veiled" political cases) during the fiscal year 1931-193 2. The 1933 figures are as follows: l, 167 arrests under the following charges: 6 under Section 9 8, 1 manslaughter, 2 sedition, 15 0 assault, 208 rioting, 45 unlawful assembly, 1 under Section 92 of the Criminal Code, 308 under Section 501, 3 for wounding, 2 for carrying dangerous weapons, and the others under various minor charges such as vagrancy, disorderly conduct, breach of the Railway Act, collecting and distributing literature, etc. The total number of convictions obtained was 368, 17 appeals were won and 7 lost, two workers were killed, 201 were beaten up, one having his eye knocked out, 26 workers were deported as polit­ icals, 19 deportations were stopped, 45 meetings were broken up by the police and 119 raids were carried out. During 1933 the Canadian government sent troops to Stratford at the time of the furniture strike. These soldiers, two companies of the Royal Canadian Regiment under Col. R. J. S. Langford, were armed with Cardon Lloyd "baby" tanks and machine guns. In the Anyox strike in British Columbia one of the destroyers of the Royal Canadian Navy steamed to the scene ready to land men or to fire her guns which were trained on the shore. Military airplanes were sent to the strike at Rouyn. The year 1934 showed an increase in this trend towards police ter­ ror. The American Federation of Labor began to feel the iron heel and police swung their batons against several picket lines, notably in the Guelph strike led by the International Ladies' Garment Workers. The A. F. of L. strike of bakery workers in Toronto and a bakery strike led by the Workers' Unity League were both attacked by police and arrests made. During 1934 there was a total of 1,377 arrests made as a result of the economic and political struggles of the workers. 1, 19 9 of those arrested were strikers. There were 409 convictions obtained and sen­ tences totalled 99 years, 4 months and 2 days. During the year 67 6 27 workers were beaten up, about 100 being seriously injured. Police broke up 112 meetings and picket lines, raided 3 5 other meetings, and used tear and exhaust gas 25 times. There were 9 political deportations dur­ ing the year and 20 deportations were stopped. Significant in 1934 was the kidnapping of two union organizers who were tarred and feathered. The R.C.M.P. who "always get their man" have so far made no arrests in these cases and have shown that they have no intention of making any if to do so means intensive police work. The increasing use of the courts by employers to obtain injunctions against strikers is another sign of the times. The "crimes" for which workers were arrested in 1934 included: 119 for unlawful assembly; 2 0 2 under Section 501 ; 2 2 0 for rioting; -4 under the David Bill, Quebec; 16 for conspiracy (7 under a law of 13 00 A.D.) ; 41 for assault and wounding; 1 for sedition; 1 under Sec­ tion 92; 1 under the Lord's Day Act; and 772 for minor charges, such as vagrancy, common assault, etc. These figures show a considerable excess of arrests over convictions, clearly indicating the illegal nature of many of the arrests. In strike struggles, eviction cases and under other similar conditions, the habit of the police is rapidly getting to be "arrest first, figure out a reason afterwards''. It thus appears, in conclusion, that any complacent assurance that Fascism cannot come to Canada is largely a product of either superficial or wishful thinking. On the contrary, Fascism might very well find fair and fertile soil in our deepest rooted emotions, in our most charac­ teristic economic institutions, and in the psychological attitudes of our strongest social groups. Those cherished ''British institutions" which we look upon as the very bulwark of our freedom might easily be so twisted that they would be the very vehicles of Fascism. We see in Canada today all the essential elements scattered and unsuspected over the Canadian scene. In conditions of sharpening crisis may not these ele­ ments grow together into the hideous monster which has overwhelmed Ger­ many and Italy - if we do not take steps in time to prevent it? • • •

