How accurate is this claim of Joseph Stalin’s? It is from 1924, still early in the Soviet Union’s dictatorship-of-the-proletariat stage of communism. Lenin had died in January, and this Stalin speech was published in September:
Fascism is the bourgeoisie’s fighting organisation that relies on the active support of Social-Democracy. Social-Democracy is objectively the moderate wing of fascism. There is no ground for assuming that the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of Social-Democracy. There is just as little ground for thinking that Social-Democracy can achieve decisive successes in battles, or in governing the country, without the active support of the fighting organisation of the bourgeoisie. These organisations do not negate, but supplement each other. They are not antipodes, they are twins. Fascism is an informal political bloc of these two chief organisations; a bloc, which arose in the circumstances of the post-war crisis of imperialism, and which is intended for combating the proletarian revolution.
Source: Section 1 of “Concerning the International Situation,” Works, Vol. 6, January-November, 1924, pp. 293-314.
Coming in February: My “Fascism versus Capitalism” session for The Anti-Capitalism Course.
History has showed that is extremely accurate, it is what happened when “social democrats” of Germany allied with fascists in 1919 German revolution against the communists.
We see it today when so called “social democratic” Nordic countries tacitly support US imperialism around the world, and expoit nations in Africa, Asia and South America