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Doctrine of FascismA Doctrine of Fascism was written by Giovanni Gentile, though Mussolini signed the article and it was officially attributed to him. It was first published in the Enciclopedia Italiana of 1932.
A key concept was that fascism was a rejection of previous models: "Granted that the XIXth century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the XXth century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century."
Mussolini recalled and destroyed all available copies of the Doctrine of Fascism in April 1940 after he had second thoughts about certain phrases in it. (1) However copies in Italian and English survived, and are available in many libraries around the world.
Here are some typical Mussolini quotes from the original English translations:
:The Fascist conception of the State is all-embracing; outside of it no human or spiritual values can exist, much less have value. Thus understood, Fascism is totalitarian, and the Fascist State--a synthesis and a unit inclusive of all values--interprets, develops, and potentiates the whole life of a people. (p. 14)
:Fascism recognises the real needs which gave rise to socialism and trade-unionism, giving them due weight in the guild or corporative system in which diverent interests are coordinated and harmonised in the unity of the State. (p.15)
:Yet if anyone cares to read over the now crumbling minutes giving an account of the meetings at which the Italian Fasci di Combattimento were founded, he will find not a doctrine but a series of pointers… (p. 23)
:"It may be objected that this program implies a return to the guilds (corporazioni). No matter!... I therefore hope this assembly will accept the economic claims advanced by national syndicalism." (p. 24)
:Fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of liberalism, both in the political and economic sphere. (p. 32)
:The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State. (p. 41).
Benito Mussolini, 1935, The Doctrine of Fascism, Firenze: Vallecchi Editore.
:The Labour Charter (Promulgated by the Grand Council for Fascism on April 21, 1927)—(published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale, April 3, 1927) [sic] (p. 133)
:The Corporate State and its Organization (p. 133)
:The corporate State considers that private enterprise in the sphere of production is the most effective and usefu [sic] [typo-should be: useful] instrument in the interest of the nation. In view of the fact that private organisation of production is a function of national concern, the organiser of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction given to production.
:State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management. (pp. 135-136)
Benito Mussolini, 1935, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, Rome: 'Ardita' Publishers.
See also
- Fascism
- Constitution of Fiume
- The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle
References
#Fascism, Noel O'Sullivan, l983 pg 138: referencing; Mussolini's Roman Empire, by Mack Smith Penguin, ed., l979, first published in l976, pg 247.
External links
- [http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm The Doctrine of Fascism by Benito Mussolini (complete text)]
Category:Fascism
Giovanni Gentile
Giovanni Gentile (May 30, 1875 - April 15, 1944) was an Italian neo-Hegelian Idealist philosopher, a friend of Benedetto Croce.
Life and Thought
Gentile was born in Castelvetrano, Sicily. Gentile was inspired by such Italian thinkers as Mazzini, Rosmini, Gioberti and Spaventa from whom he borrowed the idea of autoctisi or self-construction, but was just as strongly influenced by the German idealist and materialist schools of thought. Namely Karl Marx, Hegel, and Fichte with whom he shared the ideal of creating a Wissenschaftslehre, or theory for a structure of knowledge which makes no assumptions. Nietzsche too, played an influence on Gentile, as can be seen in an analogy between Nietzsche's Übermensch and Gentile's Uomo Fascista.
Gentile, described both by himself and Mussolini as 'the philosopher of Fascism', ghostwrote A Doctrine of Fascism for Benito Mussolini. It first appeared in 1932 in the Italian Encyclopedia (which was edited by Gentile). In it he described the traits characteristic of Italian Fascism at the time: compulsory state corporatism, führerprinzip, abolition of the parliamentary system, and autarky. Gentile was minister of education and later a member of the Fascist Grand Council during the Fascist regime. He stayed loyal to Mussolini after the establishment of the Republic of Salò and accepted an appointment from the government. In 1944 he was killed by a group of anti-fascist partisans while returning from the Prefecture in Florence.
Gentile had believed so firmly in the philosophical concreteness of Fascism as having a dialectical intelligence surpassing intellectual scrutiny, that he presumed intellectual opposition could only reinforce and give credence to help the truth of his conception of Fascism as a superior and liberally thinking polity.
Gentile's philosophical basis for fascism was rooted in his understanding of ontology and epistemology, in which he found vindication for the rejection of individualism, acceptance of collectivism, with the state as the ultimate location of authority and loyalty to which the individual found in the conception of individuality no meaning outside of the state (which in turn justified totalitarianism).
Ultimately, Gentile foresaw a social order wherein opposites of all kinds weren't to be given sanction as existing independently from each other; that 'publicness' and 'privateness' as broad interpretations were currently false as imposed by all former kinds of Government; capitalism, communism, and that only the reciprocal totalitarian state of Corporative Syndicalism, a Fascist state, could defeat these problems made from reifing as an external that is in fact only a thinking reality.
Gentile was a notable philosophical theorist of his time throughout Europe, having developed his own system of Idealism called Actual Idealism or sometimes 'Actualism,' in which negativism was in itself considered a form of positivism by way that all senses about the world only take the form of ideas within one's mind in any real sense. An example of Actual Idealism in Theology is the idea that although man may have invented the concept of God, it does not make God any less real in any sense possible, except in case qualities about what existence actually entails (i.e. being invented apart from the thinking making it) are presupposed.
Therefore Gentile proposed a form of what he called 'absolute Immanentism' in which the divine was the present conception of reality in the totality of one's individual thinking as an evolving, growing and dynamic process. Many times accused of Solipsism, Gentile maintained his philosophy to be a Humanism that sensed the possibility of nothing beyond what was human; the self's human thinking, in order to mold others as it knew to be human like oneself, made a cohesive empathy of the self-same, without an external division, and therefore not modelled as objects to one's own thinking.
