The Critique:

-Against Communism-

A common criticism Third Positionists -of all varieties- level against communism is its inherent cosmopolitanism and the overall Utopian nature of the theory.

Third Positionists, being nationalists, feel that internationalism is fundamentally at odds with humanity's innate ethnocentrism, which is a significant aspect of our human nature. Third Positionists also feel that it's undesirable for humanity to embrace internationalism, for it ultimately destroys cultural and racial diversity.

The stateless/anarchic paradise which Marx foresaw as the end result of communism (following the transitional socialist stage) is seen as basically being unattainable by adherents of the Third Position, for it too runs contrary to aspects of human nature, particularly in the post-industrial age.


-Against Capitalism-

Capitalism is viewed by adherents of the Third Position to be exploitative, unjust, anti-social, and contrary to notions of national and racial solidarity. Socialist theoretician Gregor Strasser described the Third Positionist critique of capitalism quite well when he wrote:

"We are socialists. We are enemies, deadly enemies of today's capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, its unfair wage system, its immoral way of judging the worth of human beings in terms of their wealth and their money, instead of their responsibility and their performance, and we are determined to destroy this system whatever happens!"

VARIETIES

Since the Third Position is a vague term, a number of differing ideologies encompass its classification; the only thing that binds them all together is their common stance against capitalism and communism.

NATIONAL SOCIALISM
(also referred to as: 'social nationalism', 'nationalist-socialism', 'socialist nationalism', etc.)

Like the term 'Third Position', national socialism is a broad term which encompasses a wide range of differing interpretations and manifestations. Contrary to popular belief, Adolf Hitler's NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) was not the first or only variety of national socialism to have existed.

The term originated almost simultaneously in France, Czechoslovakia, and Austria in the late 1800s, though nationalistic socialist concepts existed well before the actual term itself was coined.

The French novelist, anti-Dreyfusard, and socialist politician, Maurice Barrès, first evoked the phrase "socialist nationalism" in his 1898 electoral campaign. Like most of his campaigns, Barrès ran on a platform of "Nationalism, Protectionism, and Socialism".

Aside from being one of the first noteworthy national socialist politicians, Barrès was also one of the earliest French political theorists to develop a concept of ethnic nationalism. Maurice Barrès' theories went on to subsequently influence various manifestations of national socialism and fascism throughout Europe -particularly the first national socialist mass movement, Pierre Biétry's 300,000 member Yellow Socialist union.

In 1898, the Czech National Social Party was founded. The party supported a fusion of nationalism and socialism. The 25 Point Programme drafted by Adolf Hitler, Anton Drexler, and Gottfried Feder, and adopted by the NSDAP, was greatly influenced by the Czech National Socialist Party platform.

The German National Workers' League of Austria changed its name to the 'German National Socialist Workers' Party' in 1918, running on a pan-Germanic nationalist and socialist platform, reminiscent of the policies embraced by Hitler's NSDAP. In 1930, the party split into two factions, one favoring a democratic structure, and the other favoring Adolf Hitler's Führerprinzip -the party ultimately merged with the NSDAP following Austria's annexation into the Third Reich.


-Hitlerism-

Few would deny that Hitlerism -that is, the unique expression of national socialism established by Adolf Hitler- is the most prominent variety of national socialism in history. Before I explain the distinguishing features of Hitlerian national socialism, I shall briefly outline the origins of the NSDAP and Hitler's association with the party.

Anton Drexler, a self-identified socialist, founded the German Workers' Party in 1919 on the principle of establishing a new socialist party which was also nationalist in nature. After some hesitation and upon reviewing and approving of Drexler's pamphlet -My Political Awakening- Adolf Hilter joined the German Workers' Party in September of 1919, becoming the 55th member of the party and the 7th member of the party's executive committee.

Hitler subsequently suggested changing the party's name to the Social Revolutionary Party, but in February 1920, the German Workers' Party officially changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party. By 1921 Adolf Hitler basically became the undisputed leader of the party, and by 1923 Drexler had resigned from the NSDAP.

