Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

Product Information

The degree to which Western captains of industry and government elites were warm to and in bed with the Nazis is utterly sickening, especially because the main reason was common opposition to workers who just wanted a better life for themselves and their family. A brilliant organizer, agitator, and gifted journalist, he became editor of the Socialist party’s official newspaper. Parenti shows how fascism renders service to capitalism, how corporate power undermines democracy, and how revolutions are a mass empowerment against the forces of exploitative privilege. I would recommend individual chapters (his early ones on the fall of Communism are the best), but not the book as a whole. Truth is an uncomfortable venue for those who pretend to serve our society while in fact serving only themselves—at our expense.

To impose a full measure of austerity upon workers and peasants, the ruling economic interests would have to abolish the democratic rights that helped the masses defend their modest living standards. Which is a shame because when he does manage to pull things together he makes some very sharp, prescient observations.Ultimately this is a phenomenonal book and I'd say a must-read on life in eastern Europe, Latin America, and Asia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

In such diverse countries as Lithuania, Croatia, Rumania, Hungary, and Spain, a similar fascist pattern emerged to do its utmost to save big capital from the impositions of democracy.

Yet it's clear from what he says elsewhere that even with these inefficiencies, the USSR was able to deliver a decent standard of living for everyone. The page count of this book doesn't detract from the ideas the author is trying to saying slaughters them.