The Writings of Giovanni Gentile (to 1935)
- Delle Commedie di Antonfranceso Grazzi, detto "Il Lasca" (1896)
- Una critica del materialismo storico (1897)
- Rosmini e Gioberti (1898)
- La filosofia di Marx (1899)
- Il concetto della storia (1899)
- L'insegnamento della filosofia nei licei (1900)
- Il concetto scientifico della pedagogia (1900)
- Della vita e degli scritti di B. Spaventa (1900)
- Polemica hegeliana (1902)
- L'unita della scuola secondaria e la libertà degli studi (1902)
- Filosofia ed empiricismo (1902)
- La rinascità dell'idealismo (1903)
- Dal Genovesi al Galluppi (1903)
- Studi sullo Stoicismo romano del I sec. d. C. (1904)
- Riforme liceali (1905)
- Il figlio di G. B. Vico (1905)
- La rimforma della scuola media (1906)
- Le varie redazioni del De sensu rerum di T. Campanella (1906)
- Giordano Bruno nella storia della cultura (1907)
- Il primo processo d'eresia di T. Campanella (1907)
- Per la scuola primeria allo stato (1907)
- Vincenzo Gioberti nel primo centenario dell sua nascità (1907)
- Il concetto della storia della filosofia (1908)
- Vincenzo Cuoco pedagoista (1908)
- Scuola e filosofia (1908)
- Ilmodernismo e i rapporti fra religione e filosofia (1909)
- Un poeta del pensiero. Cultura (1911)
- Bernardino Telesio (1911)
- L'atto del pensare come atto puro (1912)
- Il programma della Biblioteca Filosofica di Palermo (1912)
- Intorno all'idealismo attuale: ricordi e confessioni (1913)
- I problemi della scolastica e il pensiero italiano (1913)
- La riforma della dialettica hegeliana (1913)
- Sommario di pedagogia come scienza filosofica (1913)
- Il torto e il diritto del positivismo (1914)
- La filosofia della guerra (1914)
- Pascuale Galluppi giacobino? (1914)
- Documenti pisani della vita e delle idee di V. Gioberti (1915)
- Donato Jaja (1915)
- Biblografia delle lettere a stampa di V. Gioberti (1915)
- Studi vichiani (1915)
- L'esperienza pura e la realtà storica (1915)
- Per la riforma deglie insegamenti filosofici (1916)
- Il concetto dell'uomo nel rinascimento (1916)
- I fondamenti della filosofia del diritto (1916)
- Teoria generale dello spirito come atto puro (1916)
- Le origini della filosofia contemporanea in Italia (1917)
- Sistema di logica come teoria del conoscere (1917)
- Il carattere storico della filosofia italiana (1918)
- Esiste una scuola italiana? (1918)
- Il Marxismo di Benedetto Croce (1918)
- Il tramonto della cultura Siciliana (1919)
- Mazzini (1919)
- Il realismo politico di V. Gioberti (1919)
- Guerra e fede (1919)
- Dopo la vittoria (1920)
- Il problema scolastico del dopoguerra (1920)
- La riforma dell'educazione (1920)
- Discorsi di religione (1920)
- Giordano Bruno e il pensiero del rinascimento (1920)
- Arte e religione (1920)
- Bertrando Spaventa (1920)
- Difesa della filosofia (1920)
- Storia della cultura piedmontese della 2a meta del sec. XIX (1921)
- Frammenti di estetica e letteratura (1921)
- Albori della nuova Italia (1921)
- Educazione e scuola laica (1921)
- Saggi critici (1921)
- La filosofia di Dante (1921)
- Il concetto moderno della scienza e il problema universitario (1921)
- G. Capponi e la cultura toscana nel secolo decimonono (1922)
- Studi sul rinascimento (1923)
- Dante e Manzoni, con un saggio su Arte e religione (1923)
- I profeti del Risorgimento Italiano (1923)
- Intorno alla logica del concreto (1924)
- Preliminari allo studio del fanciullo (1924)
- La riforma della scuola (1924)
- Il fascismo e la Sicilia (1924)
- Il fascismo al governo della scuola (1924)
- Che cosa è fascismo (1925)
- La nuova scuola media (1925)
- Avvertimenti attualisti (1926)
- Frammenti di storia della filosofia (1926)
- Saggi critici (1926)
- L'eredità di Vittorio Alfieri (1926)
- Cultura fascista (1926)
- Il problema religioso in Italia (1927)
- Il pensiero italiano del secolo XIX (1928)
- Fascismo e cultura (1928)
- La filosofia del fascismo (1928)
- La legge del Gran Consiglio (1928)
- Manzoni e Leopardi (1929)
- Origini e dottrina del fascismo (1929)
- La filosofia dell'arte (1931)
- Introduzione alla filosofia (1933)
- La donna e il fanciullo (1934)
- Origini e dottrina del fascismo (1934)
- Leonardo da Vinci (Gentile one of contributors, 1935)
Works about Giovanni Gentile In English
- Mussolini's Fascist Philosopher, Giovanni Gentile Reconsidered (M. E. Moss, Lang, 2004). ISBN 082046838X
- A. James Gregor, Giovanni Gentile: Philosopher of Fascism (Transaction Publishers, 2001). ISBN 0765800721
- A. James Gregor, Origins and Doctrine of Fascism: With Selections from Other Works by Giovanni Gentile (Transaction Publishers, 2004). ISBN 0765805774
Works about Giovanni Gentile In Italian
- Giovanni Gentile (Augusto del Noce, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1990)
- Giovanni Gentile filosofo europeo (Salvatore Natoli, Turin: Bollati Boringhieri, 1989)
- Giovanni Gentile (Antimo Negri, Florence: La Nuova Italia, 1975)
See also
- Actual Idealism
- Revolutionary minded Italians of the inter-war period
Gentile, Giovanni
Gentile, Giovanni
Gentile, Giovanni
Gentile, Giovanni
Gentile, Giovanni
Gentile, Giovanni
ja:ジョヴァンニ・ジェンティーレ
Enciclopedia ItalianaThe first volume of the Enciclopedia Italiana di scienze, lettere ed arti or Italian Encyclopaedia of Science, Letters, and Arts was published in 1925. In all 35 volumes of text were published and one index volume.
Italiana, Enciclopedia
Fascism
----
Fascism (in Italian, fascismo), capitalized, was the authoritarian political movement which ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. Similar political movements, including Nazism, spread across Europe between World War I and World War II. Fascism generally attracted political support from big business, landowners, and patriotic, traditionalist, conservative, far-right, populist and reactionary individuals and groups. Classical fascism has also inspired contemporary neo-fascist organizations.
There is little agreement among historians, political scientists, and other scholars concerning the exact nature of fascism. Some scholars hold that fascism as a social movement employs elements from the political left, but it eventually allies with the political right, especially after attaining state power. A few argue that fascism is a form of socialism or left corporatism. See: Fascism and ideology.
There is also controversy surrounding the question of what political movements and governments belong to fascism. The most restrictive definitions of fascism include only one government - that of Benito Mussolini in Italy. The broadest definitions, on the other hand, may include every authoritarian state that has ever existed. Fascism is associated with one or more of the following characteristics: a very high degree of nationalism, economic corporatism, and, after attaining political control of a country, a powerful, dictatorial state that views the nation as superior to the individuals or groups composing it. Fascism also typically calls for the regeneration of the nation and uses populist appeals to unity. Mussolini defined fascism as being a right-wing ideology in opposition to socialism, liberalism, democracy and individualism. He said in The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism:
:"Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are free to believe that this is the century of authority, a century tending to the 'right', a Fascist century. If the 19th century was the century of the individual (liberalism implies individualism) we are free to believe that this is the 'collective' century, and therefore the century of the State." [http://www.worldfuturefund.org/wffmaster/Reading/Germany/mussolini.htm]
The problem of defining fascism is complicated by the fact that the word fascist, used as an epithet, became an all-purpose insult after World War II, being widely applied to people on all sides of the political spectrum. In contemporary political discourse, adherents of some political ideologies tend to associate fascism with their enemies, or define it as the opposite of their own views.
Definition
The word "fascism" comes from fascio (plural: fasci), which may mean "bundle," as in a political or militant group or a nation, but also from the fasces (rods bundled around an axe), which were an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of magistrates. The Italian 'Fascisti' were also known as Black Shirts for their style of uniform incorporating a black shirt (See Also: political colour).
Merriam-Webster defines fascism as "a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition". The American Heritage Dictionary instead describes it as "A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism.".
