Q317 Transcript

Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

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Jones: (unintelligible word) the day. You know we have a individual [Joe Mazor] who may be a provocateur who has given us information about the CIA being after us. (Pause) (unintelligible under tape drag) and Charles Garry and Don Freed and so Mark Lane is convinced of this, but we are not to be taken in easily. Be friendly and insist, all smile, to whomever they pass. If someone asks you how you like it here, say, fine, say, wouldn’t be a– anyplace in the els– else in the world. Have your own words. Say, I love it here. Think you’re going back? No, I don’t want to go back. That’s the kind of thing– Know your PNC, People’s National Congress, Dr. Forbes Burnham, our prime minister, do not call him Burnham as one child did yesterday. Give him respect. Or Comrade Burnham, you can call him that. And, say why you don’t like the opposition, it’s because once the wife of the opposition leader [Cheddi Jagan], Mrs. Janet Jagan appeared– appealed to race. Apanjat, which means, vote your own kind.

Now, I see all our people idling around. In front of the o– office steps, I saw– I watched for a good 15 minutes, somebody just standing around the office. That is no place to be hanging around. There are children going along here unescorted. There are people not working. I have been up all night, I still have my temperature, and I’m still doing my work. There’s a lot of affidavits, a lot of things that has to be finished, a lot of questions that have to be answered, and I’m telling you, there’s no way for rest. It would look to me like, with all these people coming, you would volunteer yourself, and I’m asking administrators to get a hold of these people wandering a– wandering loose, go through the houses, get them out, because this is ridiculous. They just walk along nonchalantly, s– pac– pac– poking one another, like they have nothing to do, when we’ve got our people’s lives to think about, getting them to freedom. I took note for some time while I was working in the yard. I took note, and I’m telling you again that you will be brought up. If the flyswatters are not used, tonight you will be brought up. Because everyone coming will understand the need to fight flies.

The only one we don’t talk to in the terms of socialist rhetoric is when the individual is there that is in question. I’ll give him a li– a little– a gre– great handshake, I’ll give him a great handshake. The other, I will ho– I will hug. Charles Garry, I will hug. And the other women, I’ll take their hands too. But the one man– there’s only t– going to be several l– uh, distinguished leading women in the Woman’s Revolutionary Socialist Movement, and Charles Garry. It may mean that the (pause) culprit will not come in till tomorrow, but ke– keep him in mind.

If he comes in tomorrow, then you’ll know exactly who he is. He professes to be very much pi– sorrowful over what they’ve been doing, but he’s a businessman, and he has said openly, he doesn’t like socialism, he isn’t that fond of blacks, but he didn’t like the kinds of things they were suggesting doing. Murder, kidnap, and other such mercenary activities. He said it was too much for him. And he bes– he was scared till they got him on the airplane, he required accompaniment all the way on the airplane, till it started for Guyana, and it is now l– in the air, for Guyana from New York. He is to met at the airport, as already instructions have been given, and he’ll be given protection there all the way.

Also the Ministry of Immigration, if there’s any fooling around with the man, have already promised that they will do a fine search. If he has a tape recorder, it will not leave Guyana. If he has anything that is uh, questionable, he will not leave Guyana. If he has a tape recorder, he will not leave re– or a re– Guyana or a movie camera, or even his little candid camera. He will not l– leave Guyana. We should feel strong that we have that kind of uh, alliance with people and that kind of unity with them. Because we are not going to be caught in a situation where somebody’s trying to use us, where they’re playing both sides. And there’s often– You heard the double agent, so there’s not going to be anything for that person to see but happiness.

There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. Again, I ask the teachers, if they will, for this day, to cut it short and the– as much as the medical staff can, and the Public Services Union and the inspectors to get over this place, and look at what you think is an eyesore. If [you] find if there’s a urine smell anywhere, do something about it. They were very impressed by our bathrooms, the Ministry of Health lady was very impressed, because she said it did not– did not have the uh, odor that normally bathrooms do have. And they will be– they will be, uh, indeed, satisfied if they are honest people, uh, l–we presume that none of these ladies are anything but members of the Socialist– (Pause) Party, PNC. And I think that the provocateur will make it tomorrow, be– He will not be coming in with Charles, he’ll be coming in with Don Sly, who’s a– a little man who can always handle things. Ha, ha. So he– if there’s a– (Off mike) Hmm?

(Voice off mike, too soft)

Jones: And uh, we will uh, tell you more about the developments, but right now, I demand absolute work, there’s so much to be done, there’re so many eyesores, and I ask– not– me– have to show your– the eyesores again and again. Up around the entrance where you drive in. There could be something done, it’s– could be something done. We could scrape off a part and keep the trucks on just one part of it. But not just all over the place. If we can, and if there’s any way to put some beautification, even a little painting or what it may– it goes a long way. A lovely painting that hangs on the wall of the kitchen– uh, uh, the dining entrance where it’s screened, something to give the appearance of– of youth and a– aesthetics and a homey touch, so I’m asking now that every supervisor crack down. They follow in your example. If you’re not working and playing around, don’t talk with them. If it’s your time that you’re doing something of an office nature, or doing some particular work, do not let people come up to your uh, office, they only use it– that’s the only reason they come, to avoid work themself. And we cannot have work being avoided these days.

We’ve got to get on top of this thing. Because certainly the CIA is going to step up every effort against our church in retaliation, though we will at least have a good image in America, they will know us for socialist, but the CIA’s not going to be happy about the fact that four of their operati– operators have been revealed: [Tim] Stoen, Deanna Mertle, Jim Cobb and [David] Conn, the man you would not know, who’s high up in the Standard Oil Company, who made contact with the Treasury agents and who was petrified– was moving furniture, as you remember, around his doors, and said he would be until uh, that uh, goddamn Chris Lewis was no longer around. So we have three people that had motive for murdering Chris Lewis. This man must know something about it. And we’re going to see that he answers us some straight questions, and nobody can be straighter than Dad. We’re going to ask, who killed Chris Lewis? We’re going to ask because we believe that’s what happened. The only hope is that he knows all the operation. We know he knows where the money comes from, because he hired the public relations firm that started to tear us down, just days after we ap– appealed to Senator [John] Stennis and the Air Force against the illegal act of Stennis sending two Air Force officers [Thomas Dawsey and Leon Joly] from Kessler Air Force Base with something that must’ve been an explosive to blow up our San Francisco church the day that beautiful black mayor, Unita May Blackwell Wright, was there praising socialism. Communist China, in fact, I think it was.

