Essay:The American Crisis of Capital: The Nazification of the United States

Notice: This essay is a work-in-progress.

January 6 rioter with the flag of the Confederate States of America inside the United States capital as a police officer stands idly by and does nothing.

Flying their pro-slavery flags, armed men marched unopposed into the United States capital on January 6, 2021. This was only four years after a large crowd of Americans marched through the streets of North Carolina with their torches, chanting the Nazi slogans 'Sieg Heil!' and 'Blood and soil!' as they demand the eradication of the Jewish people. Just a day after this scene, an even larger crowd in North Carolina took control of a large field, flying Swastika flags and saying that Hitler did nothing wrong. Then President Donald Trump described these men with Nazi flags and pro-slavery iconography as 'very fine people' and 'great people', the Republican Party cheering for him along the way. How did it come to this? How did the same nation that fought against Nazi Germany in the Second World War turn into a hotbed of that exact same Nazi sentiment? The answer is simple. The United States of America has had its own crisis of capital and is now falling into a state of decayed capitalism - fascism.

Chapter I: Origins of American Fascism

The United States was built on settler colonial imperialism. Arguably, settler-colonialism bears within it the origins of fascist dominance. Within this view, the deep-rooted origins of the American fascist movement go back to 1492. The first proto-fascistic militias were those building and enforcing white supremacy ever since Europeans discovered the opportunity for plunder in the "New World."

Within a more developed capitalist (barely) United States, fascism sees its early articulations in 1854 - just seven years before the American Civil War. In 1854, a proto-fascist organization seeking to preserve and expand the institution of slavery called the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC) was formed. The KGC has its roots in the fact that slave society needed to expand in order to continue. Without new lands, slavery would eventually be overcome by technological and industrial revolutions in production. The KGC's formation was contemporary with other slave/free-state disputes epitomized by the Bleeding Kansas confrontations. Ideologically, the KGC's goals for slave expansion were more broadly rooted in Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States had a god-given right to rule all of North America, and the Monroe Doctrine, the idea that all of America was the USA's personal playground. The KGC was semi-militaristic and wanted to establish "military colonies".

The KGC was part of a bigger issue - the question of slavery in the United States. This issue had long contributed to a socioeconomic divide between the Northern and Southern parts of the United States. This divide eventually led to the American Civil War between the "Union" (which originally fought only to preserve the union, but eventually was pulled toward the full abolition of slavery) led by Abraham Lincoln, a contemporary of Karl Marx, and the Confederate States of America (CSA), a collection of slave states which fought to continue expanding slavery to new territories, extending the "way of life" that the feudal plantation owners in these states had grown accustomed to. In effect, this made the American Civil War the bourgeois revolution of the Southern United States. The KGC was dissolved in 1864, during the 1861-1866 tenure of the CSA.

Following the fall of the CSA, a white supremacist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) came into existence. Given the fact that later sources document it as becoming a fascist organization after fascism had become a cemented ideology, it can be argued that the KKK was, in fact, a proto-fascist movement in its early 1865-1872 state. The KKK committed multiple acts of terrorism against black people in the Southern United States. Officially, the KKK was dissolved in 1872 during the Reconstruction era. The KKK was revived in 1915 during the First World War, signaled by the release of the movie The Birth of a Nation, which glorified the KKK as heroes of the American people. Following the Second World War, the Nazi ideology became cemented in the KKK. Unlike the KGC, the KKK still exists and has continued targeting African and other marginalized communities up to the present day. The KKK is widely considered to be a neo-Nazi and neo-Confederate organization.

In 1929, the Great Depression began as the American stock market crashed and the bourgeoisie was left scrambling. It spread fear into the bourgeoisie and further impoverished the American proletariat. In response, fascism, which had reached its ideological elaboration by Benito Mussolini in 1919, began gaining steam in crisis-stricken America. The previously mentioned KKK increased its momentum with many new rallies as the father of Donald Trump was arrested for his white supremacist activities. Some sources report that over a hundred fascist organizations existed in the 1930s United States. This came around the same time that Nazi Germany was formed in 1933 and Adolf Hitler began turning Germany into a fascist state, with many of his policy proposals being lifted from US history. This influence went both ways, as many Statesians came to support Adolf Hitler himself. In 1939, it escalated to a group of American Nazis taking control of large parts of New York City. Hitler had "American friends".