Hitlerism is distinguished by a number of characteristics:

*The Führerprinzip: Basically, the political will of the nation is embodied in the Führer, rendering most forms of democracy abolished.

*Pan-Germanism: The notion that all people of Germanic descent should be unified within one German Reich.

*Lebensraum: Hitler believed that Germany lacked the essential living space required for the Reich's surplus population, and devised an expansionist theory in which Germanic peoples would settle Eastern Europe.

*Eugenics: In accordance with Hitler's racialist beliefs, the Third Reich implemented eugenic laws for the enhancement of the race. The NSDAP also passed legislation outlawing miscegenation (the Nuremberg Laws).

*Dirigisme: Adolf Hitler preserved private ownership over most enterprises, under the strict condition that the state regulated these businesses to run in according with the nation's collective interests. Such regulations included price controls, wage controls, job security, investment controls, dividend restrictions, production quotas, and state directed trade.

Germany's central bank was nationalized, as were companies which didn't comply with state ordinances. Europe's largest state-owned and operated company was also established under the Third Reich, the Reichswerke-Hermann Göring.

*Social Welfare: Aside form the obvious socialist characteristics found within the Third Reich's dirigism, Hitler's regime also implemented several social welfare measures. A socialized health care program was started, expanding coverage to all German citizens; public work projects were created to combat unemployment; social security was expanded; low cost homes were constructed for the German proletariat, with 1,458,128 units being constructed between 1933-37; generous loans, tax breaks, and welfare services were given to German families; the Kraft durch Freude state initiative gave paid vacations to all German workers, as well as free cultural events to attend; etc. For more information, read Léon Degrelle's The First Years of the Third Reich.


-Strasserism-

Gregor Strasser joined the NSDAP in 1921, with his younger brother, Otto, joining in 1925. Both brothers, along with party comrades like Joseph Goebbels, devised an ideological current within the NSDAP which differed from the more moderate policies favored by Hitler and the monetarist theories promoted by Gottfried Feder.

The national socialism of the Strasser brothers contains the following characteristics:

*European Collaboration: In contrast to the pan-Germanic imperialism and Nordicism endorsed by Hitler, Strasserism promoted pan-Europeanism. This pan-Europeanism would entail an economic cooperation between all European partners, so as to avoid the counterproductive aspects of economic competition between European states.

Otto Strasser believed that all Europeans were of similar racial descent and therefore fundamentally rejected any theory of superiority between European nationalities or subraces. However, Strasser also believed in the preservation of unique cultures and ethnicities.

*Federalism: Otto Strasser promoted the decentralization of Germany, turning the nation into several distinct cultural regions which would be self-governing autonomous communities, though all regions would practice the same socialist economic model.

*Socialization: The Strasser brothers (and many other members of the NSDAP) promoted the outright collectivization of the means of production. Workers' councils were to govern their workplaces, with state oversight to ensure such businesses were acting in accordance with nationalists interests. The bourgeoisie were to be abolished and assimilated into the new socialist mode of production. Finance capital was also to be nationalized by the state.

*Agrarian Reform: The Strasser faction of the NSDAP promoted the expropriation of the large landed estates in Germany, with the land to be redistributed to peasant families. All land would be owned by the state, but family farmers would be grated hereditary title the plots of land. The farms would remain in the possession each family until such time as the family no longer had a descendant willing to farm the land.


After the fall of the Third Reich, several national socialist parties emerged in Germany, and throughout the world, most notably Otto-Ernst Remer's Socialist Reich Party and Otto Strasser's German Social Union Party.

The Socialist Reich Party, funded in-part by the Soviet government, quickly drew significant support from among the West German populace but was banned under the denazification laws established by the new German government.

Otto Strasser, who was finally allowed to return to Germany in the mid 1950s, was almost imprisoned due to antisemitic statements he made in public while promoting his new political party. The German Social Union Partyultimately attracted few followers.

NATIONAL SYNDICALISM

Revolutionary syndicalism had become a very popular current in Europe in the early 20th century, particularly in France, Italy, and Spain. However, by the start of World War I, a historic split arose within the syndicalist and socialist movements, between those individuals and organizations which supported participation in the war versus those who didn't.

