BluebirdWhitchurch wrote:Jock wrote:BlueGog wrote:rumpo kid wrote:They haven’t... Momentum are alive, well, and in Parliament.
The Nazis in Germany were far right! So if you want to make comparisons in Westminster think Conservative or Brexit Party.
They were National Socialists and brought in things like rent reductions in the private sector, exactly like Comrades Corbyn and McDonnell propose.
Anyone with a basic knowledge of the history of the time should know that the Nazis only used socialism in their name as to attract as wide a pool of support as possible, taking advantage of contemporary growing support for socialist ideals.
In reality they were the party of big business and allowed them tax breaks amongst other benefits including the absorption of Jewish business.
Politically they were probably more centrist than right/left aside from the nationalism and anti-semitism
I somewhat agree with your conclusion that the Nazis were centrist more than right wing but would politely disagree with a couple of points.
Many contemporary writers at the time defined the Nazis as socialist including Orwell and Hayek two highly respected political commentators who have stood the test of time so I think it is a little bit of a simplification to say they they were socialist in name only. They undoubtedly did usurp the existing socialist party for political gains but the policies they subsequently implemented were undoubtedly of socialist nature.
I'd also say that they weren't pro big business in a capitalist manner, the Nazi charter called for the nationalization of industry much as the communists did. The only difference being Hitler felt he could control and manipulate the industrialists as opposed to Lenin who crushed them more forcefully. Still the absorption of industry into a state mechanism remains at its core the same principle founded on marxist ideologies of state over individual.
Finally, with regards to Nationalism and Anti-semitism being the reasons that the Nazis are identified as right-wing again, whilst this has been repeated so much it has become accepted that these are traits of the far right, the reality doesnt necessarily confirm this to be the case.
Marx and Engels themselves were both anti-semitic and deeply rascist (even though Marx himself had Jewish ancestory). Similarly Lenin was also a massive anti-semite. Che Guevara was a phenomenally rascist guy. So was Mao. All of whom are icons of left wing philosophy. In the US Margaret Sanger a Democrat who founded planned parenthood did so to limit the black population and was totally open about her intentions. The list goes on.
To be clear the point I'm making is not that racism and anti semitism exist only on the left, just that it is not an exclusively right wing phenomenon and so isn't a solid argument for why the nazis were right wing.
Similarly, if we think of some of the most nationalist countries today. China, Cuba, Venezuala, North Korea etc they are all socialist. Again there are equal number of right wing countries who favour nationalism Hungary, Brazil and the US come to mind so I'm not suggesting Nationalism is a left wing policy, merely that is also not necessarily a right wing policy either.
When you strip out these two points (ie Nationalism and Anti-semitism) from the argument as to why the Nazis are right wing then you all that is left is the policies of the Nazi party - which had much more in common with left wing politics than it did with the right.
Apologies for the long post. It's a question I've been thinking on for some time so I wrote more than I probably should have.