A talk given by the political analyst and author Michael Parenti in 1995 sounds almost as if it was given in 2017 in the context of European and US elections. In his 50 plus years of lecturing at major universities Parenti returned to the important connection between capitalism and fascism many times. Actually over 32,000 times if you believe the search engines.
Fascism, as Mussolini said "..should be more properly called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." And history, as told by Michael Parenti, shows that in all fascist societies, be it Italy, Germany, Japan, Spain, and into the present, corporate power increased. And that gain in power such as tax cuts, deregulation, subsidies for extraction of oil and minerals involves a loss of power, rights, environmental and workplace protection and wages for those who work for a living.
Parenti, who grew up in an Italian-American working-class family in NY City and earned his PhD. in political science from Yale, was familiar with Benito Mussolini from childhood on. Some members of his working class family admired Mussolini, others were ready to fight Fascism in WWII. Parenti was not even a teen when the war was begun. 5 1/2 decades later he begins this lecture about the false revolution of Fascism with a brief history of the beginnings of the origins of Fascism in Italy and Germany.
Michael Parenti received his PhD in political science from Yale. He is the author of 23 books and many more articles. His works have been translated into at least eighteen languages.
This talk was given to a standing room only audience of 1,200 in Berkeley, CA, on September 23, 1995. Come back for Part TWO of Fascism, The False Revolution,when TUC Radio returns.
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