Following the split within the syndicalist movement, the pro-war syndicalist faction started becoming more outspoken about their nationalist views. While the revolutionary syndicalist movement accepted nothing but proletarian internationalism, these nationalist syndicalists rejected Marxian internationalism and affirmed the legitimacy of the nation-state.

Revolutionary syndicalists theorized a socialist mode of production where workers would own the means of production and workers' councils would manage their enterprises within the framework of a stateless society; National Syndicalists also favored worker ownership and management of the means of production, but within the framework of a nation-state and with their nation's government co-owning and co-managing businesses with the workers' councils.

Georges Valois' Cercle Proudhon, established in 1911, was one of the first organizations involved in the cultivation of National Syndicalist theory.

Mussolini's Fascist movement was initially linked with the National Syndicalist movement, though over time the party adopted its own ideology -a form of corporativism.

Ramiro Ledesma Ramo established his own National Syndicalist party (the JONS) in Spain, prior to the Spanish Civil War. The JONS made significant progress among the socialist and anarchist circles in Spain, with its political program even being reviewed by the CNT-FAI central committee. Eventually, Ramo's merged his party with José Antonio Primo de Rivera's Falange party. However, Ramo's became disillusioned with José Antonio's more mild corporativist theories, and eventually resigned from the FE-JONS.

Both Ramos and José Antonio were murdered by Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War, allowing the reactionary general, Francisco Franco, the opportunity to co-opt the movement -which he did, eventually betraying the syndicalist principles of the party and allowing for traditionalists (monarchists and theocrats) to join and alter the party.

NATIONAL BOLSHEVISM

'National Bolshevism' is often misunderstood due to its provocative and paradoxical name. Nevertheless, the ideology represents a significant strand of Third Positionism, as it rejects both capitalism and Marxism.

There are basically two strands of National Bolshevism which arose in the early 20th century, that of the Russian Professor, Nikolay Ustryalov, and that of the political activist and German Professor, Ernst Niekisch.

Nikolay Ustryalov, initially a White Russian opponent of the Bolsheviks, eventually came to view the Bolshevik revolution as a continuation of Russian nationalism, especially considering the nationalistic reforms enacted by Joseph Stalin following Lenin's death. At this point, Ustryalov began theorizing the possibilities of this new Bolshevism, which he coined National Bolshevism. Nevertheless, in 1937 Ustryalov was murdered in Stalin's infamous 'Great Purge' of 1937, on counts of "espionage, counter-revolutionary activity and anti-Soviet agitation."

Ernst Niekisch was originally a member of the German Social Democrat Party, but like Otto Strasser, was expelled for promoting extreme nationalism and antisemitism. Like all Third Positionists, Niekisch rejected the cosmopolitanism of Marxian socialism and affirmed the validity and necessity of the nation-state. Following his expulsion from the SPD, Niekisch took control of the Old Socialist Party of Saxony and established a political journal, Widerstand, which promoted his nationalist brand of socialism.

Niekisch felt that the socialist policies promoted by Hitler were too mild, and looked to Stalinism as a model for his National Bolshevik Führerprinzip, as opposed to Hitlerism.

In 1932, Niekisch authored a book critical of Hitlerism, entitled Hitler: Ein Deutsches Verhängnis. The NSDAP was aware of Niekisch's book and upon coming to power in 1933, targeted him for arrest. Niekisch took his organizations underground but was eventually caught and sent to a concentration camp in 1937. During his time in captivity, Niekisch became blind. As a result of his treatment by the NSDAP, following the end of World War II, Niekisch ended his political career as an orthodox Marxist, rejecting the nationalism he had once firmly espoused.

FASCISM

As mentioned above, National Syndicalism represented a type of proto-fascism in Europe. However, as Mussolini's Fascist Party grew and drew in a more diverse membership, political philosophers (such as Giovanni Gentile) joined the movement and forged a new ideology for the party to embrace -this ideology came to be known asCorporativismo (or 'Corporativism', in English).

Contrary to what is commonly considered "corporatism", the corporativism developed by the Italian Fascist movement did not mean the merger of state and private corporate power.