Scholar Stanley Payne's Fascism: Comparison and Definition (1980) uses a lengthy itemized list of characteristics to identify fascism, including the creation of an authoritarian state; a regulated, state-integrated economic sector; fascist symbolism; anti-liberalism; anti-communism and anti-conservatism. A similar strategy was employed by semiotician Umberto Eco in his popular essay Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt. More recently, an emphasis has been placed upon the aspect of fascist rhetoric that argues for a "re-birth" of a conflated nation and ethnic people.
Fascism in practice has expressed itself in both political and economic practices, and academics have examined these elements both together and in isolation. Hannah Arendt, whose focus is largely political, argues that regimes commonly thought of as fascist, such as Nazism, belong to a larger category of totalitarianisms, including communist dictatorships, such as that of Joseph Stalin. Thayer Watkins, a professor of Economics from San Jose State University, identifies fascism as aligned with corporatism, a form of economic oppression that he argues includes most of the world's governments. Watkins considers Mussolini's Fascist regime to be one example of the corporatist states that emerged during the Great Depression, including such diverse political systems as that of Spain, Argentina and the United States.
After the defeat of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in World War II, the term has taken on an extremely pejorative meaning, largely in reaction to the crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis. Today, very few groups proclaim themselves fascist, and the term is often used to describe individuals or political groups who are perceived to behave in an authoritarian or totalitarian manner; by silencing opposition, judging personal behavior, promoting racism, or otherwise attempting to concentrate power and create hate towards the "enemies of the state".
Italian Fascism
Early history
Etymologically, the use of the word Fascism in modern Italian political history stretches back to the 1890s in the form of fasci, which were radical left-wing political factions that proliferated in the decades before World War I. One of the first of these groups were the Fasci Siciliani who were part of the first movement that consisted of the Italian working-class peasants that made real progress. The Fasci Siciliani dei lavoratori, were revolutionary socialists that were led by Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida.
Mussolini's Fascism
Giuseppe De Felice Giuffrida
As a political and economic system in Italy, fascism combined elements of corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, militarism and anti-Communism. In an article in the 1932 Enciclopedia Italiana, written by Giovanni Gentile and attributed to Benito Mussolini, fascism is described as a system in which "The State not only is authority which governs and molds individual wills with laws and values of spiritual life, but it is also power which makes its will prevail abroad... For the Fascist, everything is within the State and... neither individuals nor groups are outside the State... For Fascism, the State is an absolute, before which individuals or groups are only relative... Liberalism denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual."
It discussed other political and social doctrines of the time by describing fascism as: "the resolute negation of the doctrine underlying so-called scientific and Marxian socialism... and as rejecting (in democracy) "the absurd conventional lie of political equalitarianism, the habit of collective irresponsibility, the myth of felicity and indefinite progress".
"Fascism is definitely and absolutely opposed to the doctrines of liberalism, both in the political and economic sphere. ... The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporate, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organised in their respective associations, circulate within the State."
Another central theme of Italian fascism was the struggle against what it described as the corrupt "plutocracies" of the time, France and Britain in particular.
Italian Fascism is often considered to be a proper noun and thus denoted by a capital letter "F", whereas generic fascism is conventionally represented with the lower-case character "f". Italian Fascism is considered a model for other forms of fascism, yet there is disagreement over which aspects of structure, tactics, culture, and ideology represent a "fascist minimum" or core.
A Doctrine of Fascism was written by Giovanni Gentile, a neo-Hegelian philosopher who served as the official philosopher of fascism. Mussolini signed the article and it was officially attributed to him. In it, French socialists Georges Sorel, Charles Peguy, and Hubert Lagardelle were invoked as the sources of fascism. Sorel's ideas concerning syndicalism and violence are much in evidence in this document. It also quotes from Ernest Renan who it says had "pre-fascist intuitions". Both Sorel and Peguy were influenced by the Frenchman Henri Bergson. Bergson rejected the scientism, mechanical evolution and materialism of Marxist ideology. Also, Bergson promoted an elan vital as an evolutionary process. Both of these elements of Bergson appear in fascism. Mussolini states that fascism negates the doctrine of Marxist socialism and its doctrine of historical materialism. Hubert Lagardelle, an authoritative syndicalist writer, was influenced by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon who, in turn, inspired anarchosyndicalism.
There were several strains of tradition influencing Mussolini. Sergio Panunzio, a major theoretician of fascism in the 1920s, had a syndicalist background, but his influence waned as the movement shed all connection to the working-class autonomy of syndicalism. The fascist concept of corporatism and particularly its theories of class collaboration and economic and social relations have similarities to the model laid out by Pope Leo XIII's 1892 encyclical Rerum Novarum. This encyclical addressed politics as it had been transformed by the Industrial Revolution, and other changes in society that had occurred during the nineteenth century. The document criticized capitalism, complaining of the exploitation of the masses in industry. However, it also sharply criticized the socialist concept of class struggle, and the proposed socialist solution to exploitation (the elimination, or at least the limitation, of private property). Rerum Novarum called for strong governments to undertake a mission to protect their people from exploitation, while continuing to uphold private property and reject socialism. It also asked Catholics to apply principles of social justice in their own lives.
Seeking to find some principle to compete with and replace the Marxist doctrine of class struggle, Rerum Novarum urged social solidarity between the upper and lower classes. Its analogy of the state as being like a body working together as "one mind" had some cultural influence on the early Fascists of Catholic nations. It also indicated the state had a right to suppress "firebrands" and striking workers. Further Rerum Novarum proposed a kind of corporatism that resembled medieval guilds for an industrial age. This relates far more directly to Brazilian Integralism form of Fascism than anything in Italy. The encyclical intended to counteract the "subversive nature" of both Marxism and liberalism.
Themes and ideas developed in Rerum Novarum can also be found in the ideology of fascism as developed by Mussolini. Although it also contains ideas like "the members of the working classes are citizens by nature and by the same right as the rich" or "the State has for its office to protect natural rights, not to destroy them; and, if it forbid its citizens to form associations, it contradicts the very principle of its own existence," that never fit easily with Italian Fascism.
Fascism also borrowed from Gabriele D'Annunzio's Constitution of Fiume for his ephemeral "regency" in the city of Fiume. Syndicalism had a strong influence on fascism as well, particularly as some syndicalists intersected with D'Annunzio's ideas. Before the First World War, syndicalism had stood for a militant doctrine of working-class revolution. It distinguished itself from Marxism because it insisted that the best route for the working class to liberate itself was the trade union rather than the party.
The Italian Socialist Party ejected the syndicalists in 1908. The syndicalist movement split between anarcho-syndicalists and a more moderate tendency. Some moderates began to advocate "mixed syndicates" of workers and employers. In this practice, they absorbed the teachings of Catholic theorists and expanded them to accommodate greater power of the state, and diverted them by the influence of D'Annunzio to nationalist ends.
When Henri De Man's Italian translation of Au-dela du marxisme emerged, Mussolini was excited and wrote to the author that his criticism "destroyed any scientific element left in Marxism". Mussolini was appreciative of the idea that a corporative organization and a new relationship between labour and capital would eliminate "the clash of economic interests" and thereby neutralize "the germ of class warfare.'"
Socialist thinkers, Robert Michels, Sergio Panunzio, Ottavio Dinale, Agostino Lanzillo, Angelo Oliviero Olivetti, Michele Bianchi, and Edmondo Rossoni played a part in this attempt to find a third way that rejected both capitalism and Marxism.