December 7, 1941 - a day that will live in infamy. The fascist Empire of Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor in the colonized Territory of Hawaii and in various other places. This brought the United States into the Second World War as it declared war on fascist Japan. Japan, being in the Rome–Berlin Axis, had Nazi Germany and the Kingdom of Italy declare war on the United States. Despite America now at war with the Germans, the United States did not crack down on fascism on the home front and avoided attacking American businesses located in Germany, even the ones that were arming the German war machine. This echoed the earlier Union strategy during the American Civil War which sought to defeat the Confederacy while largely preserving the slave plantation infrastructure. The United States still leveled entire civilian cities in Germany to the ground. Per the Standard American History Myth, the Second World War ended with the the United States' nuclear attacks on Japan. However, a more modern analysis suggests that the nuclear attacks were unnecessary and that the Japanese would've surrendered anyways. For the United States, the war was not one against fascism, but rather a war for American self-interests - an expansion of American imperialism and containment of Soviet influence. The United States was never an enemy of fascism, saying otherwise allows one to be indoctrinated into the belief that the United States could, theoretically, never fall to fascism.

After World War II, the United States took advantage of their victorious state to set up military occupations of Germany and Japan. Instead of destroying the fascist states, the United States "rehabilitated" the Nazi German and Imperial Japanese officials and turned them into puppets in the Cold War against socialism. Meanwhile, fascist Spain also became an ally with the United States as part of the Cold War against socialism. This alliance between the American bourgeoisie and foreign fascists only helped to legitimize fascists back home in the United States. During the Cold War, major anti-communist crackdowns as part of "McCarthyism" occurred as the American Red Scare occurred and many communists - open or suspected - were persecuted for their open or alleged political beliefs. It went to the point where all protests regardless of political position were considered a "communist subversion" of the United States. In the 1950s and 1960s, the civil rights movement for African-American rights began to rise in the United States. In response, the United States' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began cracking down on these civil rights groups by targeting leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and launching militant attacks against civil rights organizations like the Black Panther Party. On top of this, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan also saw a revival during this period. Around the same time this was happening, the Vietnam War broke out with the United States committing heavy war crimes and bombing millions of civilians.

Following the end of the mainstream civil rights movement, the rise of neoliberalism in the United States begins. This starts with the presidency of Ronald Reagan, a racist and imperialist member of the Republican Party. Reagan was undeniably a white supremacist and greatly increased financial control over the US-led world economy. This greatly contributed to the "open dictatorship of finance capital." In this time, the so-called "New Right" (also known as the "Alt-Right") began to rise in popularity, greatly contributing to the fascist movement's expansion. The New Right united behind Reagan's candidacy, leading to many fascists backing his presidency. The Reagan administration also worked to fund fascist dictatorships in Latin America, such as the ones in Argentina and Chile.

After the Reagan era, George H. W. Bush came to the presidency. He pushed for further imperialist actions, invading Iraq in 1991 as part of the Gulf War. Bush was followed by Bill Clinton, who fought to maintain and expand the US imperial order. This was especially true in Haiti, where Clinton worked to keep the nation under the boot of US imperialism, in the former Soviet Union, where Clinton oversaw the privatization of all state-owned assets in the former world power, and in Yugoslavia, where Clinton tore apart the remaining socialist-oriented country in Eastern Europe. George W. Bush's administration oversaw imperialist invasions of both Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). Both of these saw various war crimes and many atrocities.

Chapter II: A Crisis of Capital

In 2007, the famous Great Recession began. Wages in the capitalist world collapsed in many countries as the economies entered a finacial crisis. The crisis affected every corner of the capitalist world, being considered a "global crisis". To many who understand Marxism, this crisis was unsurprising. Despite this, the bourgeoisie scrambled and became fearful, just like they did during the Great Depression. This was, without a doubt, a crisis of capital. As will be covered in the following chapter, it was this Great Recession that led to fascism closer to open terrorism in the mainstream purview of Statesian politics.

