

                  chapter 8 from Leon Trotsky's pamphlet
               "FASCISM -- What It Is and How To Fight It"
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               DOES THE PETTY BOURGEOISIE FEAR REVOLUTION?

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                      From _Whither France?_, 1934


Parliamentary cretins, who consider themselves connoisseurs of the
people, like to repeat:

     "One must not frighten the middle classes with revolution.  They do
     not like extremes."

In this general form, this affirmation is absolutely false.  Naturally,
the petty proprietor prefers order so long as business is going well and
so long as he hopes that tomorrow it will go better. 

But when this hope is lost, he is easily enraged and is ready to give
himself over to the most extreme measures.  Otherwise, how could he have
overthrown the democratic state and brought fascism to power in Italy
and Germany? The despairing petty bourgeois sees in fascism, above all,
a fighting force against big capital, and believes that, unlike the
working-class parties which deal only in words, fascism will use force
to establish more "justice".  The peasant and the artisan are in their
manner realists.  They understand that one cannot forego the use of
force. 

It is false, thrice false, to affirm that the present petty bourgeoisie
is not going to the working-class parties because it fears "extreme
measures".  Quite the contrary.  The lower petty bourgeoisie, its great
masses, only see in the working-class parties parliamentary machines. 
They do not believe in their strength, nor in their capacity to
struggle, nor in their readiness this time to conduct the struggle to
the end. 

And if this is so, is it worth the trouble to replace the democratic
capitalist representatives by their parliamentary confreres on the left?
That is how the semi-exploited, ruined, and discontented proprietor
reasons of feels.  Without an understanding of this psychology of the
peasants, the artisans, the employees, the petty functionaries, etc.  --
a psychology which flows from the social crisis -- it is impossible to
elaborate a correct policy.  The petty bourgeoisie is economically
dependent and politically atomized.  That is why it cannot conduct an
independent policy.  It needs a "leader" who inspires it with
confidence.  This individual or collective leadership, i.e., a personage
or party, can be given to it by one or the other of the fundamental
classes -- either the big bourgeoisie or the proletariat.  Fascism
unties and arms the scattered masses.  Out of human dust, it organizes
combat detachments.  It thus gives the petty bourgeoisie the illusion of
being an independent force.  It begins to imagine that it will really
command the state.  It is not surprising that these illusions and hopes
turn the head of the petty bourgeoisie!

But the petty bourgeoisie can also find a leader in the proletariat. 
This was demonstrated in Russia and partially in Spain.  In Italy, in
Germany, and in Austria, the petty bourgeoisie gravitated in this
direction.  But the parties of the proletariat did not rise to their
historic task. 

To bring the petty bourgeoisie to its side, the proletariat must win its
confidence.  And for that it must have confidence in its own strength. 

It must have a clear program of action and must be ready to struggle for
power by all possible means.  Tempered by it revolutionary party for a
decisive and pitiless struggle, the proletariat says to the peasants and
petty bourgeoisie of the cities:

     "We are struggling for power.  Here is our program.  We are ready
     to discuss with you changes in this program.  We will employ
     violence only against big capital and its lackeys, but with you
     toilers, we desire to conclude an alliance on the basis of a given
     program."

The peasants will understand such language.  Only, they must have faith
in the capacity of the proletariat to seize power. 

But for that it is necessary to purge the united front of all
equivocation, of all indecision, of all hollow phrases.  It is necessary
to understand the situation and to place oneself seriously on the
revolutionary road. 

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                                            transcribed by zodiac@io.org
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