The limits of superiority: privilege makes you vulnerable, and panic blended with ignorance and bigotry creates anger. Limitless and blinding anger. Everyone else becomes the enemy. The fortress becomes a prison. Everyone else looking in at you. ibid.
So educated Europeans today know how children die when the whip of debt and bombs whistle over poor countries. It is not knowledge that is lacking … Imperialism is a biologically necessary process that according to the laws of nature leads to the inevitable destruction of the lower races. ibid.
This knowledge is a fundamental prerequisite. That is why the narrator can tell his story as he does in Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. He has no need to count the crimes Kurt committed. He has no need to describe them. He has no need to produce evidence. For no-one doubted it. ibid.
What was happening in his beloved Spain was beginning to change his [Hemingway] mind. It was now being torn apart by a civil war. Early in 1936 reactionary elements of the army eventually led by a fascist general named Francisco Franco and supported by wealthy industrialists, great landowners and the Catholic Church joined forces to try to overthrow the duly elected socialist government. Hitler provided Franco and his rebels with bombers and fighter planes and German pilots to fly them. Their goal was to terrorise the civilian population. The Italian dictator Benito Mussolini dispatched tanks and nearly 80,000 troops. Within weeks, Franco’s forces had seized one third of the country from those faithful to the government … Between 30-40,000 men from more than 50 countries would answer the call. Hemingway III, BBC 2021
There were alliances with Mussolini and Hitler. Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides The Beast; viz also novel
The Roman Catholic Church has continually engaged in adulterous relationships with secular rulers. ibid.
Let me remind you what fascism is. I need not wear a brown shirt or green shirt. Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people my use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to maintain its power of exploitation and special privilege. Tommy Douglas
Divested of its ideological and organisational paraphernalia, fascism is nothing more than a final solution to the class struggle, the totalistic submergence and exploitation of democratic forces for the benefit and profit of higher financial circles. Michael Parenti
This is just little England elites drunk on the memory of a British empire that no longer exists. We have the lowest pensions in Europe, the lowest sick pay, we pretend the minumum wage is a living wage when it’s not. We miss our own economic targets time and time again. We’re happy to break international law. We are turning into a country where words hold no value, and over the last 12 years I fear we are sleepwalking closer and closer to the f-word. And I know is scared to say it for fear of sounding over the top or being accused of going too far. But I say this with all sincerity when I say the f-word. I’m talking about fascism. Fascism wrapped in red, white and blue. Mhairi Black
Throughout the country Franco’s nationalist rebels were openly supported by the old upper class. ibid.
The rebels destroyed everything in their path. ibid.
Guernica: The bridge remained intact; 80% of the buildings had been destroyed. ibid.
It was not until July 1938 that the decisive battle took place … A river in south-west Catalonia … one of the most brutal of the entire war. ibid.
His reign of terror was only just beginning. ibid.
‘He says the most mindbogglingly stupid things you can imagine; and yet at the same time he’s quite cunning.’ The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator II: The New Regime, Paul Preston
April 1939: Three years of bloody civil war have claimed half a million lives and turned Spain into a different country. ibid.
Spain split into winners and losers … ‘We’re talking about total famine.’ ibid. historian
In return for that assistance, Franco was now supplying Germany with raw materials and food. ibid.
According to a secret protocol Franco only offered a vague prospect of Spain entering the War. ibid.
The Spanish troops left for Russia. The Blue Division took part on the attack on Leningrad. ibid.
In Spain the foundations of a new state Franco style were becoming clear: no constitution, just laws. ibid.
It reinforced the rights of entrepreneurs. Wages were dictated by the state. And striking was seen as a serious offence. ibid.
Many people exchanged their last possession for food just to survive. Traders became rich. ibid.
Retroactively, Franco had everyone punished who had as he put it disturbed the social peace. ibid.
Spain suffered from Franco’s dark legacy and still does today. The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator III: Zero Hour
More and more German Nazis had fled to Spain. And Franco had received them with open arms. ibid.
Guerrilla units were especially active in Spain’s mountainous regions but they also fought in some major cities like Barcelona. ibid.
Part of the population stood behind Franco and the opposition was brutally silenced. ibid.
It’s estimated that by the end of the Second World War Franco’s regime had executed 200,000 people. Often the victims were shot without trial. ibid.
Social inequality was part of everyday life. Nepotism and corruption ensured that the upper class retained its privileges. ibid.
After four years of [UN] isolation, Spain was brought in out of the cold. ibid.
Large scale child abduction: the disquieting end of a totalitarian system with the blessing of the Catholic church. ibid.
Dwight D Eisenhower even paid a visit to Franco’s dictatorship. ibid.
He then used every available means to retain power. The Truth About Franco: Spain’s Forgotten Dictator IV: The Leaden Age
The dictator ruled like a monarch. ibid.
Franco was convinced that the people stood behind him. Thanks to foreign aid, living conditions in Spain had improved. Surely that had to ensure loyalty? ibid.
In Spain Opus Dei were especially powerful. ibid.
Tourism especially bought in foreign exchange. ibid.
The old despot felt untouchable. ibid.
‘He never considered stepping down or making significant changes.’ ibid. Werner Herzog
Hospital de la Paz 14 November 1975: Franco suffered the first of several heart attacks. ibid.
Nor do we find fault in the innocent. But you do. You fucking do. Peaky Blinders s5e3: Polly to nun, BBC 2019
The man we’re about to meet is the devil. ibid. Thomas of Oswald Mosley
Arthur. Do not let them get inside your head. That’s exactly how these people work. ibid.
Mosley wants you as his deputy. ibid. Sister’s boyfriend to Arthur
I am a fucking good man like you. A god-fearing man. There is good in my heart. ibid.
Fascist, mm. I fucking hate ‘em. Always have done. Peaky Blinders s5e5: The Shock, Arthur to gangsta
He’s [Nelson] not coming to Europe to find facts. He’s coming to find proof that fascism will prevail. Peaky Blinders s6e2: Black Shirt ***** BBC 2022
Since 2014 a familiar threat has re-emerged in America. White supremacist groups have entered the mainstream and their numbers are growing. White supremacist groups in 2016: 862. Secretive by nature, there is only one way to monitor these groups. As the white hate movement in America grows, ordinary people have taken extraordinary measures to fight back. Some have gone undercover to infiltrate these hate groups and bring them down from the inside. White Supremacy: Going Under, captions, History 2016
Meet the leader of the far-right British National Party, Nick Griffin. He’s put the party in the headlines with a brand-new image – moderate community-based. This year the BNP has capitalised on the race riots and the events of September 11th. And polled some of its best ever election results. The party wants your vote. It claims to have abandoned its racist, violent and antisemitic past. Panorama: BNP: Under the Skin, BBC 2001
‘The UK has a lot of potential. We want to build our numbers up there.’ Panorama: Hunting the Neo-Nazis, neo-Nazi, BBC 2020
I speak to a family torn apart by their violence. And police here who say right-wing extremism is the fastest-growing terror threat. ibid.
An international collaboration of journalists trying to expose their right-wing groups. ibid.
On 7th May 1939 one amateur film-maker recorded a more menacing event: a march through the streets of London by the British Union of Fascists – a party led by former Labour MP cabinet member Oswald Mosley. They claimed to have over 50,000 members. Lost Films of WW2 I, BBC 2020
On September 11 the Navy unleashes the coup in the Port of Valparaiso. At the same time four North American destroyers move close to the Chilean coast. The Battle of Chile II: The Coup D’Etat *****