The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread to over 1400 cities in the U.S., involving over 250,000 people. The powerful corporate media has tried, unsuccessfully, to smother the movement. The widespread use of brutal police terror to dislodge peaceful protesters is providing a glimpse of what American fascism could look like.
What is fascism? Why is it developing now? Fascism is the naked, unrestrained rule of corporate power. It is arising now because the capitalists need to secure corporate private property in the face of a changing economy and potential challenges to their rule.
Fascism has not been fully unleashed because there has been no serious organized resistance. The rapidly deteriorating economic situation is changing all that.
Millions are losing their jobs, homes and livelihood. Although the rulers will try to disorient the developing mass struggle, ultimately, they have no solution for them outside of fascism. Its features have been developing for some time. It is seen in the merging of the corporations and government which is the political foundation for fascism. It is seen in the widening police brutality, the rounding up and deportation of immigrants, and the stripping of democratic rights, with the excuse of the “terrorist” bogeyman.
Old repressive laws have been updated and new ones have been written. For example, under the so called “REX” program, the President could declare a state of emergency, empowering FEMA to take control of the internal infrastructure of the U.S. and suspend the constitution. The President could invoke executive orders that would 1) draft all citizens into work forces 2) register all men, women and children, 3) seize all airports and aircraft and 4) seize all housing and establish forced relocation of citizens (i.e. concentration camps). All is in place awaiting only a presidential declaration to be enforced by both military and civilian police.
The reality is that this country is in trouble and cannot be fixed without changing in the economic relations. Nothing less than replacing this militaryfinancial oligarchy with a co-operative economy where everyone’s needs are met can save it.
Fascism is not inevitable. We have already seen the little victories that can be won when we stand together against an immoral system that creates such abundance for one section of society, while one in five U.S. workers live in dire poverty. We, the people, have truth and justice on our side.
