Σταμάτης Καρασαββίδης's Reviews > Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism

I had this in my library standing for such a long time and i needed an easy and quick book to finish in a few days and i managed to read it in barely 3 days.

Overall I think this is the most popular work by Parenti and I'm glad it is. Not because it is such an
extraordinary and innovative work, pretty much the exact opposite, it is the exact opposite of innovative as a work. Nothing in it was something that I didn't already know and was very familiar with and Parenti focuses almost exclusively on Usamerican audience which is ofcourse not a bad thing necessarily.

The strong point of the work, and the fact that it is always suggested to non communists as a first read into socialist and marxist theory is that it manages to describe in a very easy to read way (in more of a speech-rant method of writing), all the externalities of capitalism. He doesn't necessarily analyse and explain the basic Marxist critique of capitalism and its inner machinations, he describes, analyses, and points out the external symptoms that come out of capitalism mainly ecological destruction, gender inequality, racism, sexism, imperialism, colonialism etc.
He also explains in the first chapter the very close connection that capitalism always had with fascism from its very beginning, he analyses the achievements of Socialist revolutions globally and the dire conditions that they achieved those despite imperialist warfare and siege conditions, he correctly and rightly so explains the horrific consequences of the dissolution of the USSR and socialism in eastern Europe and the genocide that it was for the people of Russia, the thousands of people and mainly children that died or were forced into total poverty, desperation, drugs, prostitution and trafficking, something that americans are not aware of thus it is very easy for them to call for "regime changes" and for "humane socialism" not being aware of what they will bring to the actual people living the consequences of imperialist intervention and the fall of socialism. Additionally, his criticism of utopian "left" and post modernism in his "anything but class" chapter are really refreshing to read.

Very interesting is his chapter "Communism in Wonderland" where he criticizes the central planning and bureaucracy of the USSR with many good and interesting critiques. Although he has a point, and he is largely right when he says that it is very difficult to 'centrally plan' consumer consumption and light industry, and a market is needed for that, something which many eastern european countries and China did in one way or another (eastern Europe unsuccessfully and China with great success by seriously and intensely studying the experiences of eastern europe and USSR and learning from them, Ronald Boer's paper on comparative analysis of market reforms on these two is a good read wrt this and i definitely recommend it), they eventually were not able to produce the effective quality and quantity of many consumer goods, giving a huge step of capitalism to be something that the people of the ussr could see that they lacked (when in China this never had to happen). His criticism of the lack of innovation is largely missing the point though as both USA and USSR were far ahead with innovations and even the prototype of the telephone, the parachute in its modern form, the artificial heart and many others were innovations of the USSR.

I didn't like his portrayal of Stalin as a supposed "autocrat" that "ruled over the people with an iron fist". This was largely ahistorical and it seems like Parenti really gave in and backed away to neoliberal propaganda alot.

His mentions of China as "communist only in name" were also proven outstandingly wrong by the years but i can understand why he'd say what he said in 1997 when China, with the reforms of Jiang Zemin, seemed to be taking the road that other socialist countries were taking into their downfall.

Other than that, it is honestly a quick, easy and good book to suggest to someone who's not a communist that will give that someone a more elaborate view on capitalism, socialism and the existing "critiques" of both socialism and capitalism.

4/5