The structure of corporativism is essentially a form of syndicalism. The Corporate Chamber is a vertical union, with three main bodies being represented: labor, business owners/management, and the state -with peripheral figures like economic and industrial experts also being included in the process of negotiation. Thus, while the means of production are still technically in private hands, the capitalist mode of production is abolished, with this cooperative model replacing it. Labor and business owners collectively determine wages, the management structure, investment, etc. with the state acting as an arbiter between the two factions.

The corporativist model never came to represent the of mode of production for the majority of businesses in Fascist Italy; instead, Italy practiced a more mild form of dirigisme than that which was practiced by the Third Reich. Social welfare policies were enacted, which included public works for the unemployed, a socialized health care policy, affordable housing, and leisure activities organized by the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro. Unbeknown to many, traditional syndicalist worker cooperatives were also officially recognized by the state and allowed to remain in existence in Fascist Italy, even flourishing throughout the history of the regime, with syndicalist enterprises expanding from 7,131 businesses in 1927 to 14,576 by 1937.

Mussolini never liquidated the royal family, the bourgeoisie, or the position of the Catholic Church in Italy, but eventually came to recognize the error of not doing so when the royal family betrayed him and joined the allied forces in World War II.

After the NSDAP rescued Mussolini from captivity, they allowed him to establish a new republic in Salò, Italy, which he named the Italian Social Republic. Mussolini, who was a former Marxist as well as a former National Syndicalist, decided to abandon the corporativism he once embraced, in favor of a traditional form of nationalist socialism. He called upon his long time friend and former member of the Italian Socialist Party, Nicola Bombacci, to draft the new socialist legislation for the republic at the Congress of Verona in 1943. Mussolini succeeded in nationalizing the major firms in Northern Italy and had laws established for the further nationalization of all companies with over 100 employees following the war.

Nicola Bombacci was murdered by communist partisans along with Mussolini in 1945. His final words were: "Long live Mussolini! Long live socialism!"


Francisco Franco, upon coming to power in Spain, instituted an emasculated version of corporativism. Exploiting one of the major flaws within the system, Franco used to power of the state to take the side of the business over that of labor in basically every vertical union meeting. Franco's reactionary regime also never implemented any significant form of social welfare policies for the Spanish people.


British politician, Oswald Mosley, originally adopted the corporativist economic model to promote in his British Union of Fascists, but eventually came to recognize the flaws of the theory, thereby adopting instead a Strasserist form of National Syndicalism towards the end of his political career.

DISTRIBUTISM

While often being less nationalistic, socialistic, and racialist than other varieties of Third Positionism, distributism nevertheless is fundamentally anti-capitalist and anti-communist and has even been adopted by certain White Nationalist circles in contemporary history. Therefore, most would agree that distributism has a place within the Third Position.

The theory is based up the Catholic teachings of Pope Leo XIII, which were expounded upon by G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc in the early 20th century.

Distributists promote the decentralization of capital via agrarian reform, anti-trust legislation, and a return to the artisan mode of production. Distributists are opposed to all forms of usury and favor what is referred to as the 'just price theory', which rejects the supply and demand system of capitalism on a moral basis.

Some view distributism as being unpractical in the post-industrial age, arguing that unless a primitivist restructure of society were undertaken, distributism could not be expected to function well in the modern age.

NATIONAL-ANARCHISM

In the 1920s, when expressing his views of a decentralized nationalistic socialist German society, Helmut Franke used the term "national anarchism" to describe his theory. The term wasn't expressed again until the 1980s, when certain European anarchists began theorizing an anarchism which was also nationalistic in character. These anarchists looked to the nationalistic and racialist sentiments expressed by Mikhail Bakunin and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon for inspiration in the development of their ideology.

Troy Southgate, a former member of the International Third Position, is one of the primary national anarchist theoreticians today.

National Anarchists promote the complete abolition of nation states, to be replaced by voluntary tribal communities, based upon cultural and ethnic identity. Economically, National Anarchists favor everything from mutualism to primitivist agrarianism.