All right, we shall give you a little bit of the news. We want you to keep up with the news, no matter where you are and what you’re doing. It’s important that you keep up [with] the news. I want to see– Now when I finish this, that everyone has implemented my request. I want you to s– be sure that we’re following that advice. I will not take laziness the next few days. We will be just as tight, because these people all believe in structure, so don’t think if this prick comes in here, uh, and an agent, he wants more from us, we can keep him out of jail, so he won’t be having a word to say about our structure, and the Women’s– they know what it is to be structured, they believe socialists should structure. There’ll be no cussing by anyone, no cursing.

We– We go on uh, revid– reading that tape. That tape should be played in the library all this afternoon, until the guest arrive. We work eight-hour day, we have the best foods, we have meats, fruits, vegetables, uh, name some of the fruits, plantain, we have paw-paw for a fruit, we have orange, lemon, lime, uh, plenty of bananas, and we have okra, we have all sorts of uh, (Pause) beans and we have all sorts of greens. (stumbles over words) Some of us can help you with you. It’s on the tape anyway. And that you live in a house where you have four people beside yourself, or some people can say five, uh, uh, say it’s a m– m– I’m living with a married couple who’s retired who has their grandchild with them, uh, or an adopted child with them, if you name five. I don’t think everyone should say there’s just four in your quarters. Say we’re building more, and we will point them to the fact that where we are building more. But we want you to be sure that you listen to that tape, and that tape may be played out at the finish of what I have to say, and then you be sure that you listen to it damn, damn closely. That’s the best thing, to play it out, and you better listen to it, force yourself to listen to it, because you make a mistake, you are hurting yourself very desperately, and you’re hurting a lot of innocent children. Stand by. (Pause)

(Tape edit)

It’s the last stage of monopoly capitalism, or what they call finance capitalism, and the major concepts at that. Uh– I want to dwell with the origins of words used for fascism in its different forms. Fascism as a more overt, blatant form of class dictatorship. Whom fascism serves. Why capitalism finally resorts to fascism. Is there a fascist ideology? The two sides of the ideology, the antecedents of the fascist ideology, and break that down, uh, uh, the things before, that go before fascism. How the first fascist state came about. How Nazism arose. How Phalangism, which is now the Christian Phalangist of uh, Lebanon and the Phalangist Party of Spain. [Francisco] Franco was a close ally of [Adolf] Hitler, he called his Fascism the Christian Party. Nearly all Christian Parties are fascist, by the way, in the world. Nearly all of them, without exception. How– o– only Ethiopia is the only one I can think of right now. How Fascism spread through Europe. The future of Fascism, the revival of Fascism, and the reasons for the same. Fascism in the United States and Europe. Fascism is Latin America. The necessity of understanding all the various forms contemporary Fascism takes, and how dangerous. Imperialism– (covers mike) Carolyn [Layton], Carolyn, Carolyn – (back to mike) Imperialism never content simply to develop uh– Never– Stand by just for a moment. (speaks away from mike, unintelligible)

(Tape edit)

–(unintelligible word) to develop, diversionary theories to seer– to steer the masses away from the just struggle against oppression and exploitation, turns to torture and exploitation. That means, using people, using things, using countries. Turns to torture and crime when the peoples rise up against the tyranny and the murders and the unfair court system and so forth. Then we find Fascism coming. And it’s important to know what Fascism is. (Away from mike) Sly’s in here. Do you (unintelligible word)

(Tape edit)

– like you’re seeing in the postal offices, like you’re seeing in the paper mills and in the lumbering business, as also we’re seeing amongst even police and firemen and coal miners. Well, fortunately, the big boss sell-outs of the unions have kept the people from rising together and forming a general strike, like they have in Peru and Colombia and getting nearly all their socialist rights, even though the military was a rightwing. And that means a fascist regime. But when the people do rise up against the crimes (pause) that have been committed, when the people rise up against the tyranny it sows and it has difficulty maintaining its dominion, though the deceptive– through the deceptive classic forms of so-called representative democracy, Fascism then is one of the systems imperialism resorts to.

(Tape edit)

Humanity has known this barbarous and criminal system of oppression– (Pause) Stand by. All humanity have known this (clears throat) barbarous – that means utterly bestial, inhuman – and criminal system of oppression under a variety of different names. The first being Fascism in Italy, Socialism leader once– Benito Mussolini was a socialist, but he allowed himself to rationalize the bourgeois life, and he was prejudiced against people of color and the Jews, so he turned away from Fascism, which is really state capitalism, to go– I mean, he turned to state Fat– uh, Fascism and state capitalism when he had been a socialist all of his life before that. No matter what particular form it has taken, because in essence it is the same wherever it is found, now or in the past. (Pause)

It made its first appearance in Italy. There is– There it took the name and symbol used by Fascio – F-a-s-c-i-o – d-i Combattimento – C-o-m-b-a-t-t-i-m-e-n-t-o.

A lot of you are confused about Fascism, and you have written me about it, and that’s why I’m trying to give you, and I’ve written this thing up, a uh, basic understanding of what Fascism is. It’s the last stage of capitalism, and USA’s very close to it. It was Fascism that took over when Z, the people exposed too much of the corruption of the army, you saw them take over, ban music, ban uh, everything and put people in concentration camps, throw them out of windows openly. Uh, uh, Fascism p– disregards all human rights.

Well, Fascio– Fascio di Com– Combattimento was the originator of the symbol, set up by the renegade socialist Benito Mussolini, whose emblem was a bund– bundle of rods, fa– fasces, f-a-s-c-e-s, or fa– fasces [different pronunciation]. Hence, Fascism and Fascist. That’s how it started.