28 We ~an Stop Fascism

XPERIENCE has shown that Fascism can be defeated. This can be accomplished only by a unified mass movement under competent E leadership. This movement must, above all, be realist. The leaders and the rank and file must have a clear conception of what Fascism is, what it means to the various classes and strata of the population. Illu­ sions and prejudices must be cast aside among those who are united. The Canadian League Against War and Fascism has put forward a program which, if organizations and individuals in sufficient numbers can be rallied, will save Canada from the curse that has fallen upon so many unhappy countries. Members of trade unions, political organiza­ tions, fraternal groups and other organizations, should obtain a copy of the League's program (printed in full in the Report of the Toronto Con­ gress) and study it. They should bring the present menace to the floor at their meetings and endeavor to have their organizations affiliate officially to the League and take part in the activities. This is vital. Without the trade unions and other great mass organizations of the workers it is futile to talk of defeating Fascism. No one can make us Fascist if we decide not to be. Fascism is not inevitable here nor anywhere else. Only the Canadian people can make Canada Fascist. We have seen in our analysis of Fascism that its so-called "social order," which is actually the same old capitalist system giving the ap­ pearance of order but veiling the most profound economic and spiritual disorder, is not in the interest of this people or of any other people. The only group or class in society which it ultimately benefits is the ruling class, the plutocracy, plus the Fascist bureaucracy. All the other elements of the people, the middle class, the working class, the farmers (which together constitute more than 9 5 per cent. of our population) suffer in the long run under Fascism far more than they do under milder forms of the profit system. They have a common interest, the greatest common interest to ever spur a mass movement in human history, if they only knew, in stopping Fascism. Yet it is among these very elements that are to be found those most susceptible to Fascism and without whom Fascism, supported only by the plutocracy, could never conceivably come to power. As we have seen, the potential strength of a Fascist movement lies among: the students who come from middle class backgrounds but can find no middle class jobs; the white-collar, professional and small business groups who have lost their position and their independence (90 per cent., for example, of the architects in the United States are unemployed and dentists are mak­ ing less than 25 per cent. of their 1929 incomes) but not their pride and attachment to past privileges; the farmers whose economic security has been destroyed but who remain blindly loyal to the traditions of a pioneer era; the conservative workers who are compensated for poverty and want by the memory of the equality of opportunity which existed on this continent sixty or seventy years ago, those reactionary trade union leaders who have a vested interest in their jobs, and the great mass of unemployed of all classes who in their desperation will follow any man or any gospel that promises enough and denounces enough. 29 All of these elements exist in Canada today. It is the task of the Cana­ dian League Against War and Fascism to work among these groups, to organize them, to educate them, to show them that Fascism settles nothing and makes no fundamental change, in short, it is the task of the League to build a mighty mass movement around a common program of action. Fascism is not inevitable. It is only by hopelessly giving up the fight that we make it so. Fascism is in the individual a mental complex arising from fear and ignorance, and in society a political reaction against econ­ omic progress, the last attempt of a ruling class to hold the rest of us in subjection to its interests. It is the victory within us and within the social order of the past over the future. It is the instinctive recoil of the cautious and the conservative in human nature from great adventure and -great achievement. We can beat it at its very heart. We can conquer that ignorance and erase that fear by a vivid explanation of the security and satisfaction which the new social order holds for each one of us. We can overcome that political reaction by winning from it the chief groups which give it strength. We can root out from within us and from within society those relics of the past which prevent us from realizing our future. We can unite in a real battle against the old order all the elements which Fascism drives into sham battles against each other. We can appeal to the daring and the forward-moving elements in human nature which have always made the master of great adventure and great achievement.

The Plan of Action The plan of action of the League is included as the final word in this pamphlet as follows: l. To form committees against \Var and Fascism in every important in­ dustry and centre, particularly in basic war industries. To secure the support of all organizations and individuals seeking to prevent war, paying special attention to labor, farmer, veteran and unemployed or­ ganizations, and to interest as well the middle classes. 2. To organize mass meetings, demonstrations, lectures, parades and sim­ ilar activities in order to make popular this Plan of Action, and to publish leaflets, pamphlets and journals. To agitate and propagate for the widest struggle against war and Fascism. 3. To work towards the stopping of the manufacture and transport of munitions and war supplies through mass demonstrations, picketing and strikes. 4. To demand the transfer of all military expenditures to the relief of the unemployed and the replacement of the present inadequate relief mea­ sures by a system of unemployment and social insurance and an ade­ quate public works program. 5. To expose everywhere the extensive preparations for war and to op­ pose all developments leading to Fascism in Canada. To resist the increasing use of armed police against the workers and farmers and to fight against the suppression of the workers' rights to strike and picket. To uphold freedom of speech and assembly for the workers. To op­ pose such Fascist measures by our federal and provincial governments as Section 9 8, the Arcand and David Bills in Quebec, and the growing Fascist tendencies in all provinces. 30 -0. To give effective aid to all anti-Fascist :fighters in those countries where Fascism is either established or threatening. 7. To specially enlist women and youth in the movement against war and Fascism and to secure the sympathy and interest of the teachers, university professors and leaders of all youth organizations. 8. To protest against the arbitrary and Fascist-like banning of papers, books and periodicals by the federal government and to insist upon the right of the citizen to decide for himself what literature he will read and import.

Above is the emblem of the Classocracv League of Canada, a Fascist organ­ ization sponsored by the clergy. See page seventeen.

31 OFficers and Endorsers of the Canadian League Against War and Fascism

Officers: National Council: A. A. MacLeod, Dr. Salem G. Bland Chairman. Mrs. Anna N. Sissons B. Robinson, Thomas Uphill, M.L.A. Rabbi M. N. Eisendrath Vice-Chairman. Dr. Rose Henderson E. A. Beder, Mrs. Elizabeth Morton Secretary. E. A. Beder David Goldstick, Leslie Morris Treasurer. Kenneth W oodsworth H. Palermo Fred Hodgson, Thomas A. Ewen Publications. A. A. MacLeod Fred Fish Endorsed By: R.ev. A. E. Smith Alderman R. Morris Pierre van Paassen A. D. Schatz Morley Callaghan W. Knight Henri Barbusse D. N. Brodie Romain Rolland ]. R. Tuthill Dame Sybil Thorndike W. Wiggin Lord Marley A. W. Atwater Ernst Toller Alderman J. Penner John Strachey Charles Perry Prof. Harry F. Ward Robert Gorelet Robert Morss Lovett Mrs. Agnes Sharpe Rab bi Edward L. Israel Mrs. L. Mendelssohn Dorothy Detzer Mrs. R. Rodd Dr. George A. Coe Arthur Mould Prof. George S. Counts Bert Robinson Maxwell S. Stewart Peter Hunter Prof. E. C. Lindeman S. A. G. Barnes Lincoln Steffens W. Smith

32 • •

•

_..

I

•