1934 Montreux Fascist conference
Encyclopedia
The Fascist International Congress was a meeting held by deputies from a number of Europe
an Fascist organizations. The conference was held on 16–17 December 1934 in Montreux
, Switzerland
. The conference was organized and chaired by Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalita di Roma (CAUR), or the Action Committees for the Universality of Rome.
's Fascist Regime
. CAUR's director was Eugenio Coselschi, and its stated goal was to act as a network for a "Fascist International" Major obstacles arose in the organization's attempt to identify a "universal fascism" and the criteria that an organization must fulfil in order to qualify as "fascist".. Nevertheless, by April 1934 the network had identified "fascist" movements in 39 countries, including all European countries except Yugoslavia
, as well as the United States
, Canada
, Australia
, South Africa
, five countries in Asia
and six in Latin America
.. As different groups tried to obtain subsidies all manners of conflicts arose on issues such as racism
, anti-Semitism
, corporatism
and state structure.
of Romania's
Iron Guard
, Vidkun Quisling
of Norway's
Nasjonal Samling, Gimenez Caballero of the Spanish
Falange
movement, Eoin O'Duffy
of the Irish
Blueshirts, Marcel Bucard
of the French
Mouvement Franciste
, representatives from Lithuania's
Tautininkai, the Portuguese
Acção Escolar Vanguarda (Vanguard School Action, with observer status), headed by António Eça de Queiroz
(son of the famous writer, and future head of the Emissora Nacional, the National Radio Station of Portugal), as well as delegates from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Notable in their absence were any representatives from Nazi Germany
. The conference in Montreux occurred only six months after the assassination of the Austrofascist Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss
by Nazi agents and the resulting diplomatic crisis between Italy
and Germany
. Likewise, Mussolini did not allow any official representative of the Italian Fascist Party attend the meeting, ostensibly in order to see what the conference could achieve before lending full official support. José Antonio Primo de Rivera
, while allowing members of the Falange
to participate, stated that the Falange as an organization would not be represented, as the CAUR was "not a Fascist movement". Other notable absences included the Austrian Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg
and Oswald Mosley
of Great Britain
.
to international fascism.
Mota, supported by the Danish and Swiss delegates, likewise created a rift by underlining the centrality of anti-Semitism to fascist movements, a move opposed by Coselschi and O'Duffy. The Romanian Iron Guard stressed the need for race to be an integral component of fascism.
On the matter of anti-Semitism, several compromise resolutions were adopted. These declared that "the Jewish question
cannot be converted into a universal campaign of hatred against the Jews," while also stating that "Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and occult manner an influence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbors them, constituting a sort of state within a state, profiting by all benefits and refusing all duties, considering that they have furnished and are inclined to furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destructive to the idea of patriotism and Christian civilization, the Conference denounces the nefarious action of these elements and is ready to combat them.".
The delegates at the conference also unanimously declared their opposition to communist movements and the Third International.
The conference was not able to bridge the gulf between those participants who proposed achieving national integration by a corporative
socio-economic policy and those who favored an appeal to race. Pretensions to "universal fascism" could not survive this rift, and the movement did not meet its goal of acting as a counterbalance to international communism.
The CAUR did not win official endorsement from the Italian Fascist Party or the Spanish Falange. It was unsuccessful presenting a commonly-agreed definition as to what "fascism" was, and was unsuccessful in uniting most major fascist parties into one international movement.
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an Fascist organizations. The conference was held on 16–17 December 1934 in Montreux
Montreux
Montreux is a municipality in the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.It is located on Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps and has a population, , of and nearly 90,000 in the agglomeration.- History :...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. The conference was organized and chaired by Comitati d'Azione per l'Universalita di Roma (CAUR), or the Action Committees for the Universality of Rome.
Background
CAUR was a network founded in 1933 by Benito MussoliniBenito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
's Fascist Regime
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
. CAUR's director was Eugenio Coselschi, and its stated goal was to act as a network for a "Fascist International" Major obstacles arose in the organization's attempt to identify a "universal fascism" and the criteria that an organization must fulfil in order to qualify as "fascist".. Nevertheless, by April 1934 the network had identified "fascist" movements in 39 countries, including all European countries except Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, as well as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, five countries in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
and six in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.. As different groups tried to obtain subsidies all manners of conflicts arose on issues such as racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
, corporatism
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
and state structure.
Participants
The first world conference of the CAUR convened at Montreux on 16 December. Participants from fascist organizations in 13 European countries attended, including Ion MotaIon Mota
Ion I. Moţa [or Motza] was the Romanian fascist deputy leader of the Iron Guard killed in battle during the Spanish Civil War.-Biography:...
of Romania's
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
Iron Guard
Iron Guard
The Iron Guard is the name most commonly given to a far-right movement and political party in Romania in the period from 1927 into the early part of World War II. The Iron Guard was ultra-nationalist, fascist, anti-communist, and promoted the Orthodox Christian faith...
, Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Quisling
Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was a Norwegian politician. On 9 April 1940, with the German invasion of Norway in progress, he seized power in a Nazi-backed coup d'etat that garnered him international infamy. From 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, working with the occupying...
of Norway's
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Nasjonal Samling, Gimenez Caballero of the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
movement, Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy was in succession a Teachta Dála , the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army , the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, leader of the Army Comrades Association and then the first leader of Fine Gael , before leading the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during...
of the Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
Blueshirts, Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard
Marcel Bucard was a French Fascist politician.Early career=...
of the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Mouvement Franciste
Mouvement Franciste
The Mouvement Franciste was a French Fascist and Antisemitic league created by Marcel Bucard in September 1933; it edited the newspaper Le Francisme. Mouvement Franciste reached of membership of 10,000, and was financed by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini...
