A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #357 - On Chapoutot's book "The Irresponsible Ones" (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

I am returning to this book by Chapoutot, reviewed in CA 355, and here I 
am summarizing a longer critique posted on the OCL website. I share the 
book's appeal but want to highlight some political issues it raises, 
issues all the more significant given the book's popularity. According 
to the book, there is a near-identical parallel between present-day 
France and Germany in 1932. In the conclusion, Chapoutot writes: "the 
positions[of Bolloré/Hungenberg and Macron/Papen]in the political, 
economic, and social configurations of France in 2025 and Germany in 
1932 are analogous." Indeed, Chapoutot reports many similarities in 
political life between Germany in 1932 and France in 2025. However, we 
must look beyond mere political maneuvering to compare these two 
situations. In reality, the German situation, socially, economically, 
and politically, differs from the current French situation in many respects.
Chapoutot suggests that Hitler's rise to power was somewhat of an 
accident resulting from the choices of a small clique of extreme 
centrist politicians. However, one thing is certain: in 1933, the ruling 
class wanted a policy of terror against workers' organizations and had 
chosen Hitler to lead it. Chappouto himself cites a letter signed by 
major business leaders in late 1932 asking Hindenburg to appoint Hitler 
chancellor. The social situation in Germany was indeed very different 
from ours today. In 1931, industrial production had fallen by 40%, 
almost one in three workers was unemployed, wages were plummeting, and 
the middle class was ruined-a middle class that would become the social 
base of the Nazi party. Faced with an emerging political and social 
crisis, from 1931 onward, employers chose to rely on the Nazi party to 
crush all social protest and the risk of revolution. Chapoutot reminds 
us that the Nazi party recruited 400,000 members into militias (SA) to 
engage in violence and gunfire against working-class activists, 
primarily communists; in addition to 30,000 SS members. Chapoutot's book 
occasionally contains phrases characterizing this terror perpetrated by 
the Nazis before 1933 ("The SA never cease to sow chaos and murder with 
astonishing savagery").

To counter the rise of German fascism, Chapoutot offers a fairly 
accurate analysis of the SPD's policy, which, in the name of the "lesser 
evil," supported the governing right wing. However, Chapoutot fails to 
understand the KPD's policy. The hostility between the SPD and the KPD 
will prevent any united grassroots activism against the Nazis. The SPD 
will remain entrenched in electoral politics by associating itself with 
the decaying right wing, while the KPD will continue to consider the SPD 
its worst enemy. Two suicidal policies.

In conclusion, Chapoutot's book is interesting, as the article in CA 355 
aptly demonstrates, and its pertinent conclusion highlights the stark 
difference between Germany in 1932 and present-day France. However, his 
book focuses primarily on political strategies, and the social situation 
and the choices of the ruling class only appear sporadically in the 
background. Nearly 450,000 Nazi militiamen sought, before 1933, to 
spread terror through the streets against workers' organizations, 
violently attacking their premises, activists, and sometimes even 
strikes-a situation entirely different from the current one in France. 
In short, Chapoutot's book is interesting, but we recommend reading the 
classic "Fascism and Big Capital" by D. Guérin or the more recent 
"Discovering Antifascism" by S. Prezioso to truly understand what 
fascism was.

RV

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4644
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