Deputy Hayek

[Young Master Smeet]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-boss-resigns-after-hitler-tweet-8493296.html

Independent wrote:

A deputy police and crime commissioner has resigned after a row sparked when she retweeted a quote by Hitler.

Here's her statement:

http://rachelfrosh.com/statement-on-the-retweet/

Frosh wrote:

However, there is an accepted mainstream view that the origins of Nazi-ism lie in Socialism, or that they have common roots. Nobel Prize winning Economist Hayek described this his book “The Road to Serfdom” . As Wikipaedia says on the topic “Hayek challenged the general view among British academics that fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism, instead arguing that fascism and socialism had common roots in central economic planning and the power of the state over the individual.”

Indeed, stateside, the Socialists=Nazi's meme has a lot of traction.

She notes, as we have, that the BNP share many policy similarities with the left

Frosh wrote:

I can understand why those on the left don’t wish to be branded in the same political mindset as the BNP. Now they know how those of us on the right feel. But the fact remains that BNP beliefs DO have more in common with Socialism than with Conservatism – centralised command control, trade tariffs, state owned businesses … I could go on. I struggle to think of a single issue which joins the BNP and mainstream conservatism. The Nazis were called National Socialists for a reason. Fascism is invariably described as a creed of the right. It isn’t. As with the BNP, fascism has far more in common with the left, at least in political theoretical terms.

(actually, Conservatives were protectionist, but these days they have become liberals, especially as the aristocratic faction of the Party has waned).

As we wrote:

http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/1930s/1933/no-344-april-1933/rise-hitler-warning-workers

Socialist Standard wrote:

In a broad way the cause and the effect are the same everywhere. Everywhere capitalist private ownership reigns. Everywhere the rulers must serve the interests of the capitalist class, but everywhere it is an over-riding condition of social life that rulers cannot ignore the active discontent of the mass of the population. The discontent, even the open rebellion, of individuals and minorities can be bludgeoned into acquiescence, but when great masses of the population are driven by intolerable conditions into organising for common action then the rulers must sooner or later provide a safety valve; placate the movement or find means of dividing it; turn it into new directions or harness it directly to the capitalist state. In no other way can capitalism maintain itself.[…] In one important respect Hitler's Nazis are just like the Social Democrats and the Communists; they are all parties of discontent. Hitler promises work for the workless; secure government jobs in the police, the Army or the Civil service for 100,000 of his members; higher prices for agricultural products to help the peasants; and protection for the small investor and little shopkeeper squeezed by the big stores and the banks.

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