Many historians claim that the March 23 1919 meeting at the Piazza San Sepolcro was the historic “birthplace” of the fascist movement. However, this would imply that the Italian Fascists “came from nowhere” which is simply not true. Mussolini revived his former group, Fasci d'Azione rivoluzionaria, in order to take part in the 1919 elections in response to an increase in Communist activity occurring in Milan. The Fasci di Combattimenti were the result of this continuation (not creation) of the Fascist party. The result of the meeting was that Fascism became an organized political movement. Among the founding members were the revolutionary syndicalist leaders Agostino Lanzillo and Michele Bianchi.
In 1921, the fascists developed a program that called for:
- a democratic republic,
- separation of church and state,
- a national army,
- progressive taxation for inherited wealth, and
- development of co-operatives or guilds to replace labor unions.
As the movement evolved, several of these initial ideas were abandoned and rejected.
Mussolini capitalized on fear of a Communist revolution, finding ways to unite Labor and Capital to prevent class war. In 1926 he created the National Council of Corporations, divided into guilds of employers and employees, tasked with managing 22 sectors of the economy. The guilds subsumed both labor unions and management, and were represented in a chamber of corporations through a triad comprised of a representative from management, from labour and from the party. Together they would plan aspects of the economy for mutual advantage. The movement was supported by small capitalists, low-level bureaucrats, and the middle classes, who had all felt threatened by the rise in power of the Socialists. Fascism also met with great success in rural areas, especially among farmers, peasants, and in the city, the lumpenproletariat.
Mussolini's fascist state was established nearly a decade before Hitler's rise to power (1922 and the March on Rome). Both a movement and a historical phenomenon, Italian Fascism was, in many respects, an adverse reaction to both the apparent failure of laissez-faire economics and fear of Communism.
Fascism was, to an extent, a product of a general feeling of anxiety and fear among the middle class of postwar Italy. This fear arose from a convergence of interrelated economic, political, and cultural pressures. Under the banner of this authoritarian and nationalistic ideology, Mussolini was able to exploit fears regarding the survival of capitalism in an era in which postwar depression, the rise of a more militant left, and a feeling of national shame and humiliation stemming from Italy's 'mutilated victory' at the hands of the World War I postwar peace treaties seemed to converge. Such unfulfilled nationalistic aspirations tainted the reputation of liberalism and constitutionalism among many sectors of the Italian population. In addition, such democratic institutions had never grown to become firmly rooted in the young nation-state.
This same postwar depression heightened the allure of Marxism among an urban proletariat who were even more disenfranchised than their continental counterparts. But fear of the growing strength of trade unionism, Communism, and socialism proliferated among the elite and the middle class. In a way, Benito Mussolini filled a political vacuum. Fascism emerged as a "third way" — as Italy's last hope to avoid imminent collapse of the 'weak' Italian liberalism, and Communist revolution.
While failing to outline a coherent program, fascism evolved into a new political and economic system that combined corporatism, totalitarianism, nationalism, and anti-Communism in a state designed to bind all classes together under a capitalist system. This was a new capitalist system, however, one in which the state seized control of the organization of vital industries. Under the banners of nationalism and state power, Fascism seemed to synthesize the glorious Roman past with a futuristic utopia.
Despite the themes of social and economic reform in the initial Fascist manifesto of June 1919, the movement came to be supported by sections of the middle class fearful of socialism and communism. Industrialists and landowners supported the movement as a defense against labour militancy. Under threat of a fascist March on Rome, in October 1922, Mussolini assumed the premiership of a right-wing coalition Cabinet initially including members of the pro-church Partito Popolare (People's Party).
The regime's most lasting political achievement was perhaps the Lateran Treaty of February 1929 between the Italian state and the Holy See. Under this treaty, the Papacy was granted temporal sovereignty over the Vatican City and guaranteed the free exercise of Catholicism as the sole state religion throughout Italy in return for its acceptance of Italian sovereignty over the Pope's former dominions.
In the 1930s, Italy recovered from the Great Depression, and achieved economic growth in part by developing domestic substitutes for imports (Autarchia). The draining of the malaria-infested Pontine Marshes south of Rome was one of the regime's proudest boasts. But growth was undermined by international sanctions following Italy's October 1935 invasion of Ethiopia (the Abyssinia crisis), and by the government's costly military support for Franco's Nationalists in Spain.
International isolation and their common involvement in Spain brought about increasing diplomatic collaboration between Italy and Nazi Germany. This was reflected also in the Fascist regime's domestic policies as the first anti-semitic laws were passed in 1938.
Italy's intervention (June 10 1940) as Germany's ally in World War II brought military disaster, and resulted in the loss of her north and east African colonies and the American-British-Canadian invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and southern Italy in September 1943.
Mussolini was dismissed as prime minister by King Victor Emmanuel III on July 25th 1943, and subsequently arrested. He was freed in September by German paratroopers under command of Otto Skorzeny and installed as head of a puppet "Italian Social Republic" at Salo in German-occupied northern Italy. His association with the German occupation regime eroded much of what little support remained to him. His summary execution on April 28th 1945 during the war's violent closing stages by the northern partisans was widely seen as a fitting end to his regime.
After the war, the remnants of Italian fascism largely regrouped under the banner of the neo-Fascist "Italian Social Movement" (MSI). The MSI merged in 1994 with conservative former Christian Democrats to form the "National Alliance" (AN), which proclaims its commitment to constitutionalism, parliamentary government and political pluralism.
Mussolini's influences
Fascism did not spring forth full-grown, and the writings of Fascist theoreticians cannot be taken as a full description of Mussolini's ideology, let alone how specific situations inevitably resulted in deviations from ideology. Mussolini's policies drew on both the history of the Italian nation and the philosophical ideas of the 19th century. What resulted was neither logical nor well defined, to the extent that Mussolini defined it as "action and mood, not doctrine".
Nonetheless, certain ideas are clearly visible. The most obvious is nationalism. The last time Italy had been a great nation was under the banner of the Roman Empire and Italian nationalists always saw this as a period of glory. Given that even other European nations with imperial ambitions had often invoked ancient Rome in their architecture and vocabulary, it was perhaps inevitable that Mussolini would do the same.
Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Italy had not again been united until its final unification in 1870. Mussolini desired to affirm an Italian national identity and therefore saw the unification as the first step towards returning Italy to greatness and often exploited the unification and the achievements of leading figures such as Garibaldi to induce a sense of Italian national pride.
The Fascist cult of national rebirth through a strong leader has roots in the romantic movement of the 19th century, as does the glorification of war. For example, the loss of the war with Abyssinia had been a great humiliation to Italians and consequently it was the first place targeted for Italian expansion under Mussolini.
Not all ideas of fascism originated from the 19th century; for example, the use of systematic propaganda to pass on simple slogans such as "believe, obey, fight" and Mussolini's use of the radio both were techniques developed in the 20th century. Similarly, Mussolini's corporate state was a distinctly 20th-century creation.
