12.3.25

Does the petty bourgeoisie fear revolution?


The small proprietor wants order, so long as his business is good and for as long as he hopes it will be still better tomorrow. But when this hope is lost, he easily gets into a rage and is ready to take the most extreme measures. Otherwise, how could he have overthrown the democratic state and brought fascism to power in Italy and in Germany?

Above all, the despairing petty bourgeois sees in fascism a force to fight big capital and a force which they believe, unlike the workers’ parties, will use fists rather than just words to establish more “justice”. The petty bourgeoisie is economically dependent and politically fragmented. That is why it will never have its own politics. It needs a “leader” to inspire its confidence.This collective or individual leader, i.e., a personage or a party, can be given to it by either of the basic classes, either by the big bourgeoisie or by the proletariat. Fascism unites and arms the scattered masses and out of this “human dust”, so to speak, makes combat units. Thus it gives the petty bourgeoisie the illusion of being an independent force. It begins to imagine that it could actually take charge of the state. It is no surprise that these hopes and illusions go to its head.

Leon Trotsky
1879 - 1940