The Return of the Repressed

Poland has effectively abandoned antifascism

Was it only my generation—people born shortly after World War II—that believed fascism had been defeated? We were convinced that lessons had been learned and linear progress was ahead of us; it was unimaginable that anyone would defend such an ideology any longer. All European regimes (but for Franco’s) were ...
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The Return of the Repressed

Creeping Fascism

The Texas law attacking reproductive justice is the antithesis of both law and democracy

_____ Is there any other phrase for the events that have activated the Texas abortion law other than “creeping fascism”?  First, the ban itself is essentially an anti-law, designed to promote vigilantism. In itself, that’s not surprising. S.B. 8 is the culmination not just of numerous state-level laws that have narrowed abortion ...
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Creeping Fascism

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation

_____ Journalist John Harwood had a piece in CNN Sunday reflecting on an essay published in 2012 that accurately predicted the coming of today’s GOP. “Let’s just say it: the Republicans are the problem” was written by Thomas Mann, who was at the time with the Brookings Institution, along with Norm ...
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Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

The debate around deplatforming and “cancel culture” remains mired in a naive understanding of how language really works

_____ When Twitter and Facebook shuttered the account of Donald Trump, along with thousands of others for allegedly spreading far right violence and conspiracy theories, many felt that it was long overdue. Antifascist organizers and writers, myself included, have for years argued against giving platforms to white supremacists, including powerful public ...
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Why We Should Ban Oppressive Speech Acts

Trump Lied His Way In and Is Lying His Way Out

What 20th-century fascists can teach us about the need for truth in the 21st-century

In a bizarre 46-minute address, given from the White House and posted to social media on December 2, Donald Trump gave (in his words) “the most important speech I’ve ever made.” Intended to describe the means by which the 2020 election was “stolen” from him, and supplemented with graphs that ...
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Trump Lied His Way In and Is Lying His Way Out

The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

Why the broad anti-Trump coalition must prepare for a post-election crisis

Could democracy in the United States die? A number of troubling signs, such as Donald Trump’s refusal to endorse a peaceful transfer of power and his refusal to condemn white supremacists, lead many to worry about what has, until recently, been unthinkable. As a historian of Nazi Germany, I share this ...
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The Showdown Between Democracy and Autocracy

Ghosts of Weimar

Is factual accuracy even the point when it comes to the discourse of antifascism?

Alexander Yanov, the emigré historian of Russia and Russian nationalism, was critical of major Western approaches towards post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s. He criticized the "devious simplicity" of the Western logic holding that, because a non-market Russia had been the West’s sworn enemy, a free-market Russia would become its partner. ...
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Ghosts of Weimar

On Fascism, Non-fascism, and Antifa

Natasha Lennard in conversation with James Miller

JM: Since you've written an entire book with the title Essays on a Non-Fascist Life, can you tell me a bit about how you chose that title, and what the term "non-fascist" means to you, in the context of those essays? We both know the appearance of the phrase in the context ...
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Varieties of Antifascism

Russian notes towards a global debate

_____ A question may bе raised as to why, if we wish to explore new resources for combating fascism, we do not give as much attention to the "potential antifascist." The answer is that we do study trends that stand in opposition to fascism, but we do not conceive that they ...
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Varieties of Antifascism