Nazism and Fascism
radio standing next to Adolf Hitler]]
The extent and nature of the affinity between Fascism and Nazism has been the subject of much
academic debate. Although the modern consensus sees Nazism as a type or offshoot of fascism, there are many experts who argue that Nazism was not fascist at all, either on the grounds that the differences are too great, or because they deny that fascism is generic.
Differences
Nazism differed from Fascism proper in the emphasis on the state's purpose in serving its national ideal on the basis of a national race, specifically the social engineering of culture to the ends of the greatest possible prosperity for German race at the expense of all else and all others. In contrast, Mussolini's Fascism held that cultural factors existed to serve the state, and that it wasn't necessarily in the state's interest to serve or engineer any of these particulars within its sphere. The only purpose of government under Fascism was to uphold the state as supreme above all else, and for these reasons it can be said to have been a governmental statolatry. Where Nazism spoke of "Volk", Fascism talked of "State".
While Nazism was a metapolitical ideology, seeing both party and government as a means to achieve an ideal condition for certain chosen people, fascism was a squarely anti-socialist form of statism that existed as an end in and of itself. The Nazi movement, at least in its overt ideology, spoke of class-based society as the enemy, and wanted to unify the racial element above established classes. The Fascist movement, on the other hand, sought to preserve the class system and uphold it as the foundation of established and desirable culture, although this is not to say that Fascists rejected the concept of social mobility. Indeed a central tenet of the Corporate State was meritocracy. This underlying theorem made the Fascists and National Socialists in the period between the two world wars sometimes see themselves and their respective political labels as at best partially exclusive of one another, and at worst diametrically opposed to one another. This seemed to be especially the case in 1934 when Engelbert Dollfuss the Austrofascist leader of Austria was assasinated by Nazi Brown shirts, on Hitler's orders in preparation for a planned Anschluss, which prompted Mussolini to move troops to the Austrian-Italian boarder in readiness for war Hitler.
Similarities
Nevertheless, despite these differences, [http://www.cf.ac.uk/hisar/people/kp/]Kevin Passmore (2002 p.62) observes:
There are sufficient similarities between Fascism and Nazism to make it worthwhile applying the concept of fascism to both. In Italy and Germany a movement came to power that sought to create national unity through the repression of national enemies and the incorporation of all classes and both genders into a permanently mobilized nation.
Hitler and Mussolini themselves recognised commonalities in their politics. The second part of Hitler's Mein Kampf, "The National Socialistic Movement", first published in 1926, contains this passage:
I conceived the profoundest admiration for the great man south of the Alps, who, full of ardent love for his people, made no pacts with the enemies of Italy, but strove for their annihilation by all ways and means. What will rank Mussolini among the great men of this earth is his determination not to share Italy with the Marxists, but to destroy internationalism and save the fatherland from it. (p. 622)
Anti-Communism
Fascism and Communism are political systems that rose to prominence after World War I. Historians of the period between World War I and World War II such as E.H. Carr and Eric Hobsbawm point out that liberalism was under serious stress in this period and seemed to be a doomed philosophy. The success of the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in a revolutionary wave across Europe. The socialist movement worldwide split into separate social democratic and Leninist wings. The subsequent formation of the Third International prompted serious debates within social democratic parties, resulting in supporters of the Russian Revolution splitting to form Communist Parties in most industrialized (and many non-industrialized) countries.
At the end of World War I, there were attempted socialist uprisings or threats of socialist uprisings throughout Europe, most notably in Germany, where the Spartacist uprising, led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in January 1919, was eventually crushed. In Bavaria, Communists successfully overthrew the government and established the Munich Soviet Republic that lasted from 1918 to 1919. A short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic was also established under Béla Kun in 1919.
The Russian Revolution also inspired attempted revolutionary movements in Italy with a wave of factory occupations. Most historians view fascism as a response to these developments, as a movement that both tried to appeal to the working class and divert them from Marxism. It also appealed to capitalists as a bulwark against Bolshevism. Italian Fascism took power with the blessing of Italy's king after years of leftist-led unrest led many conservatives to fear that a communist revolution was inevitable.
Throughout Europe, numerous aristocrats, conservative intellectuals, capitalists and industrialists lent their support to fascist movements in their countries that emulated Italian Fascism. In Germany, numerous right-wing nationalist groups arose, particularly out of the post-war Freikorps, which were used to crush both the Spartacist uprising and the Munich Soviet.
With the worldwide Great Depression of the 1930s, it seemed that liberalism and the liberal form of capitalism were doomed, and Communist and fascist movements swelled. These movements were bitterly opposed to each other and fought frequently, the most notable example of this conflict being the Spanish Civil War. This war became a proxy war between the fascist countries and their international supporters — who backed Francisco Franco — and the worldwide Communist movement allied uneasily with anarchists and Trotskyists — who backed the Popular Front — and were aided chiefly by the Soviet Union.
Initially, the Soviet Union supported a coalition with the western powers against Nazi Germany and popular fronts in various countries against domestic fascism. This policy was largely unsuccessful due to the distrust shown by the western powers (especially Britain) towards the Soviet Union. The Munich Agreement between Germany, France and Britain heightened Soviet fears that the western powers were endeavoring to force them to bear the brunt of a war against Nazism. The lack of eagerness on the part of the British during diplomatic negotiations with the Soviets served to make the situation even worse. The Soviets changed their policy and negotiated a non-aggression pact known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939. Vyacheslav Molotov claims in his memoirs that the Soviets believed this was necessary to buy them time to prepare for an expected war with Germany. Stalin expected the Germans not to attack until 1942, but the pact ended in 1941 when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Fascism and communism reverted to being lethal enemies. The war, in the eyes of both sides, was a war between ideologies.
Fascism and religion
Some expressions of fascism have been closely linked with religious political movements. This combination is referred to as Clerical fascism, a prime example of which is the Ustashe in Croatia.
Fascism and the Catholic Church
A controversial topic is the relationship between fascist movements and the Catholic Church. As mentioned above, Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum included doctrines that fascists used or admired. Forty years later, the corporatist tendencies of Rerum Novarum were underscored by Pope Pius XI's May 25, 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno restated the hostility of Rerum Novarum to both unbridled competition and class struggle. The criticism of both socialism and capitalism in these encyclicals was not fascist per se, but by weakening support for either alternative such writings arguably opened the door to fascism.
In the early 1920s, the Catholic party in Italy (Partito Popolare) was in the process of forming a coalition with the Reform Party that could have stabilized Italian politics and thwarted Mussolini's projected coup. On October 2, 1922, Pope Pius XI circulated a letter ordering clergy not to identify themselves with the Partito Popolare, but to remain neutral, an act that undercut the party and its alliance against Mussolini. Following Mussolini's rise to power, the Vatican's Secretary of State met Il Duce in early 1923 and agreed to dissolve the Partito Popolare, which Mussolini saw as obstacle to fascist rule. In exchange, the fascists made guarantees regarding Catholic education and institutions.
In 1924, following the murder of the leader of the Socialist Party by fascists, the Partito Popolare joined with the Socialist Party in demanding that the King dismiss Mussolini as Prime Minister, and stated their willingness to form a coalition government. Pius XI responded by warning against any coalition between Catholics and socialists. The Vatican ordered all priests to resign from the Partito Popolare and from any positions they held in it. This led to the party's disintegration in rural areas where it relied on clerical assistance.