The Great Recession had its roots in the troubling changes shaking the housing market in the United States. Many banks in the United States completely collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. Wall Street failed to counter the Great Recession, and even contributed to the worsening of the crisis. Neoliberal capitalism nearly ceased to function during the crisis as international trade also began to collapse. While it spawned in the financial center of the United States, the Great Recession quickly grew out of control and began affecting almost every capitalist country in the world. All of this culminated into what became the largest crisis of capital since the Great Depression.

Prior to the Great Recession, a major energy crisis broke out in 2000 and 2001. The 2000s energy crisis was rooted in the actions taken by the US government in the 1990s. The housing market's unpredictability also greatly contributed to the crisis. This led to an attempted housing market "correction" in 2006. However, the housing market still collapsed and the Great Recession began in 2007.

While the capitalist world was deeply harmed by the outbreak of the Great Recession, socialist states remained almost completely unharmed. The People's Republic of China's economic status managed to rapidly improve during the global bourgeois crisis. Meanwhile, the Republic of Cuba's economy stayed stable and undamaged. The fact that only capitalist nation were harmed only further speaks to the idea that the Great Recession was, in fact, a crisis of capital. The spread of the crisis was clearly linked with the contamination of the world market with US finance, and those nations less dependent on this financial center were those outside of the collapse.

Michael Roberts describes the Great Recession as a "slump" in capitalism. He points to the changes in real GDP and investment in capital as the main causes of the Great Recession. He details this slump as a more permanent drop in profitability that he calls "the long depression," which according to Roberts is still ongoing. Meanwhile, Trotskyist articles argue that Barack Obama stalled post-recession recovery. Trotskyists also argue that the American proletariat in particular was deeply affected by the Great Recession. This mixture of the American proletariat being shaken by the recession and the American government failing to handle the recession well can easily be attributed as a major reason to how so many Americans turned to fascism as the only solution in the aftermath of the crisis.

Chapter III: Fascism Gone Mainstream

As the recession came to a close, a member of the Democratic Party named Barack Obama became the President of the United States. American fascism saw a great rise in influence during this post-Great Recession era as a Christian fascist movement gained fuel from contradictions within and outside the Democratic Party. Ever since the Great Recession, the Democrats have been consistently funding fascist movements and campaigns within the United States. Meanwhile, the Republican Party has spent the past few years cheering on neo-Nazi organizations, movements, and protests such as the Unite the Right rally. How is it that the both of the main bourgeois parties in the United States are promoting fascism? It isn't a coincidence. This happened as a direct result of ongoing global crises in capital.

In recent years, it has become quite clear that government-backed institutions in the United States such as the police force are deeply infiltrated and influenced by fascists and white supremacists. The public perception of white supremacy in police forces culminated with a publicly broadcast series of racially motivated murders against the African-American community by the police, which gained new prominence with the rise of the internet. The murders of George Floyd and Amir Locke are perfect examples of this. Breonna Taylor is also another valid example of a racially motivated police murder in 2020.

In the government itself, Donald Trump's presidency saw him champion the slogan "America first", a slogan also used by fascists across the country. This alliance between Trump and the American fascist movement can be seen in other places as well. The neo-Nazi paramilitary known as the Proud Boys were invoked by Trump during a debate with Joe Biden. On top of this, neo-Confederates and other fascist groups worked to storm the United States capital in the name of Donald Trump. Meanwhile, other neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan have made their support for Trump's presidency publicly known. The Ku Klux Klan has also acted as a heavy influence to the ideology of Trump's movement.

On the other side of things, Joe Biden has also been an active supporter of fascism. During the civil rights movement, Biden fought in favor of segregation and placed himself as a staunch opponent to African-American rights. This support for segregation has caused trouble for Biden's new administration as his vice president Kamala Harris has called him out for it. While this may seem like a thing of the past, Biden and Nancy Pelosi have constantly been funding the fascists of the Republican Party's extremist wing. It is clear as day that all major political forces in US history have turned to using fascism, for as long as it has benefited capital in both its stage of primitive accumulation on this continent and in its period of decay and crisis.