3. Rebuilding Left Power Toolkit

3. Rebuilding Left Power Toolkit

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What Does Fascism Look Like? A Brief Introduction
What Does Fascism Look Like? A Brief Introduction
It would be good to be able to recognize fascism when you see it. Sight is our dominant sense (light travels faster than sound) and provides us warning. In addition, because “fascist” is an epithet as well as political term, it must be used carefully. In 1942, a New Hampshire Jehovah’s Witness named Chaplinsky was arrested after calling a Rochester city marshal a “damned fascist.” The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the arrest on the grounds that the expression constituted “fighting words,” excluded from constitutional protection. Recent court decisions in the U.S. have widened speech freedoms, but the word “fascist” remains highly charged, underlining the need for historical and political discretion.
A more clear-cut diagnostic of fascism is the MAGA hat. Trump often wears one when he gives speeches, and regularly repeats the phrase “make America great again.” Here’s a few lines from a speech he gave in 2023, that has since become standard at rallies: “Illegal immigration is poisoning the blood of our nation. They’re coming from prisons, from mental institutions, from all over the world. Without borders and fair elections, you don’t have a country. Make America great again.” MAGA is today emblazoned on millions of caps, T-shirts, yard-signs, flags and more, It’s an expression of palingenetic ultranationalism — almost. By proposing the revival of an earlier time, it’s more conservative than revolutionary; and the “greatness” it promises is not imperialist. There is no discussion of “lebensraum”. Indeed, Trump’s other major slogan, “America First” is isolationist, dating back to Charles Lindberg’s America First movement, which aimed to head off U.S. participation in World War II. But given Trump’s rhetoric about Iran and China, as well as his proposals to increase military spending and massively update and expand the nation’s nuclear arsenal, I’d argue that his policies are in fact expansionist – in that sense, fully consonant with fascist militarism and imperialism. Trump’s rallies suggest he has a war strategy. They are intended to mobilize thousands of followers who will, if needed, storm U.S. voting stations, state capitals and the capital in Washington to overturn an unwelcome election outcome.
Fascism doesn’t have a light switch with an on/off setting. It may be found in capitalist democracy, just as democracy may be discovered in the recesses of fascist states. Maybe it’s better to say fascism is controlled by a dimmer switch. Under Donald Trump, turned up quite high. Under Biden it has been dialed down, but still glows in the background and sometimes flares up, like in the current U.S. president’s growing anti-immigrant rhetoric, or his consistent support for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and now Lebanon. That’s fascism by proxy.
When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled ‘made in Germany’; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, ‘Americanism.’…The high-sounding phrase ‘the American way’ will be used by interested groups, intent on profit, to cover a multitude of sins against the American and Christian tradition, such sins as lawless violence, tear gas and shotguns, denial of civil liberties.” Huey Long, governor of Louisiana from 1928-32, himself often called a fascist, said: “American Fascism would never emerge as Fascist, but as a 100 percent American movement; it would not duplicate the German method of coming to power but would only have to get the right President and Cabinet.”  Fascism, as I said at the beginning of this brief survey, is easy to see in retrospect, but not in prospect. However, when it appears right in front of you, identification becomes simple – signs and symbols appear everywhere. As we approach the U.S. election, we can clearly witness one political party’s tight embrace of fascism – but seeing it doesn’t mean we can easily stop it.
Fascism 101 (aka Right Wing Disinformation not Left)Fascism 101 (aka Right Wing Disinformation not Left)
·counterpunch.org·
What Does Fascism Look Like? A Brief Introduction
The Marx-Bakunin Conflict in the First International: A Confrontation of Political Practices | Cairn.info
The Marx-Bakunin Conflict in the First International: A Confrontation of Political Practices | Cairn.info
1 The conflict within the International that brought Marx and Bakunin up against one another has usually been discussed in terms of a comparison between principles (“libertarian socialism” versus “authoritarian socialism,” for example) or in terms of personal relations. The object of the present contribution, in contrast to those approaches, is to compare the political practices of Marx and Bakunin within the context of the IWA. This does not mean that the personal (and national) relationship between the two played no role; Bakunin wrote on this specific subject. [1] Nor does it mean that the attempt to set up such a comparison between practices disregards any question of an opposition between political principles. The idea is to enrich that opposition, to make it more precise, and to flesh it out, as opposed to the attitude taken by too many commentators, which is overdetermined by the later history of the relations between communism and anarchism, or who just transpose the hostility, the maneuvering, and the reciprocal ignorance that governed the relationship between these two thinkers. [2] In this way we avoid the risks associated with a retrospective reading, but it is also necessary to place at a distance the consciousness the actors themselves had of the process in which they were involved, and to relate the personal conflict to the split that caused the First International to break up. As we shall see, although Bakunin often only reformulated the positions of sections or of whole federations of the International, the question is more delicate when it comes to Marx.
Anarcho-SocialismAnarcho-Socialism#1 to read & comment
·shs.cairn.info·
The Marx-Bakunin Conflict in the First International: A Confrontation of Political Practices | Cairn.info
The Conservative Party leader brags about cutting the Canadian Dental Care Plan: A plan that’s allowed 650,000 people — and counting — to finally get their cavities filled, a toothache treated, or their dentures replaced. And the Conservative Party leader wants to cut it.
The Conservative Party leader brags about cutting the Canadian Dental Care Plan: A plan that’s allowed 650,000 people — and counting — to finally get their cavities filled, a toothache treated, or their dentures replaced. And the Conservative Party leader wants to cut it.
2.5K votes, 146 comments. 285K subscribers in the onguardforthee community. A Canada-specific subreddit that allows all types of Canadian content…
2025#canada#dental care#conservatism
·reddit.com·
The Conservative Party leader brags about cutting the Canadian Dental Care Plan: A plan that’s allowed 650,000 people — and counting — to finally get their cavities filled, a toothache treated, or their dentures replaced. And the Conservative Party leader wants to cut it.
Florida Goes Full Police State Over Abortion Ballot Initiative | Florida is reportedly sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a petition supporting an abortion rights ballot initiative.
Florida Goes Full Police State Over Abortion Ballot Initiative | Florida is reportedly sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a petition supporting an abortion rights ballot initiative.
1.1K votes, 69 comments. Fort Myers resident Isaac Menasche shared in a Facebook post Wednesday that a “detective investigating petition fraud” had…
Feminism & Midwifery etcFeminism & Midwifery etc#abortion
·reddit.com·
Florida Goes Full Police State Over Abortion Ballot Initiative | Florida is reportedly sending police officers to the homes of people who signed a petition supporting an abortion rights ballot initiative.