The Vatican subsequently established Catholic Action as a non-political lay organization under the direct control of bishops. The organization was forbidden by the Vatican to participate in politics, and thus was not permitted to oppose the fascist regime. Pius XI ordered all Catholics to join Catholic Action. This resulted in hundreds of thousands of Catholics withdrawing from the Partito Popolare, and joining the apolitical Catholic Action. This caused the Catholic Party's final collapse.
When Mussolini ordered the closure of Catholic Action in May 1931, Pius XI issued an encyclical, Non abbiamo bisogno. This document stated the Catholic Church's opposition to the dissolution, and argued that the order "unmasked the 'pagan' intentions of the Fascist state". Under international pressure, Mussolini decided to compromise, and Catholic Action was saved. For Catholics, the encyclical's disapproval of any system that puts the nation above God or humanity remains doctrine.
Aside from certain ideological similarities, the relationship between the Church and fascist movements in various countries has often been close. An early example is Austria which developed a quasi-fascist authoritarian Catholic regime some call the "Austro-fascist" Ständestaat between 1934 and 1938. There is little debate over Slovakia, where the fascist dictator was a Catholic monsignor; and the Independent State of Croatia, where the fascist Ustashe identified itself as a Catholic movement. The Iron Guard in Romania identified itself as an Eastern Orthodox movement (with no connection to Roman Catholicism), and had particularly strong leanings toward clerical fascism. (See also Involvement of Croatian Catholic clergy with the Ustaša regime.)
The Vichy regime in France was also deeply influenced by the reactionary Catholic-influenced ideology of the Action Française. This group had actually been led by an agnostic and condemned by the Catholic Church in 1926. Many of its members were reactionary Catholics so this condemnation damaged the group, but then in 1938 the condemnation was lifted. Conversely, many Catholic priests were persecuted under the Nazi regime, and many Catholic laypeople and clergy played notable roles in sheltering Jews during the Holocaust.
Fascism and the Protestant churches
Protestantism in Italy and Spain was not as significant as Catholicism. The connection between the German form of Fascism, Nazism, and Protestantism has long been debated, with some saying that the Protestant denominations, especially the German Lutheran Church, was close. According to some scholars, especially Richard Steigman-Gall (The Holy Reich: Protestantism and the Nazi
Movement, 1920-1945) the relationship was collaborationist. Hitler, in his manifesto, Mein Kampf, listed Martin Luther as one of Germany's great historic reformers. In Luther's 1543 book On the Jews and Their Lies, Luther advocated the burning of synagogues and schools, the deportation of Jews, and many other measures that resemble the actions later taken by the Nazis.
The overwhleming majority of Protestant church leaders in Germany made no comment on the Nazis' growing anti-Jewish activities. Many Protestants opposed the governments of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s which they saw as coalitions between the Socialists and the Catholic Centre party. In 1932, many German Protestants joined together to form the German Christian Movement which enthusiastically supported Nazi propaganda, and sought to join Church and State. 3,000 of the 17,000 Protestant pastors in Germany were to join the movement. Hitler wished to unite a Protestant church of 28 different federations into one nationalist body. Pastor Ludwig Muller, the leader of the German Christian Movement, was soon appointed Hitler's advisor on religious affairs. He was elected Reich's Bishop in charge of the German Protestant churches in 1933.
An "Aryan Paragraph" was introduced to the constitution which stated that no one of non-Aryan background, or married to anyone of non-Aryan background, could serve as either a pastor or church official. Pastors and officials who had married a non-Aryan were to be dismissed. Much of the Lutheran and Methodist establishment in Germany had fallen behind Hitler in his promise to oppose Bolshevism and instability.
The new measures began to raise some opposition to the German Christians from a minority of Lutherans and Evangelicals who had become increasingly disillusioned with unethical practices of the Nazies and disliked state interference in church affairs. Dietrich Bonhoffer, a Lutheran pastor (though arguably of a liberal theological persuasion), was vocal in his opposition of the Nazis. Though there is some debate as to his actual involvement in planning the assassination attempt of Hitler, he was found guilty and executed for his alleged part in the conspiracy. A small group of Protestant clergy under Martin Niemoeller and Dietrich Bonhoffer separated from the main churches to form the Confessing Church. The group had limited effect, however, as it was forced to meet secretly and was dispersed by the Nazis by 1939, and the effect of Protestantism on inhibiting Nazism in Germany was limited at best.
Fascism as an international phenomenon
It is often a matter of dispute whether a certain government is to be characterized as fascist, authoritarian, totalitarian, or a police state. Regimes that are alleged to have been either fascist or sympathetic to fascism include:
Austria (1933-1938) - Austro-fascism: Dollfuß dissolved parliament and established a clerical-fascist dictatorship which lasted until Austria was incorporated into Germany through the Anschluss. Dollfuß's idea of a "Ständestaat" was borrowed from Mussolini.
Italy (1922-1943) - The first fascist country, it was ruled by Benito Mussolini (Il Duce) until he was dismissed and arrested on the 25 July 1943. Mussolini was then rescued from prison by German troops, and set up a short lived puppet state named "Repubblica di Salò" in northern Italy under the protection of the German army.
Germany (1933-1945) - Ruled by the Nazi movement of Adolf Hitler (der Führer). In the terminology of the Allies, Nazi Germany was as their chief enemy the mightiest and best-known fascist state. See above for a discussion on the differences and similarities between Nazism and fascism.
Spain (1936-1975) - After the 1936 arrest and execution of its founder José Antonio Primo de Rivera during the Spanish Civil War, the fascist Falange Española Party was allied to and ultimately came to be dominated by Generalísimo Francisco Franco, who became known as El Caudillo, the undisputed leader of the Nationalist side in the war, and, after victory, head of state until his death over 35 years later. However, it was best described as an autocracy based on the Falangist fascist principles in its early years. By the mid-50s, the Spanish Miracle and the rise of the Opus Dei in the Franco regime led to Falangist fascism being discarded and fascists minimized in importance.
Portugal (1932-1974) - Although less restrictive than the Italian, German and Spanish regimes, the Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar was quasi-fascist. However, it was closer to the Spanish example of paternal authoritarianism than the Italian fascist or German Nazi model.
Greece - Joannis Metaxas' 1936 to 1941 dictatorship was not particularly ideological in nature, and might hence be characterized as authoritarian rather than fascist. The same can be argued regarding Colonel George Papadopoulos' 1967 to 1974 military dictatorship, which was supported by the United States.
Brazil (1937-1945) - Many historians have argued that Brazil's Estado Novo under Getúlio Vargas was a Brazilian variant of the continental fascist regimes. For a period of time, Vargas' regime was aligned with Plínio Salgado's Integralist Party, Brazil's fascist movement. However, it also showed great affinity with organized labour and leftist ideas, leaving its classification open to interpretation.
Belgium (1940-1945) - The violent Rexist movement and the Vlaamsch-Nationaal Verbond party achieved some electoral success in the 1930s. Many of its members assisted the Nazi occupation during World War II. The Verdinaso movement, too, can be considered fascist. Its leader, Joris Van Severen, was killed before the Nazi occupation. Some of its adepts collaborated, but others joined the resistance. These collaborationist movements are generally classified as belonging to the National Socialist model or the German fascist model because of its brand of racial nationalism and the close relation with the occupational authorities.