, representatives from Lithuania's
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
Tautininkai, the Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
Acção Escolar Vanguarda (Vanguard School Action, with observer status), headed by António Eça de Queiroz
António Eça de Queiroz
António de Eça de Queiroz or de Queirós was a Portuguese monarchist politician and agitator and an official in the Estado Novo of António de Oliveira Salazar. He was married to Maria Cristina Guimarães Rino António de Eça de Queiroz or de Queirós (28 December 1891 – 16 May 1968) was a...
(son of the famous writer, and future head of the Emissora Nacional, the National Radio Station of Portugal), as well as delegates from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Notable in their absence were any representatives from Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. The conference in Montreux occurred only six months after the assassination of the Austrofascist Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss
Engelbert Dollfuss was an Austrian Christian Social and Patriotic Front statesman. Serving previously as Minister for Forest and Agriculture, he ascended to Federal Chancellor in 1932 in the midst of a crisis for the conservative government...
by Nazi agents and the resulting diplomatic crisis between Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Likewise, Mussolini did not allow any official representative of the Italian Fascist Party attend the meeting, ostensibly in order to see what the conference could achieve before lending full official support. José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella , was a Spanish lawyer, nobleman, politician, and founder of the Falange Española...
, while allowing members of the Falange
Falange
The Spanish Phalanx of the Assemblies of the National Syndicalist Offensive , known simply as the Falange, is the name assigned to several political movements and parties dating from the 1930s, most particularly the original fascist movement in Spain. The word means phalanx formation in Spanish....
to participate, stated that the Falange as an organization would not be represented, as the CAUR was "not a Fascist movement". Other notable absences included the Austrian Ernst Rudiger von Starhemberg
Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg
Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg was the army commander of Vienna during the second siege of Vienna in 1683, imperial general during the Great Turkish War and President of the Hofkriegsrat.Starhemberg fought in the 1660s under Raimondo Montecuccoli against the French and the Turks.In 1683 he...
and Oswald Mosley
Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, of Ancoats, was an English politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists...
of Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
.
Proceedings
From the outset, the conference was marred by serious conflicts between the participants. Coselschi, acting as President of the Conference, clashed with Quisling over the importance of Nazi GermanyNazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
to international fascism.
Mota, supported by the Danish and Swiss delegates, likewise created a rift by underlining the centrality of anti-Semitism to fascist movements, a move opposed by Coselschi and O'Duffy. The Romanian Iron Guard stressed the need for race to be an integral component of fascism.
On the matter of anti-Semitism, several compromise resolutions were adopted. These declared that "the Jewish question
Jewish Question
The Jewish question encompasses the issues and resolutions surrounding the historically unequal civil, legal and national statuses between minority Ashkenazi Jews and non-Jews, particularly in Europe. The first issues discussed and debated by societies, politicians and writers in western and...
cannot be converted into a universal campaign of hatred against the Jews," while also stating that "Considering that in many places certain groups of Jews are installed in conquered countries, exercising in an open and occult manner an influence injurious to the material and moral interests of the country which harbors them, constituting a sort of state within a state, profiting by all benefits and refusing all duties, considering that they have furnished and are inclined to furnish, elements conducive to international revolution which would be destructive to the idea of patriotism and Christian civilization, the Conference denounces the nefarious action of these elements and is ready to combat them.".
The delegates at the conference also unanimously declared their opposition to communist movements and the Third International.
Results
A second and final conference was held in Montreux in April 1935. José Antonio Primo de Rivera did make a brief appearance at this conference, using the opportunity to express sympathies with the movement while stating that Spain was not ready to participate in any venture of international fascism, because his movement was estrictamente nacional, strictly national.The conference was not able to bridge the gulf between those participants who proposed achieving national integration by a corporative
Corporatism
Corporatism, also known as corporativism, is a system of economic, political, or social organization that involves association of the people of society into corporate groups, such as agricultural, business, ethnic, labor, military, patronage, or scientific affiliations, on the basis of common...
socio-economic policy and those who favored an appeal to race. Pretensions to "universal fascism" could not survive this rift, and the movement did not meet its goal of acting as a counterbalance to international communism.
The CAUR did not win official endorsement from the Italian Fascist Party or the Spanish Falange. It was unsuccessful presenting a commonly-agreed definition as to what "fascism" was, and was unsuccessful in uniting most major fascist parties into one international movement.
See also
- FascismFascismFascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
- Definitions of FascismDefinitions of fascismWhat constitutes a definition of fascism and fascist governments is a highly disputed subject that has proved complicated and contentious. Historians, political scientists, and other scholars have engaged in long and furious debates concerning the exact nature of fascism and its core tenets.Most...
- Fascism as an international phenomenonFascism as an international phenomenonThis article discusses regimes and movements that are alleged to have been either fascist or sympathetic to fascism. It is often a matter of dispute whether a certain government is to be characterized as fascist, authoritarian, totalitarian, or a police state. The term "fascism" itself is...