R. Palme Dutt: Social Democracy rejected the united working-class front because it was pursuing an alternative line, which it declared to be the correct line for defeating Fascism-the line of unity with the bourgeoisie and support of the bourgeois State, even under conditions of dictatorship. This was the so-called line of the "lesser evil." was this conception of the "lesser evil"? The existing bourgeois dictatorship, even after democratic forms had been flung aside, even under Hindenburg, Brüning, von Papen or von Schleicher, was declared to be a "lesser evil" than the victory of Fascism. Therefore it should be supported, and every blow against the workers accepted passively without struggle (the same line was subsequently pursued by Austrian Social Democracy in the support of Dollfuss). But these forms of dictatorship were only preparing the ground for complete Fascism, destroying the resistance of the workers step by step, and, as soon as their work was complete, handing over the State to Hitler. Thus the line of the "lesser evil" meant the passive acceptance of every stage of development to complete Fascism. And even when Hitler came to power, his rule, on the grounds that he was "legally" in power, was proclaimed a "lesser evil" to an "illegal" Nazi terror, and therefore not to be opposed. Thus the line ran continuously without a break to the complete Nazi terror and suppression of all working-class organisations. In this way the line of Social Democracy ensured the victory of Fascism in Germany without a struggle. wordsmith.social/protestation/…