alex callinicos, "plumbing the depths: marxism and the holocaust"

(386): Mandel explains the holocaust as outgrowth of colonialism and imperialist capitalism, comparable to those barbarisms. the racism, interacting with the context of total war. partial, and not specified, says Callinicos.

(391): similarly, explanatory appeals to human nature simply can't grasp the fact that this was limited in space and time.

(392-393): two competing theories, about relationship between Nazism and elites

1. Arno Mayer, who sees fascism as the ancien regime's last stand (ancien regime in power until 1914, in effect)
   
2. those who focus on conflicts between Nazis and the elite

(393-394): resolution, Callinicos is arguing, comes in Trotsky's analysis of fascism as "counter-revolution in the guise of revolution."

1. counter-revolutionary in the sense that its purpose is to smash the organized working class; points of convergence between the Nazis and industrialists
2. yet, revolutionary guise insofar as it was a mass movement which (a) could do this far more effectively than conventional forces of the state, which were in disarray (traumatized by world war, revolution, depression, infaltion) and (b) antagonizes, to an extent, the bourgeoisie; it was not their party

(394): a mass movement of those caught between big capital and organized labor (supported by research done by Gluckstein; not cited at all, by Mann)

(395): interesting question about Trotsky's expectation with respect to the Fascists --