The dark dark secret

Defence and Security, Government, Indigenous affairs, Media, Politics

Apr 17, 2023

White pigeons on a red background surrounded by barbed wire, a symbol of the opposition to the dictatorship and restrictions on the freedom of dissidents.

Fascism is in the news again, with the nazi salute being banned. Fascism is much more insidious than a few extremist adherents. With careful rebadging it has begun to pervade some of our institutions.

Fascism is a hideous ideology, think of German Nazism unleashed on Europe by Hitler and Axis allies (Mussolini, Petain) with its demonisation, brutalisation and mass killing of fellow citizens during WWII. People forget that fascism has many other norms – ‘other views’ criminalised, knowledge controlled, populations policed violently, domiciles and work highly controlled in collaboration with industry. Major institutions and companies (Henry Ford, IG Farben) actively supported Hitler, because profits increased enormously.

Many other fascist regimes flourished post war too, during the Cold War era (1945-1990) with explicit American support. In Europe, Franco; in Asia, Reza, Ky, Park; in South America, Batista and Vargas were all prominent examples.

How did Cold War era fascist regimes emerge and thrive? America claimed it represented ‘democratic ideals’, political-economic freedom and independence. It built a world-wide ‘alliance against Communism’ with compliant allies. In conflict areas fascist regimes were promoted as anti-communist bulwarks, acting as ‘local military allies’. Their regimes were anti-democratic, but they welcomed American investment and a presence of US forces, with many US companies profiting greatly from cheap labour and access to their resources.

Mass incarceration and murder are hallmark of Nazi fascism. But this obscures other fascist ideas – some ideas were ‘more moderate’. It is important to realise some ideas presented even now as normal, freedom-loving and right-thinking have been tried before by poisonous fascist regimes.

Can we call such modern policies and their ideologues – fascist? Well, exponents often object to being labelled fascist because of negative Nazi connotations. But one long term consequence of US support of dictatorships is the gradual acceptance of fascist ideas into mainstream conservative politics. This acceptance has diminished the American democracy too.

The osmosis of fascist ideas obscures them, and adherents are increasingly elected into office. Subsequent acts reveal excessive policies – Duterte’s mass killing of ‘drug dealers’, Bolsonaro attacks on Amazon forest peoples are examples. Fascists are again in power in Italy, with Giorgia Meloni’s election. Some 1930’s Axis leaders were also popularly elected – it is not a disclaimer of fascism.

Fascist ideology is old when viewed from its practices. Late eighteenth and nineteenth century Europeans engaged in a frenzy of empire building. They invaded two entire continents, Africa and Australia, carving out ‘colonies’ for exclusive economic exploitation (– repeated later in Europe by Hitler, and in Ethiopia by Mussolini). Native peoples were overwhelmed by expeditionary militaries; and turned into ‘productive labour’ for colonial commerce. In Africa, resistance was supressed ruthlessly; mass killings, starvations and even genocides by soldiers and police were commonplace.

Britain and France were foremost amongst the colonisers of Africa. Their colonial policies were fascist, but history ignores this because the natives were not citizens. They were overseas possessions – slaves in their own lands.

England also had European colonies. Ireland and Scotland were incorporated into Great Britain, yet the English Parliament did little to diminish the potato famine in Ireland, allowing a million deaths, and Scotland’s ‘highland clearances’ were underpinned by Parliamentary acts.

Were these nineteenth century English policies fascist? Neither Tories, nor Whigs thought ill of peasants dying, or forced to migrate. Aristocratic land-owners and industrialists in Parliament were well-served personally by these policies. Fascism is a slippery concept – enemies can be called fascist, we never see ourselves so. When Mussolini and Hitler emerged in Europe their fascist policies were described as distinct from our violent colonialism and contemporary treatment of Aboriginals.

Two genocidal colonisations stand out. France occupied Algeria and murdered a million natives, passing productive land to colonists. British occupation of the Australian continent replaced aboriginals everywhere with settlers. Colonial policy was one of aboriginal genocide – poisoning, infecting with diseases, burning-alive, mass shooting, with the few survivors interred, then forced into life-long labour, or destitution. British colonial policy in Australia was fascist, even extermination of all Tasmanian natives was attempted.

US Cold War policies prolonged political orthodoxy, acceptable ‘democratic government’ in ex-colonial lands was CIA-managed world-wide. Australia continued ‘white-only’ immigration and brutal suppression of aboriginals unnoticed, without world approbation. Strict control of aboriginal lives continued in all Australian States until the 1970s, with children often removed from their families.

We still see trenchant fascist-squatter attitudes in government, particularly in our ‘justice and welfare agencies’. How did RoboDebt become Coalition policy? What else explains secret police profiling lists of indigenous youths, soaring incarcerations by courts, unstoppable deaths in prisons, or by police, continuing aboriginal dispossession and dismissal? By secret design, many aboriginals gain an early ‘police record’, justifying life-long mistreatment by officialdom.

Media such as News limited tries to confuse views of constitutional recognition, claiming the Voice is a fascist measure against white Australia – a libel worthy of Joseph Goebbels! Political policy is now formulated by right-wing media, with conservative politicians then espousing their prescriptions.

These news media represent big capital and mining, which wants open access to native lands and resources across the world, especially in Australia. It calls the shots, and mainstream politics jumps. With press-button alacrity Coalition politicians oppose the Voice, archly claiming it is ‘apartheid-like’.

Dutton falsely advocates legislated regional Voices – that’s not on offer. Dutton’s purpose is to confuse, and block Aboriginal constitutional recognition. All for benefit of his ‘real constituents’ – the miners, frackers, industrial pastoralists and water-thieves.