The Comintern Concept of Fascism in Relation to the Socio-Political Situation in Latin America in the Interwar Period, 1920—1930s

Abstract

The author tried to reconstruct the Comintern's view on fascism in Latin America during the period between the VI and VII congresses of the Comintern, when the anti-fascist struggle had not yet become a key activity of the international organization of the communist movement (until August 23, 1939). The author analyzed the speeches of the Cominternists, the top leadership members and high-ranking functionaries, at three forums of communist parties in the Latin America (the June 1929 conference in Buenos Aires, the October conferences of 1930 and 1934 in Moscow). During those conferences the official position of the “headquarters of the world revolution” on the problem of fascism in Latin America was broadcasted. The article shows that the leadership of the Communist International did not see fascist regimes among the existing Latin American governments in terms of their class essence, since the fascist dictatorship was considered in Moscow exclusively as the most rigid form of bourgeoisie government, a class that had yet to come to real power and begin to play a leading role in the economic and political life of Latin American countries. The term “fascisization” in relation to the socio-political situation in the Latin American region was mainly used by the Comintern to characterize the process of borrowing by local repressive and / or authoritarian regimes of fascist methods to dominate and suppress mass movements against semi-feudal remnants and imperialist expansion.