Slovakia (1939-1944) - The Slovak People's Party was a quasi-fascist nationalist movement associated with the Catholic Church. Founded by Father Andrej Hlinka, his successor Monsignor Jozef Tiso became the Nazis' quisling in a nominally independent Slovakia. The clerical element lends comparison with Austrofascism or the clerical fascism of Croatia, though not to the excesses of either model. The market system was run on principles agreeing with the standard Italian fascist model of industrial regulation.
France (1940-1944) - The Vichy regime of Philippe Pétain, established following France's defeat by Germany, collaborated with the Nazis, including in the death of 65,000 French Jews. However, the minimal importance of fascists in the government until its direct occupation by Germany makes it appear to seem more similar to the regime of Franco or Salazar than the model fascist powers. While it has been argued that anti-Semitic massacres performed by the Vichy regime were more in the interests of pleasing Germany than in service of ideology, anti-semitism was strong in France before World War II.
As early as October 1940 the Vichy regime introduced the infamous statut des Juifs, that produced a new legal definition of Jewishness and which barred Jews from certain public offices. Worse still, in May 1941 the Parisian police force had collaborated in the internment of foreign Jews. As a means of identifying Jews, the German authorities required all Jews in the occupied zone to wear the Star of David on their clothing. On the 11th June, they demanded that 100, 000 Jews be handed over for deportation.
The most infamous of these mass arrests was the so-called grande rafle du Vél' d'Hiv' which took place in Paris on the 16th and 17th July 1942. The Vélodrome d'Hiver was a large indoor sports arena situated on the rue Nélaton near the Quai de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissment of Paris. In a vast operation codenamed vent printanier, the French police rounded up 12,884 Jews from Paris and its surrounding suburbs. These were mostly adult men and women but there were around 4,000 children amongst them. The rounding up was made easier by the large number of files on Jews complied and held by Vichy authorities since 1940. The French police, headed by René Bousquet, were entirely resonsible for this operation and not one German soldier assisted.
Romania (1940-1944) - The Iron Guard, turned more and more into a pro-Nazi and pro-German movement, and took power in September 1940 when Ion Antonescu forced King Carol II to abdicate. However, the cohabitation between the Iron Guard and Ion Antonescu was short-lived.
The Antonescu regime that followed hardly qualifies as fascist, as it did not have a clear political program or party. It was rather a military dictatorship. The regime was characterized by nationalism, anti-semitism, and anti-communism, but had no social program. Despite the Iaşi pogrom and a near-liquidation of the Jews of many parts of Moldavia, the regime ultimately refused to send the Romanian Jews to German death camps. The regime was overturned on the 23rd of August 1944 by a coup lead by the king Mihai of Romania.
Independent State of Croatia (1941-1945) - Poglavnik Ante Pavelić, leader of the infamous Ustaše movement, came to power in 1941 as the Croatian puppet leader under the control of Nazi Germany. Under the indirect control of Germany, the Ustaše regime was based heavily upon both upon clerical fascism and the Italian model of fascism, with elements of racial integrity and organic nationalism drawn from Nazism.
Norway (1943-1945) - Vidkun Quisling had staged a coup d'état during the German invasion on April 9th, 1940. This first government was replaced by a Nazi puppet government under his leadership from February 1st, 1943. His party had never had any substantial support in Norway, undermining his attempts to emulate the Italian fascist state.
Hungary (1932-1945) - By 1932, support for right-wing ideology, embodied by Gyula Gömbös, had reached the point where Hungarian Regent Miklós Horthy could not postpone appointing a fascist prime minister. Horthy also showed signs of admiring the efficiency and conservative leanings
The Manifesto of the Fascist Struggle: Fascist manifesto
Category:Fascism
Category:Anti-communism
Category:Political theories
Category:Contemporary Italian history
ja:Category:ファシズム Pere Ubu
Pere Ubu ist eine Band aus Cleveland in Ohio. Der Bandname setzt sich zusammen aus Namen der Hauptfigur des Theaterstücks Ubu Roi (dt.: König Ubu) von Alfred Jarry und dem französischen Wort pere (dt.: Vater).
Geschichte
Im Jahr 1974 gründete David Thomas die Band Rocket From The Tombs. Nach künstlerischen Differenzen zwischen den Mitgliedern löste sich die Band 1975 auf. Thomas und Peter Laughner gründeten Pere Ubu während die anderen Mitglieder von Rocket And The Tombs später als Dead Boys bekannt wurden.
Pere Ubu wuchs um weiter Mitglieder an und nahm schon im September 1975 ihre erste Single 30 Seconds Over Tokyo auf. Anfang 1976 folgte die Single Final Solution. In Ermangelung eigener Kompositionen spielte die Band bei Live Auftritten zunächst viele Coverversionen darunter Lieder von den MC5, The Stooges oder The Velvet Underground. Den Single Veröffentlichungen folgten Auftritte im Max's Kansas City Club in New York und einigen Clubs in Cleveland. Nach einigen Umbesetzungen in der Band kam es Mitte 1976 zur Veröffentlichung der dritten Single Street Waves.
Diese Single war es auch die Cliff Burnstein, ein A&R Mann von der Plattenfirma Mercury Records auf die Band aufmerksam machte. Jedoch hielt Burnstein seine Firma nicht für das geeignete Label, versicherte jedoch, bei einem Gespräch mit Thomas, der Band seine Unterstützung. Zwei Wochen später zeigte auch Chrysalis Interesse an Pere Ubu. Damit unter Druck gesetzt schuf Bernstein das Label Blank Records eigens für die Band, das dann als Unterlabel von Mercury betrieben wurde. Darauf erschien dann im Februar 1978 das erste Album The Modern Dance. Nach einer Tournee durch die USA und Europa erschien im gleichen Jahr noch das Album Dub Housing. Auch im darauf folgendem Jahr tourte die Band. In Europa sollte die Band zusammen mit Nico und The Red Crayola touren. Nachdem 1979 das dritte Album New Picnic Time veröffentlicht war, und die Band in San Diego einen Auftritt vor nur fünf Zuhörern hatte, verließ der Gitarrist Tom Herman die Band und wurde durch Mayo Thompson von The Red Crayola ersetzt. Im Grunde war The Red Crayola mehr ein Projekt um Mayo Thompson, mit ständig wechselnden Mitgliedern, so das die nächste Veröffentlichung an der Pere Ubu komplett beteiligt war das Album Soldier Talk unter dem Bandnamen The Red Crayola.
Pere Ubu veröffentlichte noch zwei weitere Alben, die von Kritikern hoch gelobt wurden. Doch innerhalb der Band gab es zunehmend Spannungen. David Thomas versuchte sich seit 1982 in verschiedenen Soloprojekten und veröffentlichte darin sechs Alben. Auch die Bandmitglieder Scott Krauss und Tony Maimone fanden eine neue Band namens Home & Garden. Pere Ubu schien aufgelöst ohne dass es jemand verkündet hatte.
