Doomed Middle Class Anti-Fascism

In Germany during the days of the Wiemar Republic, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the biggest game in town. It was the single largest party from the founding of the republic in November 1918 to the July 1932 elections, when the Nazis first overtook them in votes. Let’s examine their anti-fascism so we stop repeating the same mistakes.

The SPD basically believed in what we today call “democratic socialism.” They were primarily middle class and those who aspired to be middle class one day. They thus had critical influences over both the political landscape and the labor movements. They were less concerned about stopping the Nazis and more concerned about trying to suppress any resistance to the Nazis that took place outside the arena of elections.

During the rise of the Nazis, the social democrats wanted to maintain stability and prevent social upheaval, which led them to adopt a defensive position against both the Nazis and the revolutionary left. Their adherence to reformist ideals and the barely democratic republic meant limited willingness to engage in more radical forms of resistance, opting instead for compromise with the government powers. This hesitancy significantly diminished the potential for a united front opposing the Nazis. This allowed the Nazis to consolidate power with minimal effective resistance from the left or labor movements.

Instead of mobilizing the working class against the fascist threat, social democrats often sided with the capitalists to maintain their social standing, reinforcing class divisions rather than fostering solidarity among workers to build a stronger opposition to the Nazis. These failures made it easier for the Nazis to exploit existing social and economic tensions within society, as the social democrats’ commitment to capitalism and modest reforms effectively alienated segments of the working class who were suffering and seeking a more fundamental transformation of society. The social democrats became the status quo.

The position of middle class social democrats was pivotal in shaping their response to the Nazi threat. As members of the middle class, they were especially concerned with preserving their social status and economic interests. Their affiliation with the capitalists led them to prioritize the stability of the existing system over revolutionary change. They feared that any radical uprising would threaten their own position and privileges within society, so they lacked the desire to understand or act upon the broader revolutionary potential present within the working class.

Their desire to maintain the status quo contributed significantly to their ineffectiveness against the Nazis. Their reformist ideology instilled a belief that “progress,” through slow gradual change, was preferable to revolution, which in their perspective would lead to chaos and instability. This fear essentially immobilized them, promoting inaction in the face of rising fascism. It ultimately led the Nazis to be able to position themselves as more radical and militant to the left of the social democrats, hence the name National Socialists, while they actually practiced a far-right politics of ultra-nationalism instead.

This history closely resembles today, as similar tendencies among the middle class left in the USA have lead to a pathetic response to resurgent fascism, prioritizing electoral politics and superficial reforms. Rather than build the revolutionary movement we desperately need, the middle class left has sought to suppress the passionate desire to rise up and fight back with anything but mild law and order liberalism. Instead of a broad grassroots movement for revolution, we’ve been repeatedly told to donate to non-profits, vote harder, and whatever else can keep the middle class left in their positions of relative comfort.