This thread is an offshoot of a discussion from the thread should 13 year old's be allowed to vote - how is THAT for an odd digression 8) .
It can be assumed that with few exceptions people view the rise of Fascism as an undesirable series of events that occured from aprox 1919 to 1945 and its ultimate defeat ( there are certainly older roots and arguments to be made for its ongoing growth and development however this is focused on Europe in the time between the 2 world wars and the countries involved in that conflict.
The two main Fascist States being discussed are Germany and Italy ( Spain was certainly a Fascist State however it's role on the world state was rather minor ) .
There are several key players that are suggested for discussion . In alphabetical order : England , France , the Soviet Union and the United States .
If I recall correctly, Russia kinda screwed Romania with the Molotov-Ribentrop agreement, which led to Antonescu's rise to power.
The Soviet Unions non aggression pact and the secret agreement to co-invade and divide Poland between themselves and Nazi Germany certainly was their greatest failing in allowing the growth of Fascism .
Englands appeasement policy allowed Hitler to gain much needed popularity and successes that solidified his hold.
France's harsh actions towards the Weimar Republic and reversal to passivity with Hitler was also a major factor in boosting Hitler's status.
And finally America's willingness to do business and allow trade deals with all combatants for the years before it's direct involvement in WW2 must be acknowledged.
I think some private industrials funded the rise of fascism for fear of communists coming in power. Rather fascist than socialist. Spain war should also be included in this topic I think.
You don't need to dig 80 years in the past for fascism. It's stronger than ever now, and world over too.
I also believe that in 80 years from now, they will say the same things about our inability to stop global warming as we are saying now about the league of nations and various governments inability to stop Mussolini, Hitler and Franco.
That is, if the humans that's left then have time to think of something else than fighting each others with stones and sticks for scraps of polluted food.
Which is why all true people revere the Dead Kennedy's.
post 3 , i would argue that the ussr communist party in its lack of support for the german communists such as karl liebnicht and rosa luxembourg was far more important ,
germany was on the brink of revolution , the communists if they had support from russia would have nipped the fascists of the nazi party in the bud before they could grow stronger ,
this didnt happen russia became insular , i wonder if theyd been on track for world revolution instead that our present could have been so different ,
post 5 , a checklist on whether your govt ticks any of these 14 characteristics
ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.htmlI’m from Spain and I must say that Franco wasn’t fascist: he was an opportunist. When the fascist regimes were powerful, he sided with them, and when the Cold War raged, he was another anti-communist authoritarian regime. Soon before the ending of WWII Franco began the change in government. The only permitted party, FET y de las JONS (Falange Española Tradicionalista y de las Juntas Ofensivas Nacional-Sindicalistas) was purged (not in the Stalin’s way, as most of the purged people just got expelled from the party) and the leadership was filled with people loyal to Franco and not to the ideology of Falange in the past (a fascist one, but with it’s own way, more similar to the Italian fascism). So yeah, I would say Spain was not all that fascist after all, although the term is very hard to determine…
