On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 08:53 PM, Anthony Teso wrote: > > Marv’s strongest point is that we still use the term "Bonapartism" only > because Marx did not live long enough to describe modern fascism. But that > idea needs a real argument, not just a mention. What makes fascism > different is not just its extremism, but how it creates a fighting force > outside the state—a mobilized petty-bourgeois group that is organized > separately and then brought into the state, destroying the workers’ > movement first.
Hi Tony. I believe I previously drew your attention to Bonaparte's reliance on a fighting force outside the state to intimidate and suppress the workers and bourgeois democrats in the wake of their 1848 revolution. His 1851 coup d'etat, his unleashing of the lumpenproletarian Society of December 10 , his assumption of dictatorial powers as Emperor, and his suppression of all independent institutions and democratic rights associated with bourgeois democracy was a striking foreshadowing of fascism, not of the Trump administration. As I noted earlier, you strip Bonapartism of these repressive features and focus on corruption as its core characteristic in your attempt to identify Trump as a "patrimonial Bonapartist". However, the Trump administration is not unique; it is simply a more extreme and public expression of the more circumspect favouritism bestowed on friends and family members, wealthy donors, and corporate lobbyists by all manner of bourgeois democratic governments. Here again is the relevant passage from Marx's Eighteenth Brumaire about Bonaparte's use of a fighting force outside the state: The French bourgeoisie balked at the domination of the working proletariat; it has brought the lumpen proletariat to domination, with the Chief of the Society of December 10 at the head. The bourgeoisie kept France in breathless fear of the future terrors of red anarchy – Bonaparte discounted this future for it when, on December 4, he had the eminent bourgeois of the Boulevard Montmartre and the Boulevard des Italiens shot down at their windows by the drunken army of law and order. The bourgeoisie apotheosized the sword; the sword rules it. It destroyed the revolutionary press; its own press is destroyed. It placed popular meetings under police surveillance; its salons are placed under police supervision. It disbanded the democratic National Guard, its own National Guard is disbanded. It imposed a state of siege; a state of siege is imposed upon it. It supplanted the juries by military commissions; its juries are supplanted by military commissions. It subjected public education to the sway of the priests; the priests subject it to their own education. It jailed people without trial, it is being jailed without trial. It suppressed every stirring in society by means of state power; every stirring in its society is suppressed by means of state power. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#42747): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/42747 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/120549500/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
