TROPLOIN

This letter was sent to Aufheben in 1997, as a response to that English magazine's review of a pamphlet called Fascism/Anti-fascism : this was a translation of the first parts of a larger text which had appeared in French under the pen name of Jean Barrot in 1979, as a presentation of articles on the Spanish civil war by the "Italian Left" magazine Bilan (1933-38). While they agreed with quite a few points made by J. Barrot (and by Bilan), the publishers of the pamphlet Fascism/Antifascism had been highly critical of what they regarded as the dogmatism and sterility of the presentation... and of the Italian Left for that matter. This is indeed a fairly common reaction. Confronted with the communist critique of anti-fascism, many a radical will say: "Basically you're right, but...", and what follows the "but" invalidates the critique. This is a good enough reason for reproducing our letter (with only minor changes), as well as Aufheben's introduction. Franco and Hitler are dead, dictatorship is not. Neither is "lesser evilism".