Mit dem Album The Termanent Year erwachte die Band 1987 wieder. Für das folgende Album Cloudlands konnte man Stephen Hague als Produzenten gewinnen. Dessen Erfahrungen mit den Pet Shop Boys und New Order bescherten die eingängigsten und poppigsten Songs der Band. Es folgten weitere Studio- und Live Alben aber auch vieles aus der Frühen Phase der Band wurde wiederveröffentlicht.
In der ganzen Geschichte der Band war David Thomas als einziger vom Begin bis Heute dabei. Die weiteren Mitglieder verließen Teilweise die Band um etwas später wieder zurückzukehren. Andere wie Alan Greenblatt z.B. hatten nur ein kurzes Gastspiel. Die Soloprojekte von Thomas zwischen 1982 und 1987 sind im Prinzip die Weiterführung von Pere Ubu. Denn viele der ehemaligen Pere Ubu Mitglieder wirkten bei den Soloprojekten von Thomas mit. Ähnlich inkonsequent erscheint die Veröffentlichungspraktik der Band. Erschien das erste Album noch unter der Obhut des Mercury Labels wechselte man für das zweite schon zu Chrysalis. Darauf folgte die vertragliche Verpflichtung bei Rough Trade die am längsten dauerte, um dann wieder bei Fontana unter Vertrag zu stehen. Daneben gab es noch Zwischenstationen bei weiteren Labels. Aktuell ist das Glitterhouse Label mit den Veröffentlichungen neuer Alben betraut.
Erfolge in den Charts konnte die Band nicht erreichen. Dennoch fanden ihre Veröffentlichungen immer große Beachtung.
Musik
Die Musik von Pere Ubu in eine Stilrichtung einzuordnen ist nahezu unmöglich. Auf der offiziellen Webseite der Band bezeichnet sie sich selbst schlicht als eine Rockband.
In ihrer Anfangszeit, wurde die Band vor dem Hintergrund der Punk Bewegung auch als Punkband kategoriesiert um bald als New Wave bezeichnet zu werden. Letztendlich gab es viele Versuche der Einordnung.
Die Schwierigkeit einer Kategoriesierung ließe sich damit begründen, dass die Band enorm viele Einflüsse verarbeitete. Doch das alleine reicht nicht aus. Die Art im Umgang mit den Strukturen im Aufbau und Arrangement der Songs erzeugt zusätzlich Verwirrung. Ein Stilmittel der Band ist z.B. die Verwendung eines analogen Synthesizers, der scheinbar der Logik folgt sich allem zu unterwerfen, nur nicht dem Willen der Band. So ensteht ein vorsätzliches stören/zerstören der Songs, auf der Basis einer scheinbaren chaotik. Des weiteren betrachtet die Band Kompositionen wie ein Puzzle, das sich immer wieder anders zusammenfügen läßt, weil jedes Teil zum anderen paßt. Damit ist das Auflösen herkömmlicher Songstrukturen ein zentraler Aspekt in der Musik von Pere Ubu. Die Produktion des organisierten Chaos wird unterstützt durch den eigentümlichen, sehr emotionalen und daher weniger disziplinierten, Gesangstil und die hohe, aber voluminöse Stimme von David Thomas. Innerhalb eines Liedes vermag er von Aggressivität zum kläglichen Wimmern zu wechseln, unterbrochen von wabbelnden glucksern.
All dies bewegt sich in allen Möglichkeiten, die Rock und Pop zu bieten haben. Ein übergriff zu improvisatorischen Strukturen wie der Jazz ihn zu bieten hat findet nicht statt.
Wenn auch eine Kategorisierung der Musik nicht möglich ist, so kann man die Band jedoch musikalischen Epochen zuordnen in denen es ähnliches gegeben hat. Zum einen die psychedelische Phase des Garagenrock der 1960er und die Überleitung zum Progressive Rock der 1970er. Die Zeit des Punk und die damit entstandenen experimentellen Bands der Avantgarde. So funktioniert die Band als Bindeglied von The Velvet Underground, den frühen Pink Floyd, The Fugs und The Red Crayola über Faust, Soft Machine und Captain Beefheart bis Brian Eno und This Heat.
Diskographie
Rocket From The Tombs
- A Night Of Heavy Music (Musikkassette, 1975)
- The Day The Earth Met The... (Anthology, 2002)
- Rocket Redux (2004)
Pere Ubu
- The Modern Dance (1978)
- Datapanik In The Year Zero (Anthologie, EP, 1978)
- Dub Housing (1978)
- New Picnic Time (1979)
- The Art of Walking (1980)
- 390 Degrees of Simulated Stereo (Live Aufnahmen, 1981)
- Song of The Bailing Man (1982)
- Terminal Tower (Singles Zusammenstellung, 1985)
- The Tenement Year (1988)
- Cloudland (1989)
- One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams (1989)
- Worlds In Collision (1991)
- Story Of My Life (1993)
- Raygun Suitcase (1995)
- Datapanik In The Year Zero (Anthologie, CD Box, 1996)
- Pennsylvania (1998)
- Apocalypse Now (Live Aufnahmen, 1999)
- The Shape of Things (Live Aufnahmen, 1999)
- St Arkansas (2002)
Solo Projekte
- David Thomas And The Pedestrians
- David Thomas & His Legs
- David Thomas And The Wooden Birds
- Tripod Jimmy
- Peter Laughner
- Home & Garden
- Easter Monkeys
Literatur
- Albrecht Pilz: Pere Ubu. In: Humann/Reichert (Hsg.): Rock Session 4. Rowolth, Reinbeck, 1980, S. 381-383
- Diedrich Diederichsen: Pere Ubu/Red Crayola. In: Sounds. 4/1981. Sounds Verlag GmbH, S. 32-35
- Steven Grant/Ira Robbins/David Sprague: Pere Ubu. In: Trouser Press, [http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=pere_ubu TrouserPress.com - Pere Ubu (engl.)]
Weblinks
- [http://www.furious.com/perfect/rockets.html Rocket From The Tombs Website]
- [http://ubuprojex.net Ubu Projex, Official site]
- [http://www.ubudance.com Ubu Dance Party, Site en français, French site]
Kategorie:Rockband
Kategorie:US-amerikanische Band
Kategorie:1970er Band
Kategorie:1980er Band
Kategorie:1990er Band
Kategorie:2000er Band
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Qwan Ki Do (Quan Khi Dao) ist a vietnamese martial art.
Qwan Ki Do mostly uses hand-, foot-, jumping and scissor techniques, anmimal forms such as Tiger (Ho), Crane (Bach Hac), Monkey (Hau Nhi), Snake (Xa), Dragon (Long) and others, as well as multiple weapon techniques with sword, staff (one-, two and three-parted), various knifes and others.
- Quan: "the whole"
- Ki: "energy", also known as Khi
- Do: "the way", also known as Dao
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Irv Weinstein
Irv Weinstein is a retired local television news anchor. He hosted WKBW-TV's Eyewitness News in Buffalo, New York for 34 years from 1964 to 1998 and became an iconic broadcaster, well known in both the Buffalo area and in Toronto, Ontario which was within WKBW's broadcast area. Weinstein was known
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North Country (film)
:This article refers to a 2005 film. For other meanings, see North Country.
North Country
North Country is the name of a film directed by Niki Caro and released in 2005. It stars Charlize Theron
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