Fascism made its– a second appearance– made its– a second appearance in Germany, taking its name from the National Socialist German Wor– Workers Party, Nazi, organized by former corporal Adolf Hitler, who turned out to be a murderer. Hitler (pause) then controlled the German Workers Party, and tricked them by the use of the word “Socialist.” Many socialists were tricked into following Hitler because he used the word “Socialist,” but his real emphasis where he took power was on nationalism. And that’s why nationalism is always the enemy of international struggle of socialism. But anyway, he took control of the German Workers Party, then controlled the German worken– working uh– small working parties that were he– not so well organized. And he controlled (Pause) uh– Then he founded in Munich, Bavaria, by one Bretzler, Hitler became the party’s top leader in 1920 of all labor class. (Pause) It’s a little difficult to read my notes.

This– the third appearance Fascism made was in Spain, where there existed two Fascist-type organizations, following the anti-mono– monarchy, anti-king– kingly revolution of 1931. One of these organizations (Pause) was led by the son of the military dictator who had lied– led– who had (pause) led by the son– uh, well, let me see– One of the– these organizations was led by the son of the military dictator who had ruled under King Alfonso XIII. This organization was called the Spanish Falange – F-a-l-a-n-g-e– The leader’s name was Jose Antonio Primo de (stumbles) Riviera ­– R-i-v-e-r-a– The other organization was called the Council of National Trade Unions Offensive, IONS. The two organizations fused in 1934– Stand by for just a moment–

(Tape edit)

–fused in 1934 and together took the name of the Spanish Falange of the IONS – I-O-N-S – which is now it– how its members came to be called Falangist. These were the origins of the names of the major Fascist organizations in Europe in the third and fourth decades of this century, and they were always consistently Christian.

Facing Fascism further. Uh– Fascism is a class dictatorship, with a different– difference– distinct difference. For a while, capitalism rules through the classic dissimulation of parliamentary systems and the so-called three bran– branches of power, although we’re seeing in uh– in Washington more and more that they don’t really have any power, they at least have the appearances of working through the institutions of the Congress and so forth, and through the Executive, a President. But we find the Executive, whatever he promises in USA, he disn– does not get to carry out. Either he’s a total liar, or he’s a victim of fascists who threaten to kill him. So, capitalism still works through – allegedly, on the surface – legislative– legislative and judicial, and uh, democratic uh, so-called the uh, social democracy concept, which you know as a socialist, international socialist, the major enemies of international socialism are Trotskyism, revisionism, anarchism and social democracy, and the major enemy parts of revisionism is that revisionists believe you can do things gradually, that you never do anything violently, no matter how violent your oppressor, and that you can work within the system. That is why revisionism is so dangerous. (Pause)

Anyway, Fascism exercise[s] open dictatorship, using terror, assassination, violation of the law, people disappearing in the night, never to be heard of again, and exploitation of man’s basest passions. Fascism serves a– the interest of the big capitalist monopolies and their allies, the feudal landown– landowners. It serves everyone of the rich ruling class. The feudal landowners, the monopoly capitalists. Fascism arises when the capitalist cannot continue exercising their distimulated (Pause) dictatorship. They can’t, in other words, go through the appearances that they do really have freedom, and that at about that point, it’s been said by the president [Jimmy Carter], he thought at one time, he was going to have to put the state– the– the entire government under the army, under martial law, he said that just a few weeks ago, because of the postal strikes and the police and the firemen and the workers– mine workers–

(Tape edit)

–or Nazism – N-a-z-i-s-m – Nazi or Fascist movement arise where the capitalist cannot continue exercising their distimulated dictatorship, their appearance of democracy. From the beginning of the twentieth century, the working masses began to rise in rebellion against capitalist exploitation. The glorious October socialist revolution of our motherland– (gives Russian pronunciation) [Vladimir] Lenin, Lenin, Lenin, (returns to regular pronunciation) as we know, where it took place, (gives Russian pronunciation) Russia, Russia, avant garde, Russia, avant garde. (returns to regular pronunciation) In Russia, the advance guard, where that revolution took place in that great October socialist revolution, led by Vladimir Lenin. The glorious (Pause) revolution accelerated the world revolutionary process. The workers had proof that the power of the bourgeoisie, the materialistic mi– upper mi– the middle class who think they’re really in control, but they’re still not a part of the ruling elite, like the Tra– Trilateral Commission, but nonetheless, they’re part of the capitalist process. They’ve accumulated too many goods, too much money, while only a majority of them – and there’s a mass, even in USA, that barely can make enough food to eat, (stumbles over words) the power of the bourge– bourgeoisie could be destroyed. It was shown. (Pause) The governments of a number of European capitalist countries tottered, several monarchies, kings and queens fell, parliamentary rule, or rule by the so-called façade and circus of Congress, was no longer a sure guarantee. The monopolies and their administrative boards which are the bourgeoisie governments, organized themselves to look for new and more drastic ways of fortifying their class dictatorship.

Thus in the years following the great October revolution in the Soviet Union, 1917, there were a number of coup d’etats – that means overthrows, military overthrows – in countries where the crisis had become most acute for the bourgeoisie. Those are the rich– the rich ruling class. The richest of the bourgeoisie are calling– called the monopoly elitist, the fascist elite, but the bourgeoisie are the enemy of the workers also. Where that difficulty of crisis became more noticeable and acute for the bourgeoisie governments – Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Spain, Greece – conditions were being created for the rise of Fascism. (Pause)

(Tape edit)

–ideology. That means every point of view is of a class nature. From this, one can deduce that if Fascism is a phenomenon born of capitalism in decay, it must naturally sustain an ideology as corrupt and rotten as the stage the social class engineering it is passing through. That makes sense, doesn’t it now, comrades in Jonestown. Still, Fascist ideology is an amalgam, a whole group of theories, which in contrast to that sustaining the bourgeoisie, when they are still not experiencing great difficulties in exercising power, presents itself more bare-facedly, though nevertheless resorting to demagogy, dictatorship of the worst for– form, and to deceiving the masses.

