The Resistance to Fascism in Europe, 1933 -1945

I gave a talk to the International Leadership Association annual conference in Prague in October entitled ‘The Resistance to Fascism in Europe, 1933 -1945‘ and this was my final slide. When I started writing the paper (and the chapter it’s drawn from) I didn’t envisage it would be so relevant to events happening ‘across the pond’ now.

CONTEMPORARY REFLECTIONS ON LEADERSHIP & THE RESISTANCE TO FASCISM IN EUROPE, 1933-1945

(21 STEPS FOR WANNABE DICTATORS)

• 1. After a failed coup, sanctify the ‘martyrs’
• 2. Take power legitimately – use the power of the state to overturn the constitution
• 3. Play the victim & blame failures on previous governments, minorities & foreigners
• 4. Make the country proud again & use state propaganda to reinforce loyalty & submission
• 5. Replace all ‘disloyal’ judges, civil servants, academics, media eds, military, security, & police
• 6. Distract concerned citizens with a focus on resisters and scapegoats, who end up in camps
• 7. Threaten & intimidate voters to ensure electoral success, then abandon it
• 8. Abandon formal allies as and when it suits you
• 9. Militarize society & recruit ‘auxiliary police’ to ‘help out’ with ‘lawlessness’ caused by leftists & foreigners
• 10. Authorise the new police to use violence to arrest, detain and imprison anyone in ‘protective custody’ (any offence)
• 11. Enhance the loyalty of the military by increasing its budget for offence, & replacing dissenters with loyalists at the top
• 12. Seek to increase the size of the country & its resources by annexing or invading neighbours
• 13. Introduce oaths of loyalty for all public servants, teachers, judges, military and police officers
• 14. Ban & burn books by ‘disloyal’ authors; censor all media; encourage people to spy on their neighbours
• 15. Control women
• 16. Control religion
• 17. Turn the party into a cult where loyalty is more important than truth
• 18. Disparage the ‘weak’, reinforce patriarchy, masculinity & violence
• 19. Seek out the conspirators (they are everywhere)
• 20. Adopt the ‘permanent crisis’ to legitimate abandoning the rule of law
• 21. When this all goes wrong, blame anyone and everyone, but not yourself, for your supporters were never worthy of you

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