November 15, 2004
Is Fascism Possible Here?
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
Fascism.
The very word evokes dark, menacing images of troops,
marching in lockstep, in support of a terrible, malevolent
ideology.
In a word, it suggests the followers of Mussolini in Italy,
or Hitler in Germany.
To most of us, its very mention suggests its foreign
nature; its Otherness.
Therein lies its danger. For, because it is seen as a
foreign ideology, the inevitable idea arises: "It can't
happen here."
Those who say this, either don't know, or don't want
to know, American history. They prefer the safe myths,
to the ugly truths of how this country came to be what it
is.
What is fascism? In short, it is the merger of state
and corporate interests.
What is totalitarianism? On April 23rd, 1976, the U.S.
Congress issued its Final Select Committee report,
which charged:
We have seen segments of our Government adopt
tactics unworthy of a democracy and occasionally
reminiscent of the tactics of totalitarian regimes.
... [T]he chief investigative branch of the federal
government [FBI], which was charged by law
with investigating crimes and preventing criminal
conduct, itself engaged in lawless tactics and
*responded to deep-seated social problems by
fomenting violence and unrest.* [From Dr. Huey
P. Newton, *War Against the Panthers: A Study
of Repression in America* [Ph.D. Dissertation
(New York: Harlem River Press, 1996), p. 110]
Six months earlier, then-Sen. Walter Mondale (D-Minn.)
would make similar comments as he opened hearings
into the COINTELPRO revelations. On Nov. 19, 1975,
he stated:
.... Yesterday, this committee heard some of the
most disturbing testimony that can be imagined in
a free society. We heard evidence that for
decades the institutions designed to enforce the
laws and Constitution of our country have been
engaging in conduct that violates the law and
the Constitution. We heard that the FBI, which is
part of the Department of Justice, took justice
into its own hands by seeking to punish those
with unpopular ideas. We learned that the chief
law enforcement agency in the federal Government
decided that it did not need laws to investigate
and suppress the peaceful and constitutional
activities of those whom it disapproved.
Sen. Mondale added, on the floor of the Senate:
We heard testimony that the FBI, to protect the
country against those it believed had totalitarian
political views, employed the tactics of
totalitarian societies against American citizens.
We heard that the FBI attempted to destroy
one of our greatest leaders in the field of civil
rights [here, he refers to Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.], and then replace him with
someone of the FBI's choosing. [From: U.S.
Senate, *Hearings Before the Select Committee
to Study Governmental Operations With Respect
to Intelligence Activities:* [ (Vol.6)-F.B.I.
(Wash., DC: U.S. Gov't Printing Office, 1976),
p. 61.]
The state waged war against its own alleged
'citizens', with impunity.
But now, years after these hearings, thanks to the
cleverly-named U.S. PATRIOT Act, what was illegal
during the COINTELPRO era, is legal today. People
who have opposed the Iraq War, or other actions of the
Bush Regime, have been beaten, pepper-sprayed,
framed, jailed, and tortured, in Los Angeles, New York
City, Philadelphia, and beyond -- for following their
alleged 'rights' under the 1st Amendment. They have
been caged, and corralled into so-called 'Free Speech
Zones!' Which almost literally begs the question: If
cages are 'free speech zones', what do you call the
huge tracts of land and air that are outside these
cages? Non-free-speech zones? And virtually
every judge who has been asked to protect the
people's rights to protest and assemble, over the
cop's 'right' to cage and repress, has gone the
cops way.
Fascism -- the merger of state and corporate
power -- has made the struggle of workers for an
8-hour day, for the right to unionize, for vacation
days, for collective bargaining, one stained with the
blood of thousands of martyrs, martyrs for labor,
like many of the members of the Industrial Workers
of the World (IWW), known as the Wobblies. They
were beaten, thrown off trains, jailed by the dozens,
framed, and slain, for defending worker's rights.
Fascism is more than a funny-sounding word; it
is dyed deep into the fabric of American life; and
creeps forward today, under cover of 'Law.'
[*Sources*: Newton, H.P., *WATP*.; Donner,
Frank. *The Age of Surveillance: The Aims and
Methods of America's Political Intelligence System*.
(NY: Vintage, 1981); McGuckin, Henry E.,
(Memoirs of a WOBBLY) (Chi.: Kerr, 1987).]
Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
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"When a cause comes along and you know in your bones that it is
just, yet refuse to defend it--at that moment you begin to die.
And I have never seen so many corpses walking around talking about
justice." - Mumia Abu-Jamal
Posted at November 15, 2004 11:54 AM