A summary study of the doctrines and theories of Fascism leads to the following points. Submission of the masses to the state, to the mi– ruling group, whether it be the party or the military junta. That’s a military dictatorship, uh, we call juntas, j-u-n-t-a. Junta. And to the leader. Chief or Fuehrer. That was Hitler’s word. F-u-e-h-r-e-r. Fuehrer. That means leader. The absolute denial of the role of the masses. Blind subordination to the will of the chief.

By the way, when you’re speaking to socialists, you never speak in terms of crowds, like USA does, or mobs, you always speak uh, of the masses of the working class. Otherwise, any Marxist would doubt that you know what you were talking about.

The Fascist state, as above all classes, class struggle is superfluous. (Pause) Superfluous [different, but incorrect pronunciation], rather, and harmful. The state, under the direction of the Superman, who is the chief, assures the general well-being of the people. In compa– companies, the boss is the chief, whom the workers are obligated to follow and obey, like a dictator. If there should be a bad capitalist, it fails– it falls to the state to put him in his place. But it seldom does anything about its own boss managerial class. To hide the real lack of rights for the people, the fascists create the so-called corporate state. (Long pause)

(Tape edit)

–cessary interruption to answer questions. Which groups – capitalists, landowners, peasants and workers – are led by the chief. Though the Fascists weren’t the originators of the theory of racial superiority, it was the Nazis of Hitler’s Germany who were– most developed the idea with their treaties [treatise] on the inferiority of all people – black, brown, Asian, even those who were not blue-eyed, blond-haired Germans. It was the Nazis– the Nazis in Germany who developed the idea with their treaties on the inferiority of all but the Aryan race, and that Aryan race included only Scandinavian people, the light-skinned, blond-haired people of Germany, and he in– was kind enough to include part of England and part of Scandinavia. That’s why Hitler was reluctant once to uh, attack England when he could have uh, defeated England. England had set him up by their very class consciousness, the inequality of their class consciousness, because the English government was just as racist as Hitler was, and just as anti-Semitic.

An a– A Fascist theoretician even affirmed, the non-Nordic man is a link between man and beast. He is closer to a monkey than to man. He cannot be called a man in every sense of the word. This racist theory was not only used (pause) within the Fascist countries, but served them as the justification for the conquest of other peoples.

Another element of this theory is geopolitics, which on the basis of geography posi– pro– uh, position, in other words, population growth and ethnic superiority – that means certain races or nationalities are superior – claim the right to expansionism at the cost of other principles to obtain Lebensraum uh, or Liebensraum, room, land for their own kind. It called L-e-b-e-n-s-r-a-u-m. It’s a German word.

By the way, this doctrine of racial in– uh, superiority put out by Hitler and his renegades was quite strange, because– and it did cause some contradictions. Hitler was never too close to the Nazis. In fact, when the m– Allies invaded, they welcomed them as liberators, because even Italians and Greeks and Albanians and Spaniards are considered to be less uh, of value as a human being. They are not Aryans. Hitler was a madman. If he had taken over the world, goodness knows what would happen.

The exaltation of war as the natural state uh– as the natural state of man is an essential part of Fascist ideology. (Pause) The cult of Fascist heroism comes from this cult of war, that is, the readiness to die in wars of conquest. One of the outstanding features of Fascist ideology is nationalism.

Now you all better be listening to this, ‘cause you’re all going to have to know this. This explains, once and for all, to the dozens that ask me, what does capitalism mean, what does it mean. Now the uh, teachers will break this down, they’ll help you understand it.

The exaltation of war as the natural state of man is an essential part of Fascist ideology. The cult of Fascist heroism comes from this cult of war, (Pause) that is, the readiness to die in wars of conquest. Unfortunately, some socialists that I know around here are not even prepared to die for liberation of other people. Fascists become blind in their worship of conquest, uh, comes out of the most uncivilized part of man’s subconsciousness.

One of the outstanding features of Fascist ideology is nationalism. In its most corrupt form, chauvinism, racist intransigence ­– in other words, they won’t give in – hatred for other peoples, preaching oppression and conquest. Fascist ideology is frequently masked in a social movement for socialism. It usually proclaims itself anti-capitalist, its demagogy (Pause) on this point has gone to great extra– uh, great extremes. Another of its characteristics is anti-intellectualism. A Spanish Fascist or Falangist general [German playwright Hanns Johst] once said, “When I hear someone mention culture, I take out my pistol.” The Fascists substitute brutalization of the people for the reason and the intelligence to which end– for reason and intelligence to which end they use they use all the modern methods of propaganda and publicity, resorting to repeated and bold-faced lies. There have been and still are the major explo– expressions of the Fascist ideologies, modified to some extent as in the neo-Fascist– new Fascist states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. As regards the ideas of Aryan racial superiority, Mobutu [Sese Seko] and [Augusto] Pinochet are not Aryans, but they are still– or at least, Pinochet is still in the Fascist camp. There’s some question that Zaire, with this treaty with Angola, may be moving out of the Fascist camp entirely.

Fascist ideology has certain historical antecedents, things that go before it. For example, the philosophical irrationality of Frederick Nietzsche – N-i-e-t-z-s-c-h-e – you can read him, then you’ll know more about him – and his cult of the Superman and the superior race. The racist theories of Joseph Arthur D. Gobineau – G-o-b-i-n-e-a-u – and of [Neville] Chamberlain, great uh, capitalist, uh, USA part of the– Eng– England, part of the one that tried to set up Hitler to kill off all the Communists and Jews. And they also expressed themselves, their theories (Pause) the– the racist theories of Joseph Arthur D. Gobineau and of Chamberlain, social Darwininism– social Darwininism, the geoper– politics of the German Karl Haushofer and other– that name is H-a-u-s-h-u-f-e-r –

You better uh, do some discussion with your neighbor, and use some research in your library, why social Darwininism – D-a-r-w-i-n-i-s-m – could turn into a form of Fascism. Pretty easy, if you stop and think. And other (unintelligible word) thinkers who rose up against science and social morality, and raised to the forefront the basest passions and instincts of man.

The first Fascist state, as I said, (Pause) arose in Italy, (Pause) the heavily-populated country, which, along with Germany, arrived late for the sharing of the colonial spoils of the nineteenth century, emerged from World War I, though it was one of the winning powers, with a terrible general crisis of its economy. Often these (stumbles over words)– these crisises that we’re seeing now, runaway cost, low wages, high inflation, always lead historically to Fascism. That’s why US is not far from a Fascist dictatorship. Italy lost in that war more than half its navy, 635,000 people in uh, World War I were killed, half a million were mutilated, (Pause) and a million and a half were taken prisoners of war. Its working class and peasantry rose up in a powerful mobilization and strikes in which millions of men and women participated, the Italian bourgeoisie, which wasn’t able to benefit from the war, was extremely worried at the rise of the working class, the proletarian and peasant movement, the farmer movement. It was necessary to establish order in the country, to smash the revolutionary movements, and create conditions for imperialist expansion. The Italian bourgeoisie relied on a small group of rightwing socialists expelled from the Socialist Party who met in Milan– Mila– M-i-l-a-n – in March of 1919, and who, a few days later, led by the renegade socialist Benito Mussolini – M-u-s-s-o-l-i-n-i – created the Fasci – F-a-s-c-i – de Combattime– uh, Combattimento – C-o-m-b-a-t-t-i-m-e-n-t-o. This wasn’t the only group of its sort at the time, since there was another group of war veterans organized at the beginning of 1919 as the Arditi – A-r-d-i-t-i – Association, shock troops of Italy. In the fall of that year, rightwing extreme poet Gabriele D’Annunzio – A-n-uh, n-u-n-z-i-o – organized a military unit of 10,000 – closer to 15,000 – Arditi, and occupied the Yugoslavan– Yugoslavian port of F– Fiume – Fiurne – F-i-u-r– F-i-u-m-e – Fiume. The rest of the Fascist bands joined with D’Annunzio for the occasion. In March 1920, Italy– uh, or Italian capitalists, meeting in Milan, Italy, a beautiful city, agreed to use the Fascist, and they offered them all the economic support they might need.

The government itself gave them arms (pause) and ammunition, just as I brought out last week, our US tax dollars, our government is giving arms and am– ammunition to uh, perhaps the worst Fascist state in history, except natural– Nazi Germany. But our ammunition, the ruling class, our government’s giving our taxpayer’s [dollars] right now to Ian Smith in Rhodesia to bomb those children, their villages, bomben– bombing them with jelly gases, and he’s giving– the US government’s also giving aid to Union of South Africa to bomb Namibia and Angola. This is the last stage, as I told you. They openly show their hand for– to how cruel they are.

These hands– These bands (pause) then began their terrorist attacks in the rural areas, murdering revolutionaries. They moved on to bigger operations in the cities. In 1921, they had murdered more than 40,000 people. The Communist Party had begun to be organized by then, and the Socialist Party, which were strong, was controlled by conciliator– conciliators, people who were trying to walk the fence. The Fascist bands became a party at the end of 1921, and in the next year attacked and burned numbers of places of work and offices. Six thousand people, Communists and Socialists most of them, died fighting them. The pope [Pius XI] gave the new Fascist Party of Italy its blessing, the Roman Catholic Church, as saying it was a great defender of the faith. Imagine, how evil a church could s– call a people that’d killed 40,000 people on one occasion and near 6000 on another, working class, and say it was a great thing. Hit– Benito Mussolini’s Fascism was a great thing, it was a defender of the faith, the Christian faith.

Since the Fascists did not succeeding in cowering the masses by terror, the big industrialists, big factory owners and landowners, described– decided upon a coup d’etat, that is, a takeover by force with the army. A march on Rome was organized. Under pressure from the capitalists, King Victor Emmanuel III handed over power to Mussolini, who formed a government. This is what’ll happen one day in Washington. It always works this way. In October of 1922, the most bloody wave of terror Italy had ever seen begun [began]. Imprisonment, torture, and murder were systematized regularly in every jail in every city building all over Italy. All the pro-worker demagogy of the beginnings passed into history. They dropped their socialist mask and showed that they had been tricking the worker, Benito Mussolini was not a socialist any longer, and they tricked the worker to believe in socialism, and they ended up with Fascism. The Fascists trampled all social laws. They murdered socialist leader [Giacomo] Matteotti– Matteotti – M-a-t-t-e-o-t-t-i – who had exposed Mussolini’s deceitful and hypocritical actions, and those of other Fascists. (Pause)

Popular rebellion against the regime of terror failed because of the opposition’s vacillation – they were back and forth, they didn’t make a straight line – and indecision. Mussolini could then establish the– (Pause) co– He could then establish his unlimited dictatorship, which lasted from 1926 until his death, when the people became so wearied of him that even though Hitler snuck him out of Germany, some Italians bravely snuck him back into i– Italy, and they hung him up by his feet and killed him, and had all the masses look at him, because the Italian people realized they’d been betrayed. But they’re no different than any other people. Thousands of nations through history have been betrayed, because they don’t think. There’s a lot here that wouldn’t know the truth, and until you know the truth, you never can know how to become free.

Anyway, he dissolved all parties, (stumbles over words) Benito Mussolini did, except of course his own. (Pause) He threw anti-Fascists into prisons, cold dungeons and concentration camps. He destroyed trade union movements. In 1930–

Don’t even have to destroy trade union movements in USA, there are none. They’ve even now signed away their right to strike, because of the big bosses of the unions like the United Mine Workers or agents of capitalism. That’s why Fascism hasn’t yet had to show its ugly hand– or ugly head. But it will soon, with the cost of living getting out of hand and unemployment, it will soon have to have a military takeover and establish Fascism, even in USA.

In 1930, he signed a concordat, with the– with the pope – and the pope gave him his blessings, as being a defender of the faith – and thus strengthened at home, threw himself into the conquest of other peoples, prepared to spread his dominion to France, Nice, Savoy, Corsica, Albania, Tripoli, and Sorian– Cyrenaica – C-y-r-e-n-a-i-c-a – and Ethiopia, the black nation of Ethiopia. That’s the one nation, as you know, that cost him his first military loss. He didn’t never succeed in whipping that black people. They were so proud and so patriotic, that they dreve out– they drove out his advanced military force. So he wanted w– the world already in sight. It was in his mind, the world.

Fascism began to develop in Germany around the same time as in Italy, but as the conditions were different, it was longer in coming to power. The methods used by the big capital– the big capitalists in Germany were identical to those used by the capitalists and landowners in Italy. The forces (Pause) they relied on, plus the methods used to take power, were similar. In contrast to Italy, the working class in Germany rose immediately after the end of the war to revolutionary struggle and managed to overthrow Kaiser Wilhelm II, the king. There was an abortive coup, a– a c– military coup that failed, planned by the monopolies in 1920. They had relied on the right wing, social democrats, following the coup, but since they didn’t trust them fully, they kept as a reserve the different Fascist groups already in existence, especially the German Workers Party, Hitler’s party.

As we said, this party had been founded in 1919 in Munich by Hitler, and later came to be controlled by a former cop– corporal in the intelligence service, Adolf Hitler, changing his name– its name to the National Socialist German Workers Party so he could trick socialists into joining, because there was a strong socialist movement in Germany, but he knew there was pride in nationalism, which has always been desperately strong in the German psyche, the German mind. Hitler began setting up special arms squadrons, uh, SA and the SSS – the SS, rather – shock troops, which, with the help of the Bavarian government and the industrialists and landowners of the region, became the monopoly shock troops.

During the crisis of 1923, the capitalists prepared a military coup d’etat, a military takeover, in Bavaria. However, the situation improved with the help they received from other imperialists, and they dropped the idea, but neglected to advise Hitler of this, so he launched the– the Putsch, the takeover, without receiving the expected help from the rulers and their troops. Always capitalists betray capitalists. Hitler was arrested and was imprisoned for a while. US imperialism – it is a matter of record – in 1923 was supposed to fund the Hitler takeover, but they wanted him to do the work, but they didn’t want to give up any of their money for it to be possible. So that’s why Hitler was left in the lurch. And that’s why he finally turned against USA, and decided to be a capitalist for his own interest.

Although the German economy improved between 1925 and ’29, the monopolies continued to keep the Fascists in reserve. When the situation worsened, they decided to use them again. Hitler and his team used every kind of demagogy– dema– dictatorial power to attract the ruling petty bourgeoisie, the li– the small merchants, you know, the small middle class, and a portion of the peasantry, the working class, the– the lowest of the working class, who work the fields, the proletariat, the workers of the factories, the peasantry of the workers in the field. They managed to create a mass base of support. With the financial help of the industrialists, Hitler– Hitler and his party grew rapidly, as did his shock troops, but the Communist movement was also growing at the same time, and unfortunately in the United States, we don’t have anything growing to combat Fascism. There is no growing Socialist Party, there is no Communist Party at all. But the Communist movement was also growing while Hitler was coming to power rapidly, as shown by the six million votes they received in the 1932 elections. Six million voted Communist. The German capitalists (Pause) who backed Hitler demanded that the other parties band together behind him, and they managed to give– have President [Paul] von Hindenburg name him Prime Minister, under some kind of threat.

When Hitler took power, he dissolved the Parliament, the Congress, the House of Representatives or Senate, as we would know it in USA, he dissolved the Parliament altogether, when– with the idea of legalizing his own Fascist regime. But at the same time, he greatly feared the power of the Communist Party, led by Ernst – E-r-n-s-t – (Pause) Thaelmann – T-h-a-e-l-m-a-n-n – and so undertook a series of provocative measures, culminating in the burning of the Reichstag – that’s their Parliament building, like our hall of Congress in USA – on February 27, 1933, for which the Communists were blamed, because they got a mental patient [Marinus van der Lubbe] out of the mental hospital, put a Communist card on him, and set him in the halls, not knowing whether he– what time of day it was, he said yes to their questions, and so they could say, yes, here is the Communist that burned the Congress. Believe me, Fascism is more tricky today, the CIA is more tricky today, than in Hitler’s day, and it was bad enough in Hitler’s day.

On the basis of that provocation, over 10,000 party members (Pause) of the Communist movement were immediately arrested, and a state of siege declared. That’s martial law, it almost happened with the w– miners striking, as you saw, that’s why I want all of you to study Harlan County, (clears throat) but he went through with it. He did establish martial law. Carter threatened to do so, and almost did just a few weeks ago. Despite all this, the Communist Party received all– over five million votes in the following election, so Hitler outlawed the Communist Party altogether, established his power as total, and began an orgy of bloody crimes throughout Germany, the details of which are well known, and well enough known throughout the world, that I don’t need to go into them here. God knows, you surely must know, the millions that were tortured, that were– their skin would be for lampshades, and that they were even– had skin stripped off of them before they were dead. They would ha– be– take their hair and their teeth out of them before they had died in the gas– big gas chambers that they put them in. I don’t need to remind you of how terrible Fascism can be.

Fascism didn’t limit itself to Italy, and don’t say it won’t happen in USA, because they’re already doing it. They’re experimenting on our babies in every institution, and it’s protected by Congress. They’re experimenting on all our black and Indian prisoners in the jails, and they’re experimenting with their own government, as they did– cause one government official to jump out a seventh-floor window. Uh– That’s how evil the CIA is.

Fascism did not limit itself to Italy and Germany in the period between the two world wars. (Pause) As a social phenomenon peculiar to the capitalist system, it developed in stip– in step with the needs and possibilities of the system, wherever (pause) conditions favored its– favored its– its growth, and even where it didn’t manage to implant self– itself systematically. Fascist groups, movements and parties, often backed by the churches who are the strongest bastion of Fascism, as they were in Spain and Italy and Germany, were established, kept as a reserve by the monopoly capitalist.

Before going on to explain the rise of Fascism, or Christian Phalangism in Spain, let us mention the main countries which suffered its barbarous brutal assault. We’ll begin with Portugal. In this poor country, which suffered a severe economic crisis, a military dictatorship took power in 1920 [1926], headed by General Fragoso Cramona – C-r-a-m-o-n-a – which in time, which in time became a Fascist regime. In 1932, Oliveira Salazar, one of the world’s worst dictators, took power and imposed the corporate state. Fascism held sway in Portugal until the revolution in 1975, when surprisingly enough, the army – which was socialist, which few armies are – overthrew the dictator– uh, -ship Salazar, and started a socialist democracy. The IMF is trying to give that socialist democracy a lot of trouble today, but they still have not bowed.

A coup d’etat – a takeover – brought Anas– Antanas – A-n-t-a-n-a-s – Smetona – S-m-e-t-o-n-a and a Fascist dictatorship to power in Lithuania in 1926. In Latvia, Karlis Ulmanis took power, and in Estonia, the Fascist dictator [Konstantin] Pats – P-a-t-s – took power. In Greece– and by the way, when all those Latvians were coming at the end of World War II, Lithuanians and Estonians, they were all Nazis. They’d all been involved in concentration camp murders, but you saw how fast they came in. God, there was a great wave. The old-timers can tell you. Literally million, couple or three million came in, so you see they’ve got the Fascist pocket that they need in USA when they get ready, along with the anti-Castro Cubans.

In Greece, (Pause) General [Ioannis] Metaxas – M-e-t-a-x-a-s – dissolved his Congress, Parliament, and established a dictatorial regime, which from 1936 on was openly Fascist. Fascist-type dictatorships were established in Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, and other countries surrounding the Soviet Union. Pilsu– [Jozef] Pilsudski – P-i-l-s-u-d-s-k-i – in Poland and Nikolai [Miklos] Horthy in Hungary were conspicuous among the dictators of this period. The Japanese militarist called– an ally– ally called themselves Fascist, allied themselves with Hitler and Germany – even though no Japanese could live in Germany, there was that much race prejudice – and began take measures of a Fascist nature. In Latin America, military dictatorships similar to Fascist ones took power, including Cuba during certain periods, as in 1934 through ’37, and 1953 to ’59. All these dictatorships urged on and financed by imperialism, were concerned with the preparing uh– with– were concerned with preparing the conditions to turn on the Soviet Union at the moment– right moment and destroy the fo– first socialist state in history. In other capitalist states, which still had parliamentary or congressional systems, Fascist clubs, groups and parties were set up with the participation of members of the military and rightwing democrats, renegades and traitors and the church, such as Oswald Mosley, who is still leading the National Front in England and gaining ground each day. He was a Fascist who openly wears a picture of Hitler on his suits and the swastika. He is in England. And Colonel Franclo– Francois de la Rocque and the traitor [Jacques] Doriot in France. In the United States in 1938, there were more than 800 Fascist or pro-Fascist organizations, financed by big business. Stand by for a moment.

(Tape edit)

–be given together, so you can understand the movement of Fascism, why we need socialism, Marxist-Leninism. Similar groups and parties were springing up everywhere, in Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Czechoslovakia, because at that time, capitalism was (unintelligible word) stage, socialism had had no time to develop, and so they had the money and the power, and they could set up Fascist dictatorships everywhere. Along with other closely linked to the National Socialist German Workis– Workers Party, the Nazis also took advantage of the existence of German-born persons in Africa and Latin America, to organize Fascist groups for espionage and sabotage. Up until just recently, those very same Nazis have been protected, but Brazil has been going after Fascists in her country pretty heavily.

In Austria (Pause) the Fascists assassinated Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss – D-o-l-l-f-u-s-s – in 1934. In Brazil, the (stumbles over words) Integralistas – I-n-t-e-g-r-a-l-i-s-t-a-s – there’s a name up the way, uh, that I didn’t uh, give you proper spelling, Colonel Frank, uh, Franco– Colonel Franc– F-r-a-n-c-o-i-s de – d-e l-a Roque – R-o-q-u-e. Now we’ll go back here to the– Stand by for a moment. (off mike) What was the last one I–

(Tape edit)

– (unintelligible word) As I was saying, in Austria the Fascists assassinated Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in 1934. In Brazil, the Integralistas, led by Plinio Salgado – S-a-l-g-a-d-o – were on the verge of taking power. In Bolivia, there was an attempt at a military takeover that we call coup d’etat. That’s spelled c-o-u-p, little d, apostrophe, e-t-a-t. In 1941, there was almost a military takeover or coup d’etat in Bolivia to have the country join the Fascist bloc, and in Argentina, the Fascists came to have as many as 200,000 shock troops. Nazi agents were active in all those countries. By the way, the– the real Nazi leader there was (pause) I– I’ve forgotten, uh, E– Eva– they called her Eva Peron, Eva Peron, and now there’s a great book glorifying her in USA, and she had tens of thousands of peoples tortured, so that shows you what’s important to USA, not goodness, but to glorify murderers. They say her book will bring the public– publications company ten million dollars. Anyway, there were 200,000 shock troops in Argentina. Nazi agents were active in all those countries, and all these maneuvers were being carried out in preparation for another world war, out of which the German and Italian Fascists hope to create their powerful empires, and then they would have uh, jointly agreed to eliminate the Japanese, because they were as racist as hell against Asians, blacks and Indians.

The Communists were the first to warn the world about the threat Fascism represented. They called on the people to close ranks against the new form of dictatorship, or demagogy, and crime adopted by the more reactionary circles of capitalism, and succeeded in setting up popular fronts against Fascism and war in many countries. The Soviet Union, the Communist Internationale, and its parties were the standard bearers in the struggle against the Fascist reign of terror, slavery and death.

In Spain, the mili­– mili– the military dictatorship of General Pinto [Primo] de Rivera – he was in charge at that time – had been set up with the complicity of the monarchy, (clears throat) the army and the most reactionary elements of all – what would that be? – the church. But, in 1931, the people made an anti-monarchy revolution and set up the republic. That’s what you saw in Whom– For Whom the Bells Toll. Socialistem [Socialist] workers came from every nation of the earth, USA Socialists, never to come back. They had that kind of international fraternity, brotherhood, sisterhood. And we must never let that die. They fought side by side for those people who won a free election of a democracy.

This was followed immediately by the emergence of several Fascist organizations, chiefly the Spanish Christian Falange – F-a-l-a-n-g-e – organized by Jose Antonio Primo de Ri– Rivera, the son of the former dictator, and the Council– Councils of National Trade Union Offensives, IONS, which in 1934, merged under the name of Spanish Falange of the I– IONS Falangist, or that’s a word for Christian Fascist. There were– there were– was also another organization, the so-called Spanish Revolu- Revolutionary– Renovation Party rether– rather, led by [Antonio] Goicoechea – G-o-i-c-o-e-c-h-e-a – and Calvo Sotelo and composed of large– (Pause) of large landowners, financiers, generals, and leaders of the church.

These reactionary forces (clears throat) merged in 1932 under the name of Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights, that means that each are sovereign. Autonomy means you can govern your own affairs, but it wasn’t so, they lied to the people again. And they called it CEDA – C-E-D-A – and they obtained a majority in the 1933 election.

However, the left wing forces, which had been– had made the mistake of coming to the 1933 election to uh– di– uh, divided, organized the Popular Anti-Fascina– uh, Anti-Fascist Front in 1935, bringing about a change in the country’s political scene. The front won the election in 1936, (Pause) again, another victory for the people.

However, the government composed of representatives of the ruling class, the wealth, the Republican Party, who did not act consistently according to revolutionary principles– (clears throat) that’s always what happens to people who once start to be revolutionaries, then they have to need certain foods, candies, clothes, they always will sell out, and that’s what they were enjoying, the go– the fat life, they thought, even though always capitalists are cut down by some younger capitalist coming on who wants their power. Anyway, they– the government composed of representatives of the Republican Party who did not act consistently according to revolutionary principles, failed to modify the bourgeoisie large landowners relations in Spain. Moreover, it allowed the army to remain under the command of Fascists and pro-monarchy generals, who led themselves– let themselves be led through the orders issued by General Jose Sanjurjo – S-a-n-j-u-r-j-o – by the German and Italian Fascists.

On July 18, 1936, the army, supported by armed Fascist detachments that were coming in from Italy and Germany and even US industrialists, rebelled against Spain’s– Span– Spain’s legitimate government. When General Sanjurjo was killed in an airplane accident, General Francisco Franco took over as head of the Fascist movement, and he worshipped Hitler, was side-by-side with him in every movie [move] that was every made. They were in close connection, and Hitler sent him all the equipment that he needed, that Hitler got thr– from the USA, so that the people’s will could be defeated in Spain.

In spite of the support, however, given the Fascist movement by the army, with the exception of a few isolated units that remained loyal to the Republic and the Civil Guards, the– the people succeeded in holding at bay for quite some time those who called themselves rebels. The working masses, the peasants and the intellectuals rose up against the barbarian brutal onslaught and succeeded in repelling the attacks of the Fascist forces, who even used Moroccan troops brought into Spain through France. Volunteers from all over the world went to Spain to cooperate with the Spanish people– (clears throat) to cooperate with the Spanish people in this great uh, struggle for freedom. Hundreds of fighters came from Cuba and some of them, like Pablo de la Torriente – T-o-r-r-i-e-n-t-e – Brau – B-r-a-u – laid down their lives defending the sister nation. The number of volunteers reached 85,000. While US was sending in military might, millions of dollars, the workers of USA at that time when there was a working class consciousness, because there was a Great Depression, they were sending their bodies to fight for the freedom of the Spaniards.

Hitler and Mussolini came to Franco’s aid, and the so-called economic– uh, the so-called democratic powers proclaimed a policy of non-intervention and neutrality. Naturally, the democratic nations, the social democrats, the US democracy, capitalist democracy and England would give no help, refusing to provide the republic with the weapons it had already paid for. They bought some, the uh, socialist government had bought some from the industrialists of– of USA and then they kept their money and did not give them the weapons to fight the Nazis. How guilty we should feel for the years we paid our taxes. With the weapons it already paid for, as I said, uh, and giving the Nazis and the Italian Fascists a free rein to raze cities, burn them down, like the Italian Fascists, a free rein to raze cities, like Guernica – G-u-e-r-n-i-c-a – and Almeira – A-l– A-l-m-e-i-r-a – and to send their legions of war planes, tanks and guns – US made – to crush the heroic Spanish people. Fascist warships sank dozens upon dozens of ships that– flying various flags, but mainly the Soviet Communist flag, were on their way to take supplies to the Spanish fighters and people in general.

For three years, the people of Spain fought bravely, heroically, as we saw in From Whom the Bells Toll, and courageously against international Fascism and its puppet, Francisco Franco. Finally, military intervention on the part of Italy and Germany, the policy of non-intervention, and the traitorous actions, selling out that England and USA did and other capitalist nations, the chiefs of the National Defense Council, led to the capture of Madrid, and the fall of the republic. They were able to work through the National Defense Camptil– Cap– Council, the US was, and that caused the final fall of Madrid, but they fought three years with hardly no weapons, nothing but bodies that willed to be free.

The war cost the people of Spain over one million lives, and close to one million persons had to flee the country in order to save their lives from the Fascist government, as always you have to do, as those in USA will be wanting to come here when the concentration camps are set up, when they see the handwriting on the wall. They want to run away, a thousand, a million left Spain, hundreds of thousands were thrown into prisons, thousands of others were murdered by the hordes of the Falange, the Christian Fascist party, and workers, peasants, trade union and political leaders (Pause) and noted intellectuals, writers, poets, scientists and artists, died on the battlefield, some like Antonio Machado – M-a-c-h-a-d-o – died in concentration camps while being in exile, where they kept him in exile. He finally refused to eat, as a attempt to show his hate for what was happening. Even after Fascism was defeated in World War II, the people of Spain were subjected to the Fascist terror. While Franco remained alive, his regime, propped up by the imperialist– (Pause)

It would be convenient now to analyze the reasons why, even though Fascism is a creature of the capitalist system – I’m better than two-thirds done – the principal imperialist forces that sponsored it were forced to fight (Pause) Hitler and Mussolini in World War II, and thus contribute to its defeat. First of all, we must realize that there are internal contradictions in the capitalist system. They will give us our first insight into the situation. Stand by for just a moment.

End of tape

